28 August 2008
Everyone (here in Holland) travels. There is nowadays almost an 'ought to'; when you have spare time, you ought to experience new places, new cultures and new things to do. People are surprised when I tell them that I am not going anywhere this summer. Now I would be stupid saying that travelling is too consumptive, too wasteful or whatnot. I do think that this obligation to travel means something. There are many people that travel for simple relaxation, in which case the journey is a sign that their home is connected with stress. This is a depressive sign, beaches in Turkey full with people who simply want to be away from home, instead of wanting to be there, it could be anywhere else as long as it does not resemble home. This is sad. A beach full of exposed unhappiness, there under the sun, with a cocktail. Then there are those people who are experience addicts, who want to 'live life to the fullest' and crave for intense experiences, adventures and cultural variety. In this case, travelling is a sign of nihilism, cultural relativism and capitalism; these travellers need more and more new experiences, want to collect nice memories before they die and, of course, cultures must all be equally good, so there is more goodness out there. To my sense, there is hardly any meaning in this seemingly 'interested' travelling; merely a superficial conception of learning, of finding one's 'soul' in India. In general it often seems people want to see beautiful things because of a certain emptiness. In any case, all of it shows how fast we get stuck, how fast we give into the (social) obligations and fixed perspectives from which we then want to run away. It is so human, we consume our homes and need to go somewhere else for a little more freedom. Thus I find travelling a little depressive at the moment, seeing in it mass neuroses and cultural meloncholia. And this realization killed my need to go anywhere. Soon I will move again to another country, so I better experience the homely life 'to the fullest', more of an healthy adventure than anything else when I think about it...
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