Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks

The general argument/point made by Edward Abbey in his work Polemic is that the national parks should be left intact and for the people and are not developed for industrial tourism. More specifically, Abbey argues/suggests that people should enjoy nature and get out of their cars and motors to be involved with the wilderness surroundings. He writes, “So long as they are unwilling to crawl out of their cars they will not discover the treasures of the national parks and will never escape the stress and turmoil of those urban suburban complexes which they had hoped…to leave behind for a while.” (page 389) In this passage, Abbey is suggesting that as long as people are taking these efforts to get away from the stress of the city, they should get away from the stressors of the world including the car and discover the treasures of nature. In conclusion, it is Abbey’s belief that there should be no more new roads in national parks, rangers should be put to work, and that people need to put aside their motorized transportation and enjoy themselves because National parks are for people.

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In my view, Abbey is right because I have different experiences that have either enhanced or tainted my ability to enjoy nature while camping. For example, he talks about nature as a “holy place” and I agree with that because of the simple silence that we can find there when we choose to listen. I remember studying out in the wilderness during a girl’s camp lesson. The counselors gave us some time to just sit and enjoy the silence, yet beautiful sounds of the untainted scenery. In contrast, I went to a girls camp another year with some girls that made “getting away from the world” quite difficult because of the electronics they would play with and the inability they had to appreciate being away at camp. Although Abbey might object that the cities do not taint our ability to enjoy pieces of nature everyday, I maintain that you see nature in its purest form when you get to recognize the beauty of the earth like the stars. Here we don’t see the stars because of the brightness and technologies of the earth today. We already are missing out on a piece of nature. Therefore, I conclude that there is a big difference between using electronics, staying in the car, driving by scenery than roaming the nature on foot to really view the surroundings. You may discover things that you would have missed out on.