Philosopher of walking: Who is Erling Kagge?
The first explorer who wrote in his books, "We can all carry our home on our backs - everything we have is within us" and who set foot on all 3 points of the world - the North Pole, the South Pole, and the Summit of Everest.
Kagge is a Norwegian explorer and broadcaster. In the early 90s, he first went to the North Pole and then to the South Pole alone. In 1994, he climbed Everest and became the first explorer to walk to all three poles in the world. “Silence in the Age of Noise” is one of his books that is filtered and written down from all these experiences of loneliness and silence.
Kagge says that a person must first seek silence within himself and that he can achieve this silence no matter how many sounds there are around him. But this silence is not synonymous with some kind of serenity or inner peace. “The natural state of the brain is chaos” according to Kagge. "Although we put our brains on automatic pilot while pursuing our daily routine, when we step out of this routine and stay alone with ourselves in the silence of a room, that's when the chaos in our brain emerges."
Erling Kagge (born January 15, 1963) is a Norwegian explorer, publisher, author, lawyer, art collector, entrepreneur and politician. He is the second person (after David Hempleman-Adams) to complete a full Explorer's Grand Slam. Kagge's five most recent books are Manhattan Underground, A Poor Collectors Guide to Buying Great Art, Silence in the Age of Noise, Walking – One Step at a Time and Philosophy for Polar Explorers. Kagge's book Silence: In the Age of Noise was broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in January 2019. The Guardian named it one of the top ten books on silence.
“We became the beings we are today because of walking, walking is what makes us who we are, so when we stop walking we will probably become something else,” Kagge says. According to the author, "the most dangerous job" we have learned in our lives is walking. Exploring, the formation of personality, and acting to find are all connected with this. This is actually what turns humans into Homo Sapiens: A person who walks lights a fire, cooks, and then learns the language... Kagge establishes a walking-language connection in this chapter: "Life is one long walk. The languages created by people reflect this idea."
They asked Erling Kagge, "How did you walk to the South Pole?" He said, “First I put one foot forward, then the other. "When you repeat this enough, you can reach any pole you want in the world," he said. There is a great truth hidden in this seemingly simple answer.