I'm sure many members of our class wondered what life would be like living in a bus in the woods after reading Into The Wild. What food would you eat? Would you miss home? Would you find your inner self in the woods? The artifacts that McCandless left behind give us an idea of how he answered these questions. Throughout the book, McCandless tosses aside arbitrary systems such as government and the job force and moves to a patch of land in Alaska void of human life. Many people in America also struggle with the balance of freedom and control, as well as work and relaxation. McCandless visists a place called Slab City in into the wild, and I wanted to learn more about it. Libertarians believe that America should have as little intervention from government as possible, where as more conservatives and democrats believe that Government should control some facets of life. At Slab City, however, the mere notion of a governing body is completely destroyed. The inhabitants of Slab City refer to their home as "The Last Free Place in America". There are no schools, hospitals, or actual buildings. For a nice five minute summary of the city, the video from Subculture Club creates a pretty picture. At 3:00, two people even mention the inspiration for traveling there was the movie adaptation of Into The Wild!
Most residents live in small trailers or rickety homemade structures, as shown in Vice's documentation of the society:
The most interesting part of this video is seeing how these people interact with each other. Slab City is like McCandless' vision taken to epic proportions. The people in this city moved there to escape the social stigmas in American society. Taking a line from the introductory video, its "A place where people can simply exist". This, however, doesn't seem to be the case in Vice's take on the city. At 5:00 they profile a man who owns two incredibly poisonous snakes and discusses how to survive in slab city. He describes that in a desperate situation he would "eat that sunnabitch [his snake]" and "eat that man's butt... because a man's butt has more meat to it". I though this man was definitely deranged when watching him talk, but he did bring up a point. In lawless societies like this, what happens when food or water suddenly runs out? Who will be murdered in the struggle for survival? America may have restrictions on some aspects of life, but one thing that our government makes sure of is having a stable food and water supply.
Later in the video, some members of Slab City go down to the hot springs, not unlike those in the first part of Into The Wild, to drink some sodas. A nicer view of the society is shown here, just some friends having a good time. The party ends soon, though, when one of the people being profiled leaves and drives to get some crystal meth from town. There is no law enforcement to stop the production of meth, no hospital to cure the side effects of meth, no rehab clinic to cure the addiction of meth. It's pitfalls like these that make me doubt the validity of a city like Slab City. But what do you think? Would you be able to live in Slab City? Could this societal model be implemented at a larger scale? Lemme know in da comments!
Safe of dangerous, enlightening or frightening, there is only one thing certain of Slab City: the people there sure know how to party hard.
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| Slab City Resident Showing his moves |
Jake, Interesting and range-y blogging this quarter. I must say it's a bit of a surprise that you've picked your first post of the year as the one you are most proud of. What have you learned since then? This one is interesting and a nice extension of Into the Wild, but it's rather long and digressive as well, You rely on the supporting videos and self-promotional material from SC without really analyzing that material critically, however.
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