“Two drifters, off to see the world, there’s such a lot of world to see…”

MOTUS A.D. ^ | 8-14-48 | MOTUS

[NOBO2012]

On August 7, the New York Times ran a story by Rukmini Callimachi about Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, a young American couple, both graduates of Georgetown University, who decided to quit their humdrum office jobs and go on an epic bike ride and camping trip that would take them all over the world. “I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige,” Austin wrote. “I’ve missed too many sunsets while my back was turned.” - PJMedia

Thus wrote Jay Austin who, along with his girlfriend Lauren Geoghegan, quit their jobs in July of 2017 and set out on a round-the-world bicycle trip. They had many adventures across Africa, Europe, Turkey, Greece and Kazakhstan before landing in Tajikistan. Austin kept a blog along their route that reads like a social justice warriors guidebook.

“You read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place,” Mr. Austin wrote. “People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil.

“I don’t buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own … By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.” - PJMedia

There, on day 369 of their trip their were run down and stabbed along with 2 other cyclists by  5 men in a car who swore allegiance to ISIS and promised to kill all “disbelievers.” I suppose you could say that they were myopic and self-interested but clearly they held values and beliefs and perspective different from the group of western cyclists they mowed down. That’s the point, Evil is real. It cannot be reasoned with or wished away. Ignore it at your great peril. As stated in the PJMedia article: “Their naivete is nothing less than breathtaking.” Austin’s worldview was summed up in his blog:

“with...vulnerability comes immense generosity: good folks who will recognize your helplessness and recognize that you need assistance in one form or another and offer it in spades.”

The moral of the story? From the article (read the whole thing):

In the last analysis, it's a story about two young people who, like many other privileged members of their generation of Americans, went to a supposedly top-notch university only to come away poorly educated but heavily propagandized – imbued with a fashionable postmodern contempt for Western civilization and a readiness to idealize and sentimentalize “the other” (especially when the latter is decidedly uncivilized). This, ultimately, was their tragedy: taking for granted American freedom, prosperity, and security, they dismissed these extraordinary blessings as boring, banal, and (in Austin's word) “beige,” and set off, with the starry-eyed and suicidal naivete of children who never entirely grew up, on a child's fairy-tale adventure into the most perilous parts of the planet. Far from being inspirational, theirs is a profoundly cautionary – and distinctly timely – tale that every American, parents especially, should take to heart.

Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

[TADSLOS]

Well, their self loathing and contempt for the very civilization that provided so much and offered them the choice to go bike in Indian country got them killed.

Stupid is as stupid does.

The End.

[hal ogen]

LIBeralism murders everything it touches one way or another. Oh, well...

[Thommas]

Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own …

The 'last analysis' paragraph puts the lie to this SJW's confused mind set.

[rlmorel]

Exactly. That was my first thought, but when I began reading and saw that quote about evil being a “construct” and nothing more...well, I knew all about their approach.

Also, he quit his job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Either he was earning big bucks on the government dime, or he came from money. Ah. He went to Georgetown, then seven years after graduation, working a government job, paid his student loans off and had enough money to quit his job and go on a worldwide bike tour.

Assuming he had student loans, which for Georgetown, would not be insignificant.

Those HUD jobs must pay well, for all that difficult teleconferencing and password changing (from the article)

I take no joy in their demise, but it is a signal lesson for leftists, that they will be sure to ignore.

[PAR35]

A pair of Darwin Award winners.

[rlmorel]

I found myself getting angry as I read the article. I felt anger at the waste and needless loss of life.

I have a degree of sympathy for ignorant stupidity, as some people just don’t have commonsense in them, and aren’t educated enough to even approach compensating for that lack. We see that in all sides politically, and in all stripes of life.

These people, well...it wasn’t ignorant stupidty, it was intentional, in-your-face stupidity, the kind that is rampant in Leftists.

It is the same feeling I get when I see a story about some dumb ass tourist trampled by a Bison because they wanted to show that if they treat wild animals with respect and gentleness, they will be as mild as a lamb. Those idiots don’t know that treating them with respect means standing 50 yards away and having a place to climb or run to if needed.

As another poster said above...I guess they showed us.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Social Darwinism...

[mountn man]

Bears are great, wonderful expressions of nature and God’s creation, but if you meet a Grizzy in its habitat, you best meet it with your eyes wide open and prepared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbE53XUtVw0

[snoringbear]

“A lot of fresh college graduates take a year to see the world while they are still young before embarking on their careers. It’s not a bad idea - the young can experience travel in a way retirees will never be able to. But taking some common-sense precautions is a good idea, and pretending that all people everywhere are well-intentioned is a bad idea.”

I’m guessing they’re still burning student loan money. Money that eventually we the tax payers will have to pay off....

[robel]

Missing the comments from their leftist professors.

[deport]

Nothing that hasn’t been done many times over the evolution of history.

[Huskrrrr]

“..good folks who will recognize your helplessness and recognize that you need assistance in one form or another and offer it in spades.”

Maybe, but it takes only one rotten apple to ruin your day.

[Oldexpat]

These kids who get an expensive privileged education aren’t owed a year or two off to explore the world. In fact they owe the rest of society some hard work and contribution. Just think of the 95% of Americans who can’t afford the luxury of a year or two off. We had generations of Americans who had a legal obligation to the country and sometimes paid with their lives. Fortunately those two were not kidnapped and require ransome or rescue to get out of some shit hole.

[rlmorel]

Wow. If you look at the way the wind was blowing, I wonder if the fact that the bear might not have gotten his scent, and he was perfectly still might have made the difference.

I saw a firearm there, but if anything had happened, it would have been useless if not in his hands.

Just wow. Bear was in a good mood that day.

[Dilbert San Diego]

yes, I’m very sad to read this, but, hope it serves as a warning to other naive liberal young people.

[wbill]

Mrs WBill had a roommate in college who was young, pretty, family was well-off, friendly, naïve, and dumb as a box of rocks.

One day, she came home and announced that she was travelling to the Middle East to "Help Orphaned Children". By herself. With no plan. No one waiting to meet her. No guide, and not speaking any Arabic languages.

Just her good looks, charming naivety, and her parents' money. What could go wrong?

A noble thought, to be sure, but one destined to end in certain disaster. Reason wouldn't work. Mrs WBill and her other roommates could not talk her out of it. Parents/family were called and flew in to dissuade her (as a last resort), things got ugly quickly, and she moved out.

We heard later that she wound up living in some sort of communal arrangement in Vermont. But, at least she was still living.

[Bratch]

"Moon River"

music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer

 Hear Audrey Hepburn sing "Moon River" (a .MP3 file).

---

Moon River, wider than a mile, 
I'm crossing you in style some day. 

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker, 
wherever you're going I'm going your way. 

Two drifters off to see the world. 
There's such a lot of world to see. 

We're after the same rainbow's end-- 

waiting 'round the bend, 

my huckleberry friend, 

Moon River and me.

© 1961 Paramount Music Corporation, ASCAP

---

 

[Lurkinanloomin]

Someone should have told them to avoid the muslim parts of the world.

It’s not safe for infidels.

[Thommas]

“I don’t buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own … By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.”

Two vegan SJWs, insulated by parents and schools and the media and their fellow travelers, ignoring any possible advise from bitter, clinger Neanderthals in flyover country, take on the world on their terms. The full article enunciates the stupidity of these Darwin award winners as they stumbled from one warning signal to another that they should turn back. They thought they knew better. Any one on FR knows/knew they did not.

[blu]

GAH!!! I read the article.

I am amazed at how many of you are making comments and judgment calls

AND YOU HAVEN'T EVEN READ THE ARTICLE!

So you don't know that these two crazy kids died.

So for all of you who wished them ill, congrats, your wish was granted.

This post is not so much about the crazy kids as it is about people opening their mouths without their brain engaged. (I am triggered by posters responding to a post without actually reading the whole darn thing).

And for the record, yes, these kids were stupid and naive and misguided. They fought the world and the world won.