Macartney-Snape defends exploration of the mind
Taking the stand today in his defamation action against the ABC, Everest mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape reflected on how his support for biologist and fellow plaintiff Jeremy Griffith’s explanation of the human condition evolved.
He told the Court how his upbringing, education and climbing achievements each contributed to his interest in understanding human nature.
Prior to scaling many of the world’s highest peaks, feats for which he was twice awarded the Order of Australia, Mr Macartney-Snape studied biology at the Australian National University.
“I started to read thinkers like Arthur Koestler, Carl Jung, Laurens van der Post and others. I’d always had a fascination with palaeontology. Not far from where I had grown up [in Africa], there was an archaeological site and my father knew the palaeontologist Louis Leakey,” he said.
The Court heard how Mr Macartney-Snape first met with Mr Griffith and discussed his ideas on the human condition at a social function in 1987.
“We started talking about the origins of consciousness, a subject that had always interested me. Apart from that I liked him. He’s a forthright and likeable person,” he said.
Mr Macartney-Snape described how his fascination in and support for Griffith’s work grew over the ensuing years. He recounted how he placed the FHA’s flag on the summit of Mt Everest during his historic second ascent of the mountain in 1990 and how he later wrote the foreword for Mr Griffith’s second book Beyond The Human Condition.
In discussing the profundity of Mr Griffith’s work, Mr Macartney-Snape emphasised that “the human condition is a very very difficult subject to engage in,” citing poet Gerald Manly Hopkins, “O the mind, the mind hath mountains, cliffs of fall, frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed.”
“We are born into the world expecting ideal conditions and when we don’t see those ideals, and we can’t live up to the ideals, gradually over time we resign and discover the world doesn’t want to talk about it. We then use the most powerful psychological tool available to us, we use denial to block out those ideals,” Mr Macartney-Snape added.
“I know about denial as a climber, and we use it in mountaineering to get through painful suffering, yet Mr Griffith has wandered in there and in my view, and those of us who support his work, he has safely explained for us all that we are fundamentally good.”
Mr Macartney-Snape spoke of the influence of Sir James Darling, former headmaster of Geelong Grammar School, which both he and Mr Griffith attended as students. “It goes back to one man, Sir James Darling, headmaster at the school for a very long time. His writing, mainly from speeches, was influential in confirming for Jeremy, and in turn for me, the validity in uncovering a new paradigm.”
Evidence from Mr Macartney-Snape will continue tomorrow.
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For further information about Tim Macartney-Snape, view his biography at www.humancondition.com/tms.
Read/Print a short speech by Sir James Darling, former headmaster of Geelong Grammar School and former Chairman of the ABC at www.humancondition.com/darlingspeech.
