OCR Text |
Show 535 guilty? Whatever their reasons, they were not speaking out for wilderness, they were creating a government bureaucracy, and that is a significant distinction. They had already made their stand for conservation, and by putting the Parks under the National Park Service they were subscribing to a utilitarian version of recreation which was far from the pathless way that Muir had perceived. What would a conservationist's National Park look like? It would be a highly organized, centrally planned and directed machine for the purpose of providing recreation. It would have at core the purpose of marketing an experience for its visitor efficiently, and so, it would welcome technological improvements which furthered that aim by providing the greatest number of vacations possible, in the smallest compass of time, and with the most comfort, given the economic resources of the visitor. This is_ what the National Park Service set out to do under Mather. |