[at-l] Cell phone connection availability (Shane)

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

Beating the dead horse again.  Can't help myself.  Please delete at will...

> If you can
> instantly dial up and contact civilization at will you have
> removed a large
> psychological segment of what makes our experience of wilderness
> what it is.

I'm starting to see it.  It's totally a psychological thing.

>       To contest your above claim I ask you to bring no phone
> next time and
> try and use it. Think about the difference in reaction and
> personal feelings
> between having the phone and not. These feelings are internal
> wilderness.

I hiked for many years without one.  I resisted owning one at all for many
years.  It has not proven to be the demon I once thought it might be.

>I can tell you, my looking out into the thick primeval fir forest
> on my first
> visit to the Maine AT and thinking that if I somehow got lost and
> walked in
> the wrong direction I could die REALLY put a feeling of
> wilderness in me that

AH!  So the sense of wilderness is the sense that you could die.  It's a
danger thing.  Staring into the face of the beast.  Fortunately, the element
of danger is not something that either enhances or detracts from my
experience.  If you need that, then you should by all means have it.

>      *** You are bending his words to fit your meaning here Shane.

> I could go into detail on this, but I feel MacKaye
> was wise enough to know that if he didn't involve a functional
> human element
> in his proposal it wouldn't receive the necessary government backing it
> needed.

It's OK for you to bend the words, but not me?  I read what I read, which
doesn't seem to need second guessing or translation.  His primary concern
was for PEOPLE.  His means to the end of helping people was WILDERNESS.

>      Read MacKaye again Shane, he very much *does* mention modern
> conveniences as diminishing a previous wholesome level of human
> connectedness to earth.

Perhaps we aren't reading the same document...

>      ***  The question then is minimizing all things that
> potentially degrade
> wilderness. Even today the AT can be *very* isolated if you do it
> right. When
> you call home you are no longer isolated...

I'm going to use the ludicrous example to make my point:  You are surrounded
by wild dogs.  You are going to be eaten.  You get your cell phone and call
your wife.  "Honey, I am about to be eaten by wild dogs.  I just want you to
know that I love you.  The life insurance policy is in the underwear
drawer."  You get eaten by wild dogs.

Despite the cell phone, you ARE isolated.

Shane