However, one of the things that I see in our use of wilderness is hat it is often constructed negatively. What I mean is that our leisure use of nature is defined as much if not more b what it is not than by what it is. The wilderness reserve is a reaction against society, but a the same time the very constructedness of Yosemite indicates, I think, a reluctance to totally abandon society. Purists hate having guides because they impose society, not because they have implications about our own competence in a wilderness setting. Cars are problematic because within our culture they imply a watcher, an enforced society.
Buses are even worse, as they complicate the flight from society.
Even in the wilderness you are forced into the society of passengers, or forced to struggle to free yourself from that society. I believe that this is an interesting concept, and can be interpreted on multiple levels. On one level, the concept can be analyzed in terms of culture. As human beings, our surroundings have an enormous influence on us. We are products of our society, and we become our surroundings, in a sense.