Maine Hermit Captured

I always thought it interesting for us to expect a crazy person to act normal--whatever that really is.

franco b wrote:He was still living off the labor of others by stealing.
I don't think he had much freedom in a Maine winter other than to freeze to death with a few feet of snow all around him.

There is a sense of wonder about him for keeping it up for 27 years, but the wonder is how can someone be that idiotic?

Good post.

freetown fred wrote:I always thought it interesting for us to expect a crazy person to act normal--whatever that really is.

In one sentence Fred has gone to the root of the thing. To this man normal behaviour was crazy. At the very least the need to socialize which most of us have to a greater or lesser degree is absent in him. He wants and needs the fruits and benefits of the social group without belonging to it. Historical normal behaviour would be to just kill him or banish him which would also be a death sentence except for that very rare individual who could survive and then be looked on as a holy man. A man who can transcend the normal. That's a view that some will take and is what Don was warning against.

To form groups is an instinct and genetic imperative with us and we do it in spades, forming groups within groups, within groups. Our family, our clan, our race, our town, our country, our political party, our sports team. even the fuel we burn as is evident with this forum.

There is constant rivalry between groups and within groups and if the group turns to violence we call it a gang, when nations do it, it is war. Both are perfectly normal human behaviors.

Never to be forgotten though is the most basic dictum of all and that is to still be an individual regardless of group. We see that need all the time in long hair, or strange dress, or tattoos, or maybe an earring, or long beard. When expressed as an ideology things can then get dangerous, especially when that ideology threatens individualism as communism or some religions do. Conformity can go only so far before trouble erupts.

Have I gotten off topic ? I hope not since that is how the topic appears to me and have tried to see it as an ethologist would, to the best of my own understanding of that science.

To expound of FF's observation I noted in the GQ story the Maine Hermit mentioned he had NO FRIENDS in school. It was at this critical point in his adolescence that his future life was probably framed to be a social outcast. The "needing to belong" is in our DNA and the extends outside of the family dynamic as well and he didn't seem to be very close with his relatives either. In some ways society is probably lucky he turned somewhat "inward" on himself and not completely outward on society. The results of that scenario very well could have been bloody.

I think this has been a very good post.

I always hate it on news talk shows when they are trying to figure out why some "crazy" person did what they did. The answer to that is that there is no logical answer. If the person would have been thinking logically, or normally, they wouldnt have done what they did. It doesnt make it right, its not a very good excuse, but its a reason that they did it.

Our hermit was not thinking normally as no normal person would move into the woods for 27 years. Somehow, in his mind, it was ok to steal to live. It was not the right decision, but he was not thinking right either. Amazing story.

warminmn wrote:I think this has been a very good post.

I always hate it on news talk shows when they are trying to figure out why some "crazy" person did what they did. The answer to that is that there is no logical answer. If the person would have been thinking logically, or normally, they wouldnt have done what they did. It doesnt make it right, its not a very good excuse, but its a reason that they did it.

Our hermit was not thinking normally as no normal person would move into the woods for 27 years. Somehow, in his mind, it was ok to steal to live. It was not the right decision, but he was not thinking right either. Amazing story.

That's why they have exit polls ... to try to figure it all out ...

Crazy is what crazy does.

I'll buy that. I get the feeling you're quite knowledgeable in that area.

Aside from media.. This entire thread has been a great learning curve for me....thanks to all.

franco b wrote:The greater question is, what impels a person to endure a Maine winter out in the woods? The man himself of course answered the question when he said "I was content". The implications of that will of course be ignored and lost in the jargon of some quack with a PHD after his name. We settle for institutionalized ignorance that can at least supply a label. The metaphysics or first cause of a thing is too scary a place to go.

There have been many like him. This was a good read of the life of another famous hermit here in northern NYS. .http://noahjohnrondeau.com/

A few years later I understood much of what he talks about in that book, when I got to spend quite a bit of winter hunting time in the eastern Adirondacks. There's a special peaceful, and extremely quite, quality to the woods at times like that. Both during the day and at night. Even more so on windless nights when it gets below freezing.

If dressed for the cold and the body has had enough time to get used to the cold so that it can ramp up it's metabolism as the days get colder, he probably didn't have it as bad as many who live north of the artic circle year round.

As tough as that may be for some of us to understand after being spoiled by winters spent near coal stoves.

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote:

franco b wrote:The greater question is, what impels a person to endure a Maine winter out in the woods? The man himself of course answered the question when he said "I was content". The implications of that will of course be ignored and lost in the jargon of some quack with a PHD after his name. We settle for institutionalized ignorance that can at least supply a label. The metaphysics or first cause of a thing is too scary a place to go.

There have been many like him. This was a good read of the life of another famous hermit here in northern NYS. .http://noahjohnrondeau.com/

A few years later I understood much of what he talks about in that book, when I got to spend quite a bit of winter hunting time in the eastern Adirondacks. There's a special peaceful, and extremely quite, quality to the woods at times like that. Both during the day and at night. Even more so on windless nights when it gets below freezing.

If dressed for the cold and the body has had enough time to get used to the cold so that it can ramp up it's metabolism as the days get colder, he probably didn't have it as bad as many who live north of the artic circle year round.

As tough as that may be for some of us to understand after being spoiled by winters spent near coal stoves.

Paul

I used to work outside all the time, I Know where you are coming from. I was that way.

Truck driving ruined me though. Being in a climate controlled environment for years on end made it so that heat, as well as cold bothers me.

Yup, I moved upstate after 40 years living in the mild climate of Long Island's south shore. Had to rebuild the barn/carriage house that is my shop. Worked outdoors through a couple of the worst winters around here. As the cold weather set in, I'd have fingers turn blue because of no circulation. I'd have to go inside and run warm water over them as I massaged blood back into them.

After a few months that didn't happen anymore. By the second winter, I thought nothing of working in the cold. I screwed down the plywood flooring over the radiant heat pipes when it was only 10 degrees in the shop. So cold a screw gun wouldn't work. I had to use my butterfly impact gun with straight auto anti-freeze for lube in it and the Bostic nail gun and to keep them from getting gummed up with ice. About once a week, I had to blow out the pressure regulators, filters, and air lines with denatured alcohol to clear those of any ice.

Otherwise the weather didn't bother me because I had months to get acclimated to it.

Paul

I used to work outside all the time, I Know where you are coming from. I was that way.

Truck driving ruined me though. Being in a climate controlled environment for years on end made it so that heat, as well as cold bothers me.[/quote]

I have lots of respect for truck drivers. ...I couldn't do it myself because my patience would run short with the others on the road