Travel enthusiasts feel compelled to promote travel with hopes that it can bring about peace and understanding, but is that idealism speaking or an underlying truth about the world?
As an Army brat, there is no question in my mind that travel as a child expanded my knowledge, empathy and horizons. It also made me more flexible when it comes to managing change and uncertainty. And made me understand the way we do things in the U.S. is just one way of doing things. I think I opted the life of a full-time traveler as a result of my “third culture kid” roots. But, big picture, I’m afraid the changes are more micro—more personal, than macro. I can only hope that decision makers in the areas of national economic policies and diplomacy of all countries share a background which prioritizes the human perspective in this way. As opposed to prioritizing nationalism above all.
Can travel and adventure...alleviate our fears, vanquish prejudice, improve our empathy, and enlighten us? Yes, but I think it can also do the opposite. So much depends on the openness and curiosity of the traveller. Someone entrenched in their own right ways of being and doing, especially when faced with discomfort or dissonance can return more prejudiced and less empathetic. Sometimes traveling with a perceptive guide can help promote the outcomes you reference, but travel in itself might not be enough to open a closed mind.
Absolutely! Fantastic set of thoughts. That’s where I land as well. I’ve always thought that the prerequisites for those things had to be having an open heart and open mind. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Maryann. 😊
Very well written!! I completely agree that travel can be a powerful tool for opening our minds to new ideas and ways of living that I also hope can make people more empathetic.
Justin, thanks for including the Bourdain quote! That’s how I believe travel to be-an education for living. As you so well put, we can then see ‘a new plane of collective consciousness’ and being in other parts of the world ‘our minds will understand human life’. That’s quite an education. When we can step out of our own box and see and experience other cultures as well as the absolutely unbelievable beauty of Mother Earth. Travel does make me feel more empathetic and see the world more clearly. I think you are correct that VR is changing travel, but I for one would rather see it in person as long as I’m able. To wandering….
In most instances, experiencing something in person is far superior to a similar virtual experience. Niagara Falls has to be seen, heard, felt, in person. However, as the virtual experience improves, I find myself attending fewer football games in person, instead watching those same games slightly later on TV. In the future, will would be travelers just stay home and experience the world while sitting in their favorite chair?
Travelers to Nazi Germany in the 1930s developed a chilling understanding of the regime. That understanding didn't lead to peace.
I worry that phenomenon is already with us. With things like VR headsets and the internet. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with experiencing the world this way, but I think some of us can become overconfident in what things are genuinely like in other places they’ve never physically been. We get filtered far too many abstract preconceptions of other people and places over the internet and it has severely distorted our perceptions of reality in my view.
Isn't the Web nothing less or more then a book with moving pictures? For me the only difference is between seeing and feeling other places and people while visiting them myself, and on the other hand reading a book or seeing YouTube videos from people who visited these spaces. I think in both cases i can get a good impression, or a hope. In the first case on my own with my own prejudice, in the second case with the prejudice of the travellers who write about it or show videos.
That’s an interesting point. I guess I see the Internet as a bit more chaotically curated than a book and also more susceptible to bias and manipulation. Even if it isn’t deliberate or even conscious, any video, blog, or photo of other places around the world are both selecting and omitting parts of the greater whole. It’s kind of like when you’re house hunting and the photos and description of a house on the online advertisement are easily distorted and when you show up in person it becomes obvious to all the trickery that’s gone on to manipulate a potential buyer, conscious or unconscious. To me, the only way to truly know a place is to inhabit that space with all our senses. I’m skeptical I can get a good impression of another place even if the travel writer or travel host is exceptional at conveying their experience. There are simply too many variables, that even the most thorough travel guide is going to miss a lot.
I agree that comparing the Web with a book is a bit off, since a book is usually written by only a few persons, but the Web is basically a compilation of all our brain content. But i dont think that watching videos wont give me a good impression of a place, especially if i am able to watch several videos from several different people, its their subjective view of that place. When i visit that place in reality, i just add my own subjective perspective to that impressions. There is no official impression of that place you have to have, the "soul" of that place can be different for different people.
The difference of beeing at that place instead of watching or reading is that, as you mentioned, you are there with all your senses, you can even smell that place, which is a big influence. The "picture" you then have in your head is a bigger picture because you visited that place, but it is a limited picture since you may not have seen everything.
The experience of reading a travel book, like for example a Bruce Chatwin or a Bill Bryson, is a different experience then if you travel on your own, but it can in many ways be a similar experience, an experience that opens your mind ... just with the advantage of sitting on a cozy couch while reading, and the fridge in the next room.
The one thing that makes travel so compelling for me is that it removes me from my own landscape and, from afar, I see it more objectively. I think this is not often talked about: how travel reflects back to us our own place in the world. I have found this very useful in weighing the importance (or unimportance) of certain aspects of my life.
As an Army brat, there is no question in my mind that travel as a child expanded my knowledge, empathy and horizons. It also made me more flexible when it comes to managing change and uncertainty. And made me understand the way we do things in the U.S. is just one way of doing things. I think I opted the life of a full-time traveler as a result of my “third culture kid” roots. But, big picture, I’m afraid the changes are more micro—more personal, than macro. I can only hope that decision makers in the areas of national economic policies and diplomacy of all countries share a background which prioritizes the human perspective in this way. As opposed to prioritizing nationalism above all.
Can travel and adventure...alleviate our fears, vanquish prejudice, improve our empathy, and enlighten us? Yes, but I think it can also do the opposite. So much depends on the openness and curiosity of the traveller. Someone entrenched in their own right ways of being and doing, especially when faced with discomfort or dissonance can return more prejudiced and less empathetic. Sometimes traveling with a perceptive guide can help promote the outcomes you reference, but travel in itself might not be enough to open a closed mind.
Absolutely! Fantastic set of thoughts. That’s where I land as well. I’ve always thought that the prerequisites for those things had to be having an open heart and open mind. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Maryann. 😊
Very well written!! I completely agree that travel can be a powerful tool for opening our minds to new ideas and ways of living that I also hope can make people more empathetic.
Justin, thanks for including the Bourdain quote! That’s how I believe travel to be-an education for living. As you so well put, we can then see ‘a new plane of collective consciousness’ and being in other parts of the world ‘our minds will understand human life’. That’s quite an education. When we can step out of our own box and see and experience other cultures as well as the absolutely unbelievable beauty of Mother Earth. Travel does make me feel more empathetic and see the world more clearly. I think you are correct that VR is changing travel, but I for one would rather see it in person as long as I’m able. To wandering….
I just saw this quote again. Such a good one and thanks for sharing it with me and thanks for the additional thoughts here Marlo. To wandering! 😊
In most instances, experiencing something in person is far superior to a similar virtual experience. Niagara Falls has to be seen, heard, felt, in person. However, as the virtual experience improves, I find myself attending fewer football games in person, instead watching those same games slightly later on TV. In the future, will would be travelers just stay home and experience the world while sitting in their favorite chair?
Travelers to Nazi Germany in the 1930s developed a chilling understanding of the regime. That understanding didn't lead to peace.
I worry that phenomenon is already with us. With things like VR headsets and the internet. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with experiencing the world this way, but I think some of us can become overconfident in what things are genuinely like in other places they’ve never physically been. We get filtered far too many abstract preconceptions of other people and places over the internet and it has severely distorted our perceptions of reality in my view.
Isn't the Web nothing less or more then a book with moving pictures? For me the only difference is between seeing and feeling other places and people while visiting them myself, and on the other hand reading a book or seeing YouTube videos from people who visited these spaces. I think in both cases i can get a good impression, or a hope. In the first case on my own with my own prejudice, in the second case with the prejudice of the travellers who write about it or show videos.
That’s an interesting point. I guess I see the Internet as a bit more chaotically curated than a book and also more susceptible to bias and manipulation. Even if it isn’t deliberate or even conscious, any video, blog, or photo of other places around the world are both selecting and omitting parts of the greater whole. It’s kind of like when you’re house hunting and the photos and description of a house on the online advertisement are easily distorted and when you show up in person it becomes obvious to all the trickery that’s gone on to manipulate a potential buyer, conscious or unconscious. To me, the only way to truly know a place is to inhabit that space with all our senses. I’m skeptical I can get a good impression of another place even if the travel writer or travel host is exceptional at conveying their experience. There are simply too many variables, that even the most thorough travel guide is going to miss a lot.
I agree that comparing the Web with a book is a bit off, since a book is usually written by only a few persons, but the Web is basically a compilation of all our brain content. But i dont think that watching videos wont give me a good impression of a place, especially if i am able to watch several videos from several different people, its their subjective view of that place. When i visit that place in reality, i just add my own subjective perspective to that impressions. There is no official impression of that place you have to have, the "soul" of that place can be different for different people.
The difference of beeing at that place instead of watching or reading is that, as you mentioned, you are there with all your senses, you can even smell that place, which is a big influence. The "picture" you then have in your head is a bigger picture because you visited that place, but it is a limited picture since you may not have seen everything.
The experience of reading a travel book, like for example a Bruce Chatwin or a Bill Bryson, is a different experience then if you travel on your own, but it can in many ways be a similar experience, an experience that opens your mind ... just with the advantage of sitting on a cozy couch while reading, and the fridge in the next room.
The one thing that makes travel so compelling for me is that it removes me from my own landscape and, from afar, I see it more objectively. I think this is not often talked about: how travel reflects back to us our own place in the world. I have found this very useful in weighing the importance (or unimportance) of certain aspects of my life.