Personally, I found that article was terrible. Maybe the New Yorker is the appropriate place as it reminds of many New Yorkers’ attitude about the rest of the world.
I’ve spent over 50 years in travel (not tourism) in around 80 countries, lived in four, visited over 20 professionally, trekked in four. I wouldn’t be the person I am without all the years of travel (even though the author claims I can’t make such a statement saying "note that this phenomenon can’t be assessed first-personally"). Travel has been at least as important to me as all the years I’ve spent in academia. The most fundamental problem with the article is that she does not distinguish between tourists, for which many of her rants may be true vs travelers who are very different from tourists. I can think of very few of my experiences that fit into the former category. It’s also hard to take anyone seriously who on one hand makes fun of the mass ot tourists who visit the Louvre so they could say they’ve seen the Mona Lisa for 1 minute who then goes to Paris and makes an effort not to see the Louvre. I’ll admit I have no interest in understanding or writing about her work as a philosopher. I’d hope she’s have the humility not to pretend she is an expert on travel. Ed _______________________ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu <mailto:an...@cs.unm.edu> 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel > On Jun 24, 2023, at 6:10 PM, Frank Wimberly <wimber...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Thanks, Russ. I posted that because I've been bugging certain Friam > attendees about why they travel so much. I say there's no place that I'd > rather be than Santa Fe so I tend to stay here. > > It's not that I haven't traveled. I remember being moved when I stood at the > place where Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral; there was > nobody else there at that moment. I was amused that the waiters in hotels in > London would reply, "Thank you very much, sir" when I thanked them. I was > being a tourist then. > > In the mid-nineties my wife and I traveled to Mexico several times. I like > Mexicans and they like speaking Spanish to Gringos. Some of those trips were > for the purpose of cultivating relationships to help with our wish to adopt a > Mexican child. I believe that in Mexico more than in some other places whom > you know affects what you can do. There were 90 adoptions by US couples in > Mexico that year (1997) while there were several thousand in each of Russia > and China. I didn't feel like a tourist during those trips. > > Our daughter Flor, her husband and kids are all in our house right now. They > live in Santa Fe near the Airport. > > Frank > --- > Frank C. Wimberly > 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, > Santa Fe, NM 87505 > > 505 670-9918 > Santa Fe, NM > > On Sat, Jun 24, 2023, 4:49 PM Russ Abbott <russ.abb...@gmail.com > <mailto:russ.abb...@gmail.com>> wrote: >> Frank, Thanks for the link. >> >> Agnes Callard, the author of the article, sneers at tourists who visit Paris >> in order to visit the Louvre in order to see the Mona Lisa (and then spend >> 45 seconds looking at it)--because that's what one does in Paris. But >> presumably, Callard would find it perfectly acceptable to visit Paris in >> order to visit the Louvre in order to see the Mona Lisa, and then spend >> hours examining Da Vinci's brush strokes. >> >> What's the difference between these two kinds of activities? Callard quotes >> Emerson, who is not critical of "a person who travels when his 'necessities' >> or 'duties' demand it. Nor does Emerson object to traversing great distances >> 'for the purpose of art, of study, and benevolence,'” as in the case of the >> student of DaVinci's painting technique. Here's a clue. Callard defines >> "tourism" as the kind of travel that aims at the interesting—and, if Emerson >> and company are right, misses." >> >> In other words, one will not find "the interesting" by going in search of >> it. The same goes for happiness. One will not find happiness by going in >> search of it. These are both consequences of other activities and make no >> sense as stand-alone goals. >> >> -- Russ Abbott >> Professor Emeritus, Computer Science >> California State University, Los Angeles >> >> >> On Sat, Jun 24, 2023 at 2:13 PM Frank Wimberly <wimber...@gmail.com >> <mailto:wimber...@gmail.com>> wrote: >>> https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-case-against-travel >>> >>> --- >>> Frank C. 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