Wilderness

April 21, 2017

Class reading: From Nature to Creation

“William Cronon argued that even though wilderness has been presented as a refuge from the corrupting influences of culture, it is in fact a ‘profoundly human creation.’ Wilderness may seem to be the most natural of ideas – because it would be the purest expression of nature – but what we see when we dig a bit beneath the surface is the invention and projection of human longings and desires.” Wirzba, 37.

Wirzba addresses the idea of wilderness, talking about how it is simply a human construction. The frontier was an establishing point of the American culture. The “wild west” became a culture in itself. However, the wilderness is always going to be the limits of human advancement. Where humanity does not develop by default is seen as the wilderness. Today, our society is more industrialized then ever and we have had to carve off places as established wilderness. To a certain extent, I think humanity needs wilderness. We need places where life is not under our control and not dependent on us. Sometimes we forget that the world continues on regardless of whether or not we are here or we are manipulating it.