Can we still travel? | The duty

Can we still travel? The question may seem absurd, or even naive, when we think of the unbridled enthusiasm with which tourists have returned to vacation, since the authorities lifted the latest restrictions imposed during the pandemic. Let us remember the famous passport crisis, in the summer of 2022, when the Canadian public service was overwhelmed by the unprecedented influx of requests to renew these precious “permits” to travel.

And let’s not forget the summer of 2023, which was one of all records: on July 6, in fact, the all-time record for the number of flights was broken, with more than 134,000 commercial flights were recorded worldwide, in addition to 10,000 private jet flights, which exceeds the previous mark established in 2019. […]

And yet, given the data, the question posed has something of a rhetorical quality to it. Of course, we hear more and more often in conversations and on social networks this kind of guilty admission: “Yes, I know, it’s horrible to take a plane, my carbon footprint has exploded, I’m going to have to take a break, etc. » But such confessions change nothing in reality, a bit as if the recognition of one’s privileges remained essentially performative.

Because in reality, there is no question of giving up anything. Our love of travel feeds a bad conscience, a facade of guilt, which must be reactivated before leaving as well as after returning, in order to observe a ritual form of penance. This bad conscience is a social trick: it allows us to recognize a fault… which we intend to commit again.

But the question of travel is actually more complicated. Because in a world placed under high surveillance by billions of cameras, crisscrossed by countless satellites which communicate with each other and with our devices, a world whose every corner has been cataloged and recorded by Google Earth and Google Street View, where the The same major channels, the same stars and trends, the same news and the same speeches reproduce themselves and triumph almost unchallenged, one can wonder if it is still possible to experience a real change of scenery.

Is the journey really the journey or the simple illusion of a journey? Is it still possible to measure ourselves against the unknown, to experience a shock, aesthetic and human, which upsets our bearings, or are we called to move outside of all otherness, within the great Same?

Obviously, tourist travel no longer has anything to do today with the great explorations of yesteryear, and it is difficult to see how we could – like Marco Polo, Jacques Cartier or Tocqueville in their time – create a story that interests anyone, apart from the few parents and friends who have the patience to look, one by one, at the photos that we have brought back.

Most often, travelers evolve within artificial circuits prepared for them, they form with other travelers a distinct community, a sort of tourist class, which follows precise itineraries, travels from “unmissable” places to “must-see” monuments. not to be missed” (say the travel guides), cross a series of non-places, so many spaces of transit and consumption designed on the same model – airports, train stations and shopping centers, the same everywhere.

Travelers eat food adapted to their taste, often the same as in their country of origin, live in areas that communicate relatively little with the rest of the country, areas deserted by locals, and that the travel industry s However, he uses it to be presented as “typical” and “picturesque”. When traveling, contact with the local population is rare, and is sometimes based on misunderstandings: members of the staff employed to serve travelers, in restaurants, taxis, hotels and airports are often displaced persons themselves, migrant workers or stateless people who have few links with national life, and who nevertheless have the responsibility of representing it. These are “tourists”, located at the bottom of the chain, who are asked to serve other tourists.

Of course, we can still strive to get off the beaten track, go in search of the most unexpected destinations, do everything we can to connect with people from the country visited, discover the history and current events of the territory, adopt the customs of its inhabitants, learn the language and practice it, even if these heroic efforts risk deceiving no one.

And perhaps it is appropriate, to do this, to refuse the condition of tourist, who knows in advance what he wants to see at the same time as he accepts to let himself be led stupidly from one point to another , to embrace the condition of a traveler, capable of letting oneself be moved by the unexpected and seeing one’s plans turned upside down, to the point, who knows, of experiencing love at first sight and choosing to make the country visited one’s new home […].

But perhaps it is appropriate above all, in this world in flames and going up in smoke, to reconnect with the old ideal of rootedness, to rediscover the charms of the “nearby country” (Nepveu), to recognize that the most beautiful trips are those that we make around our home.

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