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Show 301. as we continue to pretend that wilderness represents the illusion to a man that he is alone, we will not get to the heart of the matter. The only long-term solution to our problem in preserving wilderness will come when we have learned how Man can be more than a visitor, without destroying the earth. Perhaps it is too late. So I end this section of my meditation with a paradox. Despite his desire to see Man as a part of Nature, Muir's actual view of Man's effects on Nature was predicated on the thesis Marsh had argued in the previous decade, that Man was a disturber of Nature's harmonies. When Muir decided to perceive Man as either a visitor or abuser of the earth, he was forced into the dualistic perspective characteristic of many nineteenth century ecologists. It was a short step to his perception of only two alternative human activities in the wilderness, tourism or resource development. Perhaps this was finally a result of his own style of mountain travel. Since he never attempted to live self-sufficiently in the mountains, he never investigated seriously the possibility of a harmonious economic existence in Nature. When, in the late 1870's, he began to be mentioned more frequently in the newspapers, he was called John Muir the Geologist, or John Muir of San Francisco. His own link to civilization and the city had been forged, even while he was wandering in the mountains. |