Chris McCandless: Idiot or Hero?

[EGarrett]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless

He decided for himself that society was materialistic and he wanted no part of it. So, he gave his savings to charity, hitchhiked to Alaska to live off the wilderness, and was found dead of starvation in an abandoned bus several months later.

[joobie]

they're not neccesarily mutually exclusive.

[fuelair]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_McCandless

He decided for himself that society was materialistic and he wanted no part of it. So, he gave his savings to charity, hitchhiked to Alaska to live off the wilderness, and was found dead of starvation in an abandoned bus several months later.What part of this could make him a hero? Even had he lived there perfectly fine instead of not?

[MelBrooksfan]

Pro-Tip: Before venturing away to live off the land, one should learn how to live off the land first.

[Random]

Idiot. He decided to spend his life in the Alaskan wilderness and he didn't even bring a map...

[Hamradioguy]

Krakaur's book, "Into The Wild", is highly recommended. McCandless' behavior even well before hiking off into the Alaska wilderness with a .22 rifle and 10 pounds of rice was more than a little bizarre. Idiot may be a tad extreme, but read the book and you'll see he certainly was no hero.

[Puppycow]

I won't call him an idiot, but naive sounds right, and I think this is an example of natural selection.

[kerikiwi]

served as captain of the cross-country team, where he urged his teammates to treat running as a spiritual exercise in which they were "running against the forces of darkness....all the evil in the world, all the hatred."
Idiot is a fair summary here.
His youth, intelligence, and generosity helped him to make numerous friends on the road.
And which of the three gained most 'friends'?

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

The man's fifteen years in his grave. This is current events?

[kerikiwi]

No, it's a social issue.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Krakaur's book, "Into The Wild", is highly recommended. McCandless' behavior even well before hiking off into the Alaska wilderness with a .22 rifle and 10 pounds of rice was more than a little bizarre. Idiot may be a tad extreme, but read the book and you'll see he certainly was no hero.

I'll second the recommendation of the book.

[EGarrett]

What part of this could make him a hero? Even had he lived there perfectly fine instead of not?He examined the world with his own eyes, came to his own conclusion, and acted on it. A nation of Chris McCandless's, if they didn't die of starvation within months, wouldn't fall under the control of any dictator or irrational fairy tale.

[Number Six]

A nation full of Chris McCandless' would be too diverse to fall under the control of an irrational fairy tale, but foolish enough to fall under the control of many different irrational fairy tales.

I read the book a long time ago. One thing that struck me was that he was going to be Mr. LiveInTheWild to get away from civilization and then the first thing he did when he got to the woods was live in an abandoned bus. Isn't a bus a product of civilization?

He was young and foolish, but lots of people are young and foolish, and sadly he just happened to pay for his foolishness with his life. Young people do foolish things and a few die from it unfortunately. It's like a lottery of sorts. And yes, some older people do foolish things too

[EGarrett]

No, it's a social issue.Yup, and a feature film is being made from the book.

[Number Six]

Yup, and a feature film is being made from the book.

And guess who did the screenplay and is directing it? My old friend Sean Penn. I'm being sarcastic. I don't know Sean Penn but I can't stand him, or his public persona at least, and I'll make a point of avoiding the movie as a result. It's too bad because while I don't see many movies, that is one I might have gone to see since I had already read the book. The same goes with the recent A Mighty Heart movie. I read that book but then couldn't bring myself to watch Angelina Jolie for an hour and a half. From what I read I wouldn't have liked it anyway and that will probably be true of the Into The Wild movie too.

[EGarrett]

A nation full of Chris McCandless' would be too diverse to fall under the control of an irrational fairy tale, but foolish enough to fall under the control of many different irrational fairy tales.Yes, they would probably fall under the control of their own individual foolish ideas, but there could be no large scale-human atrocity, because that requires a number of people to be convinced of the same dumb thing.

I read the book a long time ago. One thing that struck me was that he was going to be Mr. LiveInTheWild to get away from civilization and then the first thing he did when he got to the woods was live in an abandoned bus. Isn't a bus a product of civilization?Yeah, I noticed the irony of that. Him being found in a sleeping bag in a bus is almost symbolic of trying to use the only vestige of civilization he had left to protect his ass after he ran away and got into trouble.

He was young and foolish, but lots of people are young and foolish, and sadly he just happened to pay for his foolishness with his life. Young people do foolish things and a few die from it unfortunately. It's like a lottery of sorts. And yes, some older people do foolish things tooAgreed. It's only through sheer fortune that a lot of us survive the falls, car accidents etc. that our youthful stupidity gets us into.

I think McCandless fell victim to a romantic-idea that a lot of people have about "getting away from it all." I would never have been ignorant enough to try something like that, although the idea is nice to think about.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

He examined the world with his own eyes, came to his own conclusion, and acted on it. A nation of Chris McCandless's, if they didn't die of starvation within months, wouldn't fall under the control of any dictator or irrational fairy tale.

A nation of Chris McCandless's would starve to death first.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

And guess who did the screenplay and is directing it? My old friend Sean Penn. I'm being sarcastic. I don't know Sean Penn but I can't stand him, or his public persona at least, and I'll make a point of avoiding the movie as a result.

Since Sean Penn is involved, I'll make it a point to see the film. One of our very best actors, we'll see what he can do behind the camera (and yes, I know he's directed a few other films, none of which I saw). It has a Sept 21st release date.

[Alt+F4]

His poor parents.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

His poor parents.

Actually, I think they are wealthy. :p

[Josh111485]

I think McCandless was selfish. He abandoned his sister and his parents. He put them through unbelievable amounts of pain. That alone should tell you that he wasn't a hero.

[Eddie Dane]

The funny thing is, I once ran away from the wilderness and ended up having a double espresso on the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy.

If I wrote a book about it, it would be called Into Civilisation.
But I doubt that there's a market for it.

[Eddie Dane]

Since Sean Penn is involved, I'll make it a point to see the film. One of our very best actors, we'll see what he can do behind the camera (and yes, I know he's directed a few other films, none of which I saw). It has a Sept 21st release date.

I think he directed the Indian Runner.
Very good IMHO.

[GreyICE]

I'm sorry, I don't have any respect for him. He had the courage to live by his principles alright, but courage means jack squat. As the old saying goes, that and a buck will buy you a cup of coffee.

He was stupid. He had no knowledge of what he was doing. He allowed himself no outs. There's plenty of intelligent people who have built cabins and lived in the woods for a time (I'd cite Walden Pond, but that's a singularly bad example). They sure as hell knew how to feed themselves, how to maintain shelter, how to avoid diseases, and how to live.

He knew none of that. He committed a slow suicide. It wasn't anything more complicated than that. I have no respect for someone who will act that dumb with their own life.

[shuize]

As has been pointed out many times about Chris McCandless, had he brought a map, he'd likely still be alive.

According to the Wikipedia article, McCandless noted in his journal that he was starving and decided to leave. His way out was apparently blocked by the Teklanika River running higher than when he arrived. He died not knowing there was a hand operated tram 1/4 mile from where he tried to cross.

[applecorped]

This thread has been Treadwelled.

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

So, did they ever make that movie or what?

[Matthew Best]

Yes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/)

[dudalb]

Krakaur's book, "Into The Wild", is highly recommended. McCandless' behavior even well before hiking off into the Alaska wilderness with a .22 rifle and 10 pounds of rice was more than a little bizarre. Idiot may be a tad extreme, but read the book and you'll see he certainly was no hero.

A 22. rifle?????
That swings it to the idiot department. If I was going to live off the land I would not LOOK at anything below a 30.06.

[thaiboxerken]

Isn't a hero someone that actually tries to do something good for society or to save a person? This idiot doesn't fit the bill.

[Eddie Dane]

A 22. rifle?????
That swings it to the idiot department. If I was going to live off the land I would not LOOK at anything below a 30.06.

Man, if you haven't eaten squirrel raw of the bone for a month straight, you just haven't lived.

[GreyICE]

A 22. rifle?????
That swings it to the idiot department. If I was going to live off the land I would not LOOK at anything below a 30.06.

Really? I'd bring that and a box or two of ammo.

If I can't manage to set snares, deer trip-ropes, and other devices to catch meat, set up an ice box to preserve it (and possibly start refining salt for that purpose) and/or set up good fishing holes, I've failed at the purpose of the exercise.

Hmm. I ever wondered if it occurred to him that survival was a communal effort, and that you can't really pull it off alone?

[truethat]

He examined the world with his own eyes, came to his own conclusion, and acted on it. A nation of Chris McCandless's, if they didn't die of starvation within months, wouldn't fall under the control of any dictator or irrational fairy tale.

No they just fall under the fairy tale of the "open road" and "empty space" and "nature is natural and inherently better for it" yadda yadda yadda. The guy committed extended suicide in order to basically be a "poser" in Alaska.

[Mark6]

A 22. rifle?????
That swings it to the idiot department. If I was going to live off the land I would not LOOK at anything below a 30.06.
Whether 22 or 30.06, it makes him a hypocrite. Rifles are a product of civilization. You want to give up civilization, you hunt your dinner with a stone spear.

[RandFan]

I tried to watch the movie. On and off multiple times (it's on cable).

I've had better success watching water boil and it was more entertaining.

If he didn't reproduce then evolution has done it's job.

[cbish]

Read the book, saw the movie. IMO, he was extremely arrogant. He thought he was too intelligent to succumb.

Incidentally, I have a friend who has a former college roommate who is a Ranger in that park. They were furious when the book came out and doubly furious when the movie came out. According to him 5-7 people a year pull this stunt. The year the book came out, they had double the incidents.

On a related note, did you know that 1/3 of all suicides at the Grand Canyon occurred in 1993? The year after Thelma & Louise came out. The Hertz Rental Car in Williams AZ has a 'special clause' in their contracts.

[Worm]

I've read Guy Grieve's account of when he went to live in the Yukon for a year.

By his account it is incredibly tough to live like that on your own, and it sounds to me like McCandless severely under-estimated how much effort he would have to put into just surviving.

The food issue is key. Most game has little fat, and you really need it to keep your energy going - Grieve had to eat beaver, which is apparently not very nice, but a good source of fat.

[Eddie Dane]

Incidentally, I have a friend who has a former college roommate who is a Ranger in that park. They were furious when the book came out and doubly furious when the movie came out. According to him 5-7 people a year pull this stunt. The year the book came out, they had double the incidents.


Did they actually have to remove that many frozen idealists?
Or do they usually find them in time to return them to civilisation?

[El Greco]

Grieve had to eat beaver, which is apparently not very nice, but a good source of fat.

Hi there, Worm. I eat beaver too when I grieve, but I find it nice and not too fatty.

[Worm]

There's always one ....

;)

[Rogue1stclass]

On the other hand, Les Stroud did basically this same thing when he was young. Now he has a successful survival show on the Science channel.

Of course, the difference is that Stroud grew up in the country he ran into and so knew what he was getting into before he left. Thus he survived past the point where scraping by on Canadian winters seemed like a good idea.

[cbish]

Did they actually have to remove that many frozen idealists?
Or do they usually find them in time to return them to civilisation?From what I understand, they don't make it. Actually, many times, they never hear from them again.

[RandFan]

I grew up on a farm and understood self reliance, to a point. I know how to fish without a pole. I know how to trap game using raw materials. I've killed and eaten wild rabbits, pigeons, squirrel, etc. without fire arms or manufactured devices.

I took a survival course when I was in high school. It sucked. We were in an area with little vegetation and very little wild life. My diet consisted mostly of Sego Lilly root (bulbs were not in season) (it tastes god awful) and some other root that caused my throat to swell and itch (an allergic reaction). BTW: Death Camass can look like Sego Lily. Don't eat Death Camass.

And let me tell you also, diarrhea in the wild sucks more than just about anything.

In the wild evolution favors a certain type of person. Most of us aren't that type of person. I can't honestly say what my odds of survival would be. Higher than most probably. I'd consider a week or two in the wilderness but not much more beyond that.

[ZirconBlue]

BTW: Death Camass can look like Sego Lily. Don't eat Death Camass.

I try not to eat anything with "death" in the name.

Ditto "ass".

[realpaladin]

If I would do a thing like that, I would ask Ray Mears to instruct me; he is the only survival guy I know who actually leaves a wildernis more rotund than he entered it.

The guy is making tea and baking bread at every turn!

[alfaniner]

Somebody mentioned Tim Treadwell above (the guy who was so in love with grizzly bears he became a meal for one). I felt the same way about McCandless, but my only reference was the movie, which was loaded with pretentious BS directing that called more attention to itself than the story.