I also followed the Abby Sunderland case, the 16 year old American, lost and found in the Indian Ocean. The whole obsession with setting records and exploration of the whole world in a sort of neo-colonial quest were highly disturbing in the whole case.
Sungold from Kittywampus writes a
thoughtful article called "The Perils of Abby Sunderland: The Problem Isn’t Lax Parenting, It’s the Romance of Risk".
Setting records is addressed in these terms:
"the desire to set records – to push one’s body beyond its healthy boundaries – to embrace risk just for its own sake. Sailing solo around the globe makes as much sense to me as playing chicken with a train, or drag racing on the freeway.
But drag racing and playing chicken are the desperate sports of poor kids. Setting records is the province of the privileged. The assumption is that no effort will be spared in trying to save you, if your boat runs awry.
Every time an extreme athlete runs into trouble, massive resources are deployed to rescue him or her. Clueless skiers go into the Sierra backcountry and get stranded in a blizzard. Mountain climbers underestimate the danger of avalanche. Solo pilots fly into oblivion. The “resources” deployed aren’t just financial; human beings often risk their own necks in hopes of saving a life.
Just to underscore how much this is a function of privilege: In the last several days, tens of thousands of children have died of preventable disease: malnutrition, dysentery, malaria, typhus, etc. ad nauseam. How many could be saved with the money spent on rescuing people (children and adults) who – from a place of tremendous economic privilege – challenge themselves to break records, or simply assume that they will be “safe” in the wild because their lives have always been safe?"
Setting records is closely related to another element of this dramatic case: the desire to explore. Young Westerners are on a quest of self-discovery where the world is their oyster and their discursive tool is imperialism. You can find them all over Eastern Europe in a constant search to re-confirm their white middle-class neo-colonial privilege. Do global tourism and adventure still function as a form of knowledge? Sungold doesn't think so and we are in the same boat on this one:
"Once upon a time, parts of the globe were untouched by human exploration. Perhaps the urge to explore was extraordinarily adaptive a few million years ago – even a century ago. Today? We’d be wise to ask when exploration and adventure truly serve human knowledge, and when they’re only yoked to ego."
With the minor adjustment that I don't see how human exploration was ever a necessity, besides imposing capitalism in remote parts of the Western world and fulfilling the pathological narcissism of the Western male. Now young American women continue the pattern of imperialism and get lost at the ocean. But there is always someone to save them and they continue their trip to success while journalists write heart-warming stories about courageous young ladies...
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