Welp there you have it. If you want to challenge his conclusion you must walk long and hit more countries than he did.
Honestly it sounds more like he went in with a preconceived notion, received data that verified his preconceived notion was incorrect, and then told everyone his preconceived notion seemed correct.
Or, you know, decided not to judge the entire human experience by the actions of a handful of individuals.
There’s probably some wisdom in that, but unfortunately I can’t see it because my human experience sucks.
I’m sorry that you’re dissatisfied with the scientific method of his experience of humanity, which sounds more like an art project than seeking research grants.
Thanks for appreciating my humor.
Sounds like he had three bad experiences over 4 years. That sounds like, on average, the world is not such a bad place.
That’s overkill. I only need a mile and his shoes.
But then you don’t get to sing that 500 miles song. At least go 5 miles while muttering about multipliers between verses.
It’s for the best, that song needs to fade from existence.
I think it’s an amazing story that he was able to find his way back home after walking such a long distance!
Despite the horrid things that occur in this world, I do believe that people are fundamentally good and want to do good for the people around them. The people that do evil things were not born that way.
In my experience, the vast majority of people are good. Like 99.9% of them. But there’s still evil people in this world. My grandmother is one, she’s tried killing my siblings twice, (the first time looked like negligence, after the second she wasn’t given another chance.) and gave her husband brain damage. Thankfully, she’s not related to us by blood.
Sociopaths exist and they rule the world.
Probably some narcissists too
Yep, the majority are good people that assume others are good people too. And they get ruthlessly exploited by sociopaths that end up ruling everyone and forcing all of us to live our lives along their zero-sum worldview.
Don’t underestimate the corruptive influence of power and privilege either. I know it’s unpopular to humanize the people who ruthlessly exploit others, but they aren’t necessarily innately selfish, and are just as much a product of circumstance as others. The wealthy are perhaps the most alienated from the material and human cost of their wealth by a system that is designed to do so, and they are rewarded for behaving selfishly.
If you reduce the complexity of the world to “most people are good but the few bad people ruin it for everyone,” then you run the risk of thinking that the solution to the problem is to remove the “bad people” from power and replace them with “good people.” You’ll inevitably be disappointed when the “good people” turn out to be “bad people” after experiencing power and privilege.
Damn, I don’t think that’s mildly interesting at all. That’s a book I want to read
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/413371.Worldwalk
The book in question. He was housed by over 400 families while on his walk.
Did the families take turns, or did they all walk with him?
Their bodies formed the structure which housed him.
On that sombre note:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairngorm_Plateau_disaster
It was only on Monday afternoon, when the parents were gathered at the school, that the news came that five of their children were dead. The father explained that the boy who survived was the smallest student in the party; maybe the others (two women leaders, four girls and one boy) had been huddling round him to protect him from the cold
Surprised I’ve never heard of this, despite me going to the Cairngorms once
Simultaneously, it inspired the Mortal Engines movie.
Thank you!
Forest Gump?
SIR, YES SIR.
I’ve been a bunch of places all over the world and I would agree. The world isn’t terrible.
All the assholes who live in it however…
There were bandits in 1987??
Still are in some parts of the world. Less arrows and swords more guns and machetes
Only three years later some bandits tried to break into a kids house over Christmas.
How many roads must a man walk down?
Walk… Hhard
Wow even the guy that wanted to be the man that fell down at your door only walked 1000 miles. This is pretty hardcore.
Probably just really wanted to escape Ohio.
On April 14, 1970, during an 11g slingshot maneuver on the remote side of the moon on the Apollo 13 mission, Astronaut Jim Lovell achieved what every other person born in Ohio has always dreamed of:
Getting as far away as humanly possible.
“I just gotta see this for myself.”
It would be a white guy in the 1980s. “Yeah the world isn’t that terrible”
Dudes don’t even have to think twice walking to their car at night.
Absofuckinglutely, imagine being black and walking through rural counties in the US much less other countries. The average person “might” leave you alone but the police absolutely will not.
Did you read the post? Seems like he did have to think twice.
How do we define a walk? Because I’ve almost certainly covered that distance in my life, and I’ve even slept outside and fended off bandits, sort of.
Well yeah, the world and by extension your life is mostly harmless. It’s quite the statistical anomaly when you do get harmed but it’s not to say it’s impossible.
People do tend to get stuck in that awareness of chance of harm and often over prescribe it to certain parts to keep up the fear. That’s probably cause people are also mostly stupidly uninformed.
Daniel Pearl would like a word
Right? Do that now, you’ll get picked up by some extremist group.
