Re[2]: [at-l] Speed Hiking

[RoksnRoots@xxxxxxx (RoksnRoots@xxxxxxx)]

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In a message dated 4/2/2003 2:12:49 PM Eastern Standard Time,
spiriteagle99@hotmail.com writes:


>  Nor will I buy into the
> selective misuse of MacKaye's words to back up something that he could not
> have even known about.  Ascribing "prescience" to him would put you into
> the
> same class as Roks with respect to MacKaye worship.  I won't buy that
> either.


         ***   "MacKaye worship"??? I find that mis-designation as
unobservant as missing how MacKaye was prescient.

      MacKaye was foresighted in numerous ways that have proven themselves as
the Trail aged. An obvious one is the need to preserve local watersheds in
the way of conservation zones. Another is the contemporary shrinking away of
forested areas.

      MacKaye was prescient in knowing that as civilization advanced it would
move further and further from its connection to the earth. Technology and
modern lifestyle would remove man from his direct connection to natural
processes. Really, this is one of the prime reasons for the AT. He knew that
as man advanced the contrast between this mechanized culture and bare nature
would increase, providing the basis for a nature-tank designed to reacquaint
people with nature. In doing so, he would give the American population a
direct understanding of the need for pure, undisturbed, protected nature to
prevent its destruction. This was quite before its time, and what you might
call "prescient".

     If you can see what Benton was telling us, you would understand his
total prescience and total awareness of cell-phones long before they were
even imagined. He really wanted people to shed their dependency on
civilization, or civilization mentality, when entering the corridor. One of
the great tragedies of the AT is how so many persons who consider themselves
experienced Trail voices miss the so-very-obvious (even when it is quoted in
MacKaye's own writings)...