24 FOREST OUTINGS 



soothed by wearing a dirty shirt, tramping lonely trails, and going without 

 shaving or tinting our fingernails for a day or so — well, that would seem a 

 rather harmless way of trying to get another revolution out of our systems. 



Modern life and urban life in particular enforces insistent and ines- 

 capable discipline upon the individual. Social customs, job, family, the 

 group, and the church all demand compliance to codes. Many of these rules 

 are irksome. Some of them run counter to human nature. Often man is 

 forced into a pattern of behavior that makes him an indistinguishable mem- 

 ber of a band. This may tend in the course of time to subdue his pride and 

 his sense of importance. 



A man must learn to live with himself before living with others. He 

 feels that this loss of the sense of an individual significance is not good, 

 either for himself or for society, and he gropes for means to recapture what 

 he has lost. 



Many forms of urban entertainment enable a man "to get out of him- 

 self," and often they allow him to identify himself vicariously, by feats of 

 personal imagination, with heroic or striking and successful personalities. 

 The theatre, the movie, athletic sports and spectacles, romantic novels, 

 and group organizations momentarily may restore his esteem of himself. 

 But vicarious participation in the triumphs of others cannot for most natures 

 forever be a substitute for active participation and actual personal triumphs. 



So there are a large group of games and activities possible in urban 

 environment designed to give modern man a chance to excel in himself. 

 He may play at golf, at tennis, at cards, at squash, at swimming and fancy 

 diving. But in all these pursuits, he is hopelessly outclassed by the publicized 

 expert. 



The more active of all such games afford needed physical exercise, and 

 a momentary psychic relief. But there remains still the need to get out of 

 the city, to "fall out" of ranks, as army sergeants command, if only for a 

 day or two, or even for an hour's drive in the car. The urgency of this need 

 is evident to anyone who has to drive in week-end traffic around our greater 

 cities. Even where the gas fumes, billboards, and hot-dog stands are thickest, 

 the people in their millions seek a change of scene and air. Modern man 

 most desperately seeks escape. He drives hard, when no policeman is near, 



