"Travel, which was once either a necessity or an adventure, has become very largely a commodity, and from all sides we are persuaded into thinking that it is a social requirement, too"
About this Quote
Morris pins modern travel to the peg it hates most: the marketplace. The line starts with a crisp before-and-after that feels almost mournful. “Once either a necessity or an adventure” evokes movement with stakes: migration, war, work, pilgrimage, the risky, self-remaking kind of leaving. Then comes the downgrade, delivered with bureaucratic chill: “very largely a commodity.” Not “a pleasure,” not even “an industry” - a commodity, interchangeable and standardized, something you buy like detergent.
The sharpest turn is the passive voice: “we are persuaded into thinking.” Morris is aiming at the machinery that sells travel not as experience but as identity. Advertising, airline loyalty programs, glossy magazines, and now the social feed all whisper the same script: if you’re not going, you’re falling behind. Travel gets recast as moral and social capital, proof you’re curious, worldly, interesting, employable. The phrase “social requirement” is the tell; it’s not about seeing the world, it’s about being seen seeing it.
Context matters: Morris built a career on travel writing that treated place as texture, politics, and atmosphere - not a checklist. Coming from that tradition, this is a warning about what gets lost when the journey is packaged into frictionless “experiences” and measured in photos, miles, and bragging rights. The subtext isn’t anti-travel; it’s anti-coercion. Morris is defending the possibility that staying put can be a choice, and that going somewhere should still mean something other than consuming it.
The sharpest turn is the passive voice: “we are persuaded into thinking.” Morris is aiming at the machinery that sells travel not as experience but as identity. Advertising, airline loyalty programs, glossy magazines, and now the social feed all whisper the same script: if you’re not going, you’re falling behind. Travel gets recast as moral and social capital, proof you’re curious, worldly, interesting, employable. The phrase “social requirement” is the tell; it’s not about seeing the world, it’s about being seen seeing it.
Context matters: Morris built a career on travel writing that treated place as texture, politics, and atmosphere - not a checklist. Coming from that tradition, this is a warning about what gets lost when the journey is packaged into frictionless “experiences” and measured in photos, miles, and bragging rights. The subtext isn’t anti-travel; it’s anti-coercion. Morris is defending the possibility that staying put can be a choice, and that going somewhere should still mean something other than consuming it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Travel |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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