The MountainWorld™ Blog

Thursday Thought: Hegel, MLK, Obama, and the Dalai Lama

I definitely tend toward the left side of the political spectrum, and identify myself more as a Democrat than otherwise. But, I make a conscious effort not to be partisan...I try my best to praise the positive things the "other side" does and accomplishes, and make my voice heard when the leaders I support are, in my estimation, making bad decisions.

This, to me, is the very essence of democracy: The ability - and, in fact, the need - to voice our disagreement with those in power, whether they be friend or foe. As the historian Henry Commager wrote: If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.

So, it was with dismay that I heard President Obama chose not to meet with the Dalai Lama while he was in Washington to accept the Lantos Human Rights Prize. I'm a supporter of Tibet and it's quest for spiritual autonomy, but, even more so, I feel strongly that, for us to be a leader on the world stage, we must be willing to make a stand, to defend our beliefs and our ethics...regardless of the political capital on the table.

Certainly, President Obama felt that a meeting with the Dalai Lama would create friction in US-China relations. It almost certainly would. But, our ethics and beliefs should transcend our short-term priorities. By meeting with the Dalai Lama - which has been done by all sitting US presidents since George H.W. Bush - Obama would have sent a clear message to China, and to the world, that we as a nation believe what we say, stand up for our core values, and have a true desire to make the world a better place for all people.

Today's Thursday Thought offers a little advice on taking a stand to President Obama, and indeed to all of us, from the great minds of Georg Hegel and Martin Luther King, Jr:

To be independent of public opinion is the first condition of achieving anything great.
- G.W.F. Hegel

Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe?
Expediency asks the question: Is it politic?
Vanity asks the question: Is it popular?
But conscience asks the question: Is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular,
but one must take it because it is right.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

And, for those who are interested, here is a video of the Dalai Lama accepting the Lantos Prize on Tuesday:

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Ethics on Everest...and in all our lives.

As any of you who often visit The MountainWorld Blog know, I have written quite a bit about the ethics on Everest...and its greater implications for life off the mountain, for what actions on Everest can and do say about ethics in our society, in our world.

This morning, through Google Alerts, I came across a podcast by Sage on the site Quirky Nomads. The piece, entitled Back to Mount Everest, is entertaining and thought provoking. I encourage all of you to listen to it - you can by clicking here.

I won't transcribe the entire podcast, as it is better listened to with the benefit of Sage's inflection and verse. However, her ending I think is worthy of posting here:

We could all get up today, eat breakfast, go to work, go to school or the living room and - irritable and tired - walk past someone who needs help.

Big help, or small help, or the kind of help you know will take all day...and you've got to pick Katie up from swimming!

Or...we could stop...we could squat down and say: "What can I do? Tell me."

Well put, Sage. The events we have seen unfold over the years on Everest are not unique to the mountain. They are not confined to the oft-selfish pursuit of climbing the high peaks. Sadly, they are everywhere.

From the world's reluctance to get involved in the burgeoning crisis in Darfur to a society which is increasingly disjointed, polarized, people separated from their neighbors, their friends.

As I stress in my keynote presentations, the joy of climbing Everest, of reaching goals, of living life in general does not come from standing on the top. The true joy comes in the journey, the adventure of the climb and the relationships and humanity which stem from it.

When we get too focused on the end goal, on the top at all costs, the summit-or-plummet mentality, we lose the ability "to stop, squat down and say: 'What can I do? Tell me.'"

So a goal for all of us today...and everyday:

Find someone in need. A relative. A friend. A stranger.

Stop your daily business for a moment. Reach out to that person. See what you can do to help them.

They will be thankful for it, and so will you.

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

David Sharp, Everest, ethics, & climbing

Through David Zinger's blog, I came across a great discussion on a great website, the Ethics Scoreboard. This article is insightful, and brings up many essential issues regarding the 2006 death of David Sharp on Everest as well as how we deal with ethical decisions in difficult situations.

I especially enjoyed what the author, Jack Marshall, concluded with:

The significance of the David Sharp tragedy is not that the mountaineers did the wrong thing. Of course they did the wrong thing. Nor is it that they are callous or unethical people, for they are probably no more so than you or I. The importance of the story is that it vividly shows how difficult it can be to make even obvious ethical choices when powerful non-ethical considerations are in our sights. Every one of us has a goal or a dream or a desire that could make us walk by a dying man. It is our responsibility to recognize what those goals, dreams and desires are, and to force ourselves not to forget about right and wrong as we approach them.

How true that is.

So, the big question for us all:

As you ascend your mountain, as you move toward your biggest dream in life, where are you prepared to stop, change direction, and follow your ethical principals instead of the route to the top?

Everest Ethics

I just came across an interesting video on the Forbes website. It is an interview with Everest climber Robert Anderson by Forbes Adventure columnist Jim Clash regarding the tragic deaths and happenings on Everest in May, 2006. Robert, a very accomplished climber, has thoughts on the subject which echo mine from my post - The Ethics of Everest - written back in June. This is certainly a topic which deserves more discussion, and it is nice to see a media outlet as big as Forbes giving some real attention. To see the interview, go to: http://www.forbes.com/video/?video=fvn/adventurer/jc_everest060506

The video was first brought to my attention by EuroClimbing.

Everest Ethics

The Ethics of Everest...

Another Everest season has just come to completion. As usual, it was filled with stories of success and failure, grand achievement and broken records. But, with all the fantastic news coming from the mountain this spring - including Apa Sherpa logging an incredible 16th (yes, SIXTEENTH!) summit -  there were disheartening signs of the changing ethical landscape on the slopes of Everest.

 

In the following article I would like to share with you some of my thoughts about ethics and priorities on the slopes of Everest. I will begin the following with the caveat that I was not on Everest this spring, and thus speak from afar, from a perspective of 20/20 hindsight. But, having been on the mountain 5 times, I feel that even from this perspective I have some insights into the situation.

 

On the evening of May 14 and the morning of the 15th, David Sharp, a 34 year old British climber, lay dying just below the First Step on the Northeast Ridge route. Reports indicate that roughly 40 people walked past him en route to and from the summit. No one stopped to lend the man a hand. No one was willing to sacrifice their summit, their dream, to help a fellow human being.

 

Perhaps there was no possibility of rescue. Perhaps David would have died regardless of assistance from other climbers. Either way, the actions on the mountain this spring beg the question: How much is the summit of Everest worth? Do mountainous goals legitimize the sacrifice of our humanity and compassion?

 

Having had the good fortune to stand on top of the world twice, I can say with certainty to anyone caught in a similar situation in the future: The summit is not worth the sacrifice of one's humanity. Yes, reaching the top is a wonderful experience. But, in the end, the summit is merely a small patch of snow sitting upon a big hunk of rock...and thus is not material for sacrificing humanity.

On the morning of May 7, 2001, my teammates John Race, Tap Richards and I had just begun our summit bids on what was my second expedition to the mountain. En route to Advanced Basecamp, we encountered Tibetan yak herders carrying two injured Chinese glaciologists down the mountain. Both men were suffering from advanced pulmonary and cerebral edema; if left unaided, they would soon die. Our decision was simple: We aborted our summit bid and began the arduous task of carrying two men down the Rongbuk Glacier. I blew out my knee in the rescue, ending my expedition with a resonant POP...but both Mr. Gao and Mr. Li lived to see their families again.

 

Three weeks later, my teammates were going for the summit via the NE Ridge. During the course of their summit bid, they ended up abandoning their summit hopes to rescue 5 people - 3 Siberians, one American, and one Guatemalan. The final rescue took place a mere 45 minutes from the top. Did they hesitate? Not a bit. Again, the tiny patch of snow lying at 29,035 feet is just that...a patch of snow. It will be there next year, and the year after that. And, in the end, standing on it does not change one's life. Reaching out to change the lives of others - no matter how short those lives may last - does.

 

In his famous book Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig writes: To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow. I would add to Pirsig's observations that it is on the sides of the mountain where we grow, not on the top. And, there are times when that growth comes from sacrificing our own goals, dreams, and ambitions to reach out and assist others.

 

We must have goals in our lives, and we must aim for those goals, go after them with everything that we have and everything that we are. But, the important part of our goals is not reaching the end mark, crossing the finish line, but rather the experiences on the sides of our mountains. And, again, sometimes we must let go of Machiavellian ambitions, sacrificing our ambition so that we don't sacrifice our humanity, echoing the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, not politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

- by Jake Norton