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The Case Against Travel

newyorker.com

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Re: The Case Against Travel

#11

Post by tyingq »

mindwok wrote: post #5

This is a very enjoyable and well-written article, and it makes a good point - The nature of travel, and everything you do while you're travelling, is so ephemeral that it really does nothing for establishing or communicating your identity. The people you spend your time with, the sights you see, the food you eat... you are doing all of it because of novelty, not because you've made a deliberate choice. Doing somethi…

A 2-week summer holiday used to have more impact than it does now. Prior to the internet, and back when long-distance calls were expensive, it did force some amount of change. Practical concerns made you disconnect from work, friends, etc, more than you do today.

Re: The Case Against Travel

#12

Post by MengerSponge »

Or as Frank McCourt once said, when asked "Why do we have to read this?" by one of his students: “You will read it for the same reason your parents waste their money on your piano lessons. So you won't be a boring little shite the rest of your life.”

It's very hard to learn how people in other cultures live without going there and experiencing it. Also, your low-stakes fumbles and challenges will make you a little more resilient, and so much more interesting.

Re: The Case Against Travel

#14

Post by mxmbrb »

I can't see why so many people look down on traveling. I do not tell people unless asked (it is not part of my identity) but I traveled my fair share and it changed me a lot. The food I eat (the better half of my diet), the way I drive, my values for a fulfilled life, my willingnes to accept risks in life, appreciation and compassion for regions and many things more. Traveling is what you make out of it. If they walk it like dinsneyland polishing their instagram, travelling isn't the issue, it is people. But then, isn't it allways?

Re: The Case Against Travel

#15

Post by vidarh »

hsjqllzlfkf wrote: post #6

I agree with the main point of the article. I just disliked some of the specific examples. "You would t spend the entire day walking where you live" - some times I do! "You don't go to museums where you live" - I didn't until I moved to a city with amazing museums, and now I do!

And even when I don't, part of the reason I want to do them while travelling is that I'm freed from my daily route and somewhere new. I've done 1h+ walks along pretty much every route from my house. I've done some 3h walks in a single direction to/from where I live and relied on transport to get me the other way so I was happy to walk further. I've done many of those walks many times, and they are enjoyable, but sometimes I want to walk somewhere new.

Last year, for example, I spent about 3h a day walking Nice. I covered most of the tram network on foot because I wanted to see areas well outside the typical tourist areas. I could've done the same length walks at home, but I'd have seen places I've already been many times.

And often even when you go to destinations where your home might well even have superior options sometimes, the point is partly that it's different and new and that in itself has a qualitative difference in how you experience it (try walking down a street you've never walked anymore and be present, and walk down the same street again every day for a week - the experience noticeably changes), but also often simply that it creates an adventure, even if a tiny one, exactly because it's not something you usually do on top of being somewhere you usually aren't.

Re: The Case Against Travel

#16

Post by quickthrower2 »

Gualdrapo wrote: post #9
brvsft wrote: post #3

I also find travel mostly unfulfilling, but one difference from the article is that I like doing things while traveling that I would also do in my hometown. For instance, I will go to museums, and I have gone to museums at home before, including being a member at a particular one I visited monthly until I moved. But overall, traveling is a fun activity with centuries of marketing around adventure that doesn't tend to…

That is my problem with so-called wanderlusters and how traveling is sold this days as a type of "solution" or "therapy" - people just assume traveling is a decision everyone can make, but not what it actually is - a possibility a few can take. And it's not that it actually does wonders.

It is easy to conflate too. Is it the travel destination, or just the simple break from working, different climate or the change of scenery. I think travel being good for “westerners” talks to how homogeneous towns and cities have become.

Maybe if the next town was interesting, getting on an airplane for 8 hours would be less needed.

Re: The Case Against Travel

#17

Post by pydry »

>For example, a decade ago, when I was in Abu Dhabi, I went on a guided tour of a falcon hospital. I took a photo with a falcon on my arm. I have no interest in falconry or falcons, and a generalized dislike of encounters with nonhuman animals. But the falcon hospital was one of the answers to the question, “What does one do in Abu Dhabi?” So I went. I suspect that everything about the falcon hospital, from its layout to its mission statement, is and will continue to be shaped by the visits of people like me—we unchanged changers, we tourists.

So she fell into a tourist trap. She wouldnt be the first.

Re: The Case Against Travel

#18

Post by shadow_broker »

I clicked into the article with a general mindset of planning to agree with the author. And while I generally did, the article felt a bit esoteric and like another commenter mentioned, the examples weren't great for me. I think my big issue when people tell me they love to travel is that it frequently ends up being almost a checklist, where the person has a whole list of "what's next" already lined up, like it's just something to do because they're bored. Almost like they are dissatisfied with their day to day life and the travel is the antidote. The author touches this briefly, but I've found so much joy in treating my own city like a tourist, and I'm still finding interesting places to go or explore years later, especially by running or biking.

I've also had the fortune of traveling abroad 3 times in my life, and I do think because those were such unique events, it has changed me to some extent. One example would be seeing the train infrastructure across Europe and then Japan, and realizing how much I enjoyed that experience and how easy it was to traverse the cities themselves. I did also see the Mona Lisa, but quickly went back to just walking the streets of Paris at night, and enjoyed that experience much more!

Re: The Case Against Travel

#19

Post by pydry »

mxmbrb wrote: post #14

I can't see why so many people look down on traveling. I do not tell people unless asked (it is not part of my identity) but I traveled my fair share and it changed me a lot. The food I eat (the better half of my diet), the way I drive, my values for a fulfilled life, my willingnes to accept risks in life, appreciation and compassion for regions and many things more. Traveling is what you make out of it. If they walk…

It's treated in a very similar way to many other status-linked luxuries which used to be the preserve of the upper classes and then spread to the masses through commodification.

Theres probably a name for it. If there isnt there should be. Burberryfication?

A lot of people who do travel I don't think actually enjoy it much but feel compelled to engage in status games.

Meanwhile the upper classes and aspiring upper classes understand that it doesn't give them status any more. This becomes "a lack of meaning" because it's well understood among the upper classes that directly gatekeeping status is vulgar.

Re: The Case Against Travel

#20

Post by ramraj07 »

The author buries the crux in the middle: travel is fun. It’s rarely if ever, meaningful or transformative. You can do it because it’s fun. You might even learn a thing or two and be awed by the people and sights, but that’s it. I’m yet to meet a well traveled person whom I truly admire for anything, quite the contrary. The vast majority of chronic travelers I’ve met are just collecting fridge magnets and checking things off some lists. In the end it’s likely not even worth having this discussion with them any more than trying to discuss the moral obligation or fulfillment of childbearing.
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