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Show 500. sibilities which reached far beyond that of a "pleasure group," and i t s o r i g i n must have suggested to Muir the possibility for a new kind of c r o s s - p o l i t i c a l , cross-cultural alliance. On outings, when t h i s new community was born in the wilderness, a new s e t of allegiances suggested themselves, allegiances to Earth instead of State, allegiances which reached deeper into the soul of Man than business, money, or even family. Members l i k e Colby, Parsons, and Bade, who were closest to Muir, r e a l i z e d immediately that this was a different kind of club, an organization which transcended, or might transcend other hopeful organizations in California. The Club suggested "a passage to more than India," a vision of Californian community as more than just an American Mediterranean, and most of a l l a new western e t h i c . This had always been the heart of Muir's message: men's allegiances ought to reach higher than the State or c i t y of their birth; men's works ought to r e f l e c t t h e i r reverence for the land. But even as the Club's communal dream was born, i t entered the political realm along with Muir, and Johnson, and Colby. As the Club became involved in the mundane day-to-day battles over the disposition of Yosemite National Park, and the recession of the Valley to the federal government, as the Club became muddled in what Muir had once called the "political Suagg," i t lost t h i s longer-range, more powerful vision. lt gradually ceased to explore i t s visionary horizon, and paid closer attention to the more pressing, immediate p o l i t i c al and practical matters. |