On Going

Going somewhere this 4th of July weekend? Traveling? Here’s an article to take with you, read along the way: “The Case Against Travel,” in which the contemporary philosopher Agnes Callard strikes out to strike out travel. She begins citing surprising testimonies on travel hate from Chesterton, Emerson, Socrates, Kant, Samuel Johnson; but the best is this, from Fernando Pessoa:

“I abhor new ways of life and unfamiliar places. . . . The idea of travelling nauseates me. . . . Ah, let those who don’t exist travel! . . . Travel is for those who cannot feel. . . . Only extreme poverty of the imagination justifies having to move around to feel.”

The Weekend Essay: “The Case Against Travel”
“It turns us into the worst version of ourselves while convincing us that we’re at our best.”
By Agnes Callard
June 24, 2023 The New Yorker

Of course, we must ask what is meant by “travel.” Callard is not talking about having to leave town for another to attend a wedding or funeral, attend a family reunion, or interview for a job. She’s talking mainly about tourism, travel for the sake of travel. Going somewhere. And thinking that getting there somehow improves our nature. It doesn’t, Callard argues, convincingly for this homebody, anyway.

Why folks still want to go somewhere puzzles me. The recent pandemic, still simmering on the back-burners of an overheated health care system, combined with the now certain and overwhelming and ongoing effects of global warming and climate changes, the social and economic unrest like swarms of yellow jackets infesting our cities, ongoing world wide war and immigration and refugee catastrophes – you would think folks would be content hiding out at home. Could it be people are unhappy at home? Unable to relax? Can’t get no satisfaction?

What to do? But of all the game changing events just listed, the pandemic possibly is most responsible for changing habits across the board of socio-demographic freedom of movement choice. And, surprise and silver lining, we find improvement in the move away from normal: working from home, on-line shopping, neighborhood garage band, do-it-yourself cultural improvement. Eschewing the downtown or suburban mall crowds and visiting the local thrift store to satisfy one’s shopping urges. Church in the park.

And we might wonder what Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality technologies have in store for us down the road. Case in point? The Google Arts & Culture app, where you can take a virtual tour of the Lincoln Memorial, play games in nature, explore the art in Barcelona; play with words with music, fonts, and video; take a hike along The Camino de Santiago; explore Iconic Indian Monuments; discover and discuss The Lomellini Family; do crosswords, artwork, writing.

Of course, on the other hand, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau said:

“I can only meditate when I am walking, when I stop I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.”

Rousseau quote taken from the Callard article; I don’t know the original source.

Hard to imagine Rousseau on a 14 hour flight somewhere, legs bent as if in shackles, thinking, I could walk at home, where a study of physics might show me I’ve not even begun to discover the miracles of existence close at hand. What are those miracles? I don’t know, but I’m happy to stay put this summer and smell them out.