Dear HCN,
I love optimists, I
really do. I’m one myself. I’m especially fond of the
quintessential pie-in-the-sky optimists like Dyan Zaslowsky, who
recommends just saying “no” to whatever hot spot is being loved to
death in your neighborhood (HCN, 9/16/96). Sometimes it’s hard to
tell whether someone is starry-eyed, or just loves the sound of
their own high-minded voice. I’m happy to give the writer the
benefit of the doubt.
Let’s assume, just for fun,
that everyone who cares about Elk Meadow or Rocky Mountain National
Park or my own town of Moab, Utah, decides to give them a
sabbatical. What do you think would happen? Peaceful bliss? I see
the spot zooming to the top of the charts (with a bullet!) in the
8,000 or so industrial-recreation magazines that sell the outdoor
experience.
For everyone Zen-ing out at home, 20
will rise to take his/her place and be damn grateful for the
opportunity to fight over a camping spot or bed-and-breakfast
reservation. We enviros have done so well that the forces of
darkness we set out to defeat (evil corporate America) have come
full circle, infiltrated and are killing the troops from within.
Doubt it? Some “environmental” groups could give big business
lessons, particularly in raising the most sacred green of all.
(Check that mountain of catalogs in your mailbox for the coming
$mas season.)
The only real hope is for the
outdoor-adventure fad/trend to experience a paradigm shift. I’m
rooting for the gen-Xers to convince the bleating mass that
espresso shops are the venue for personal statements in the coming
millennium. If the gear-and-gadget folks can come up with enough
necessary accessories for personal vegetation, we’re saved. Maybe
the net can virtually preserve what’s left of the real world by
saving folks the trouble of being in it.
Staying
out of places you love as a gesture of preservation in this
consuming society seems to me just a little to the far side of
futile. After all is bought or beaten down, the “environment” will
still be there, patient as an old raven and stronger in the long
run than everything we can throw at or into it. We’ll be long gone
by the final reckoning. So if it’s all the same to you, Dyan, I
reckon I’m gonna get mine and just keep quiet about it, while
there’s still a chance.
Steve
Russell
Moab,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline He’s boldly going outside.
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