A Better Class of People

Zion Valley 2

Zion Canyon, as seen from Angels Landing.

Angels Landing: a 454 m tall rock in Utah’s Zion Canyon.  Myself, Aaron Clarey, Chris Bechtloff, and Matt Forney (as well as a couple of readers) decided to scale this peak last week, and it’s one of the more enjoyable hikes I’ve been on.  The countryside is gorgeous, and the last third of the trip is on a 45° angle, a dangerous and challenging jaunt which has killed four people in the past decade.

But the best part of hiking isn’t the terrain you go over; it’s the people you meet along the way.

“A better class of people,” as Aaron puts it.  There’s no garbage to be found on the mountain – maybe the occasional wrapper that fell out of somebody’s pocket, but that’s quickly removed by another hiker.  Decency and openness in all of the faces you see.  People who have the gumption to commit to such an exhausting hike, and whose physical bodies – while not necessarily ‘model-skinny’ – are in solid form.  More to the point, it’s an escape from the massed-society of the day-to-day.

In the massed-society, demographics are destiny.  Most folks have auto-objectified themselves, following scripts laid out by cynical marketers, and you can see the same patterns repeating themselves, time and time again, as the masses choose security over freedom.  Security of thought: behave just like everybody else, and nobody can blame you when the whole thing goes belly-up.  A smart attitude if you work for the corporations, but as a philosophy of life?  No wonder we’re in the straights that we’re in.

Massed-society is nothing but sexual/racial politics; it is an internalized Marxist theory where different groups within the society struggle against one another. “Diversity+Proximity=Warfare”, “Feminism is destroying marriage”, and all these other truisms that honest writers write about.  These pervasive social ills which result when the upper class turns away from promoting virtue, and instead seeks out progressive means of exploiting their charges.  The results are the self-hating Whites, the benighted Feminists, the multi-culti Jews, the impoverished Blacks, and all of the other brand-new special interest groups that have been manufactured since this piece was published.  Most people are desperate to find their group, to purchase their identity at Hot Topic, and engage in “political action” which is nihilistic to the core.  As for myself?  I have no interest in joining any political movements, but that hardly matters.  As Pericles said, “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.”

Which is why I find the mountain so refreshing.

Black fathers, Chinese grandmothers, young women, German tourists – on the mountain the group politics melt away.  A better class of people hike up mountains, and the absurdity of the political game stands out for what it is.  You’re surrounded by real, live, thinking Human Beings – not the soulless automatons who predominate in other areas.  Once you’ve climbed the mountain, there’s no need to imagine a better world; for a brief time you’ve lived in it.

This got me to thinking, surrounded by my fellow writers as I was: if we could live in this better world every day – if there weren’t a constant stream of nonsense being transmitted 24/7, if people lived their lives for virtue rather than venal pleasure, if strategic long-term planning predominated over short-term short-sightedness – what would us writers be doing with our time?

I think we would still be writers… but we would no longer be weighed down by the ceaseless idiocy that comes from the chattering classes.

As the Christians like to say, this is a fallen world.  Even if we can envision a better world, we must continue to operate in this one.  This whole article is essentially an attack on the moral degenerates – what might I have written if such creatures didn’t exist? – and yet, it is a good article (I hope).  It’s sad to think about how many man-hours have been spent battling feminism.  Not a waste, exactly – preaching the Truth is never a waste of time – but if we didn’t have to struggle with such caricatures of humanity, what might we have been accomplishing instead?

Go climb a mountain, folks.  The feat itself is its own reward – there’s nothing like the euphoria of conquering such a thing – but the best part is the sense of hope you’ll feel.  Seeing people along the way who are like you, who are morally courageous and loving, who belong in a better world than this one.

This world might be fallen, and yet there are some who walk in the light.

More pictures from the hike.

Davis M.J. Aurini The Group Matt Forney Zion Valley Drop-off Aaron Clarey 2 Aaron Clarey

Leo M.J. Aurini

Trained as a Historian at McMaster University, and as an Infantry soldier in the Canadian Forces, I'm a Scholar, Author, Film Maker, and a God fearing Catholic, who loves women for their illogical nature.

16 Responses

  1. Mark Yuray says:

    Ah, Aurini. Great writing as always. See my blog/twitter banner: you’re not alone at the top of the mountain.

  2. Aurini says:

    @Mark I’ve been enjoying your insights on Russia for a while now.

  3. BatCountry says:

    Dust off those old John Muir books, especially after a climb, and be prepared for an even deeper understanding of everything you just expressed. As an old climber, you hit the mountain experience with another excellent piece of writing.

  4. Jose C Silva says:

    Clearly your PhDs in Photography Theory and Post-Modern Hiking Criticism Studies have all been put to good use. Also, trigger warning for patriarchy and oppressive facial hair.

  5. Calgary Sean says:

    Sweet pics, dude.

  6. ramram says:

    Man, climbing in the leather vest – that’s dedication!

  7. ScareCrow says:

    Excellent site. I will read this more often. Nice pics too by the way. I should post more of my hiking pictures.

  8. Bill Jones says:

    ” a dangerous and challenging jaunt which has killed four people in the past decade.”

    This made me smile: This this gentle little slope, maximum elevation 3500 feet with a train that runs to its summit is more dangerous than Everest,

    http://pixdaus.com/files/items/pics/2/33/257233_65376d6d3a9fb19b421138dd522bf24d_large.jpg

    http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/climbing-snowdon-can-more-dangerous-2066625

  9. LS says:

    Good piece.

  10. Mel Mohler says:

    ahh . . . Angel’s Landing.
    A place where I too have struggled to the top.

    I personally found Zion Canyon more spiritual even than the Grand Canyon itself . . . So I count myself honored to be identified with the “better class”!!
    My contemplation that resulted from my climb – How can one feel so small at the bottom of a huge imposing mountain and feel even smaller at the top of that same grand peak . . . the point is sharp.
    We are small and finite, whether gazing upward or straining to see down into a ravine.

    Oh yes, we pile ourselves diligently measuring one another against ourselves and somehow arrive at a level of personal greatness among the masses, but truly our soul speaks telling us of something or someone beyond ourselves.

    I can’t help but wonder at the truth of a verse from the Old Testament – “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

    and so our quest continues, hopefully to find and know God, a much more noble task than muddling around within our own self, or even some grand political agenda, and might I say, a task which CAN be worked out on a mountain peak such as Angel’s Landing. . .

    Perhaps it’s name is true to it’s experience.
    Mel

  11. Have you read Thus Spoke Zarathustra? He literally talks at length of the mountains and ‘rarefied’ air that most mortals wont understand.

  12. Dorcus Blimline says:

    “but if we didn’t have to struggle with such caricatures of humanity, what might we have been accomplishing instead?”

    Indeed, and that’s part of the reason for all the noise. Prevent accomplishment, thwart progress, and baffle with bs are seemingly the prime directives of the program to return us to serfdom.

    Worse still, it all seems to be working pretty well ….

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  1. May 23, 2014

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