| "Why would he take a map?" This is like asking why a parachuter would need to bother to pack their shoot correctly before going on a jump. Or why a race car driver would bother to wear a seat belt. 'Having a map' might be the #1 thing he could do to ensure his survival, as he probably would have been able to walk out were he to have done this. He apparently was not suicidal, and probably didn't intend on dying. His 'preparations' were not really 'preparations' so much as they were the actions of a stupid, glib or over-confident fool thinking that he was prepared. He literally turned down the offer of 'reasonable gear' from someone thinking that he wanted to have a more 'natural experience'. "Hey maybe you ought to wear a seatbelt of you're going to go for the land speed record" "No thanks, I'm good, I want it to be more 'natural'" This is the framing point of stupidity: mountain climbers, BASE jumpers, race car drivers take risks of course, but they're not stupid about it. The risks make sense in the context of what they are doing. This is not the story of a man seeking enlightenment, it's about an otherwise entitled moron (not many kids have big college funds to 'give away') who stupidly and unnecessarily died. "Let's give away money and go play on the highway" is what the book should have been called. |