I was recently thinking about a conversation my dad and I had (more like a mildly tense debate) in the car a long time ago about Chris McCandless.  And if there is anything I wholeheartedly believe in, it is Chris' philosophy and the purpose behind his self-sacrificing hegira.  My dad's opinion, in tune with the majority of people's, was that Chris was a distraught outcast who embarked on a journey of cowardice to escape the blights of mainstream society.  So maybe his odyssey was an escape, of sorts.  But, honestly...who can blame Chris?  Here is a man relinquishing himself to the perils of nature, simply in quest of inner contemplation.  He sought a means towards obtaining clarity amidst a world that, as he thought, amounted to empty materialism (inject your own opinions about that here...).  Behind the mask we all wear that conforms us to the mainstream, isn't that what our subconscious impels us to seek - simplicity and freedom from conformity?  These renowned figures professed the same ideal:

*Ghandi ("Live simply that others may live.")
*Thoreau ("Our life is frittered away by detail...simplify, simplify.")
*Lennon ("I'm not going to change the way I look or feel to conform to anything.  I've always been a freak and I have to live with that, you know, I'm one of those people.")
*Amiel ("Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.")  <-- Ok, so he's an unknown, but this was a really good quote for my case.

     Simplicity is an essential ideal our society needs to grasp.  I think it's safe to say that our world does mostly revolve around an axis of consumerism, while the minority suffer in mild to extreme forms of poverty.  So I understand Chris' message.  He dreamed of an ideal world, one in which man was man, stripped of titles, honors, and materials, possessing only his intrinsic and genuine self.  You have to admit, he's right.  After all, this message is a variation of exactly what visionaries, Platonists, and transcendentalists alike have been trying to orate throughout the ages.

     Although I fully support Chris McCandless' view on mainstream society for the most part, I think where he does lose kudos is in his faith in mankind.  For all of you who think Chris was a psycho, I will give you this: the way he chose to deal with society was to not only rise above it, but condemn it.  Chris was a true Thoreauvian seeking to right the wrongs of the world, but he failed to recognize the inherent good within mankind.  Sure, people get caught up in fashion, things, and "Corporate America"; and although it may seem like those sorts of things dominate that person's life, they don't dictate that person's true character.  All people truly are good underneath it all - we just live in a world where conformity equates to survival of the fittest.