I've been aware of the Almost Wild Substack, but I'm afraid I haven't followed it carefully. I was surprised that it actually goes back to 2018 - long before I got started with Substack. I've now taken a quick look at it, and there's one recent post on Millennials and naturism, and another from 2018. There are some very good points in those posts. Timothy raises important issues, such as what causes young people to avoid naturist places. Are naturist places and naturism in general important factors, or should Millennials themselves take some responsibility? Like most other social issues this one is very complex.

Two of Timothy's posts that seem most pertinent to the topic: "Millennial Killed the Nudist Club" (from 2018) and "Millennial Killed the Nudist Club: Part II" (just over a month ago). That's prompted me to think of several points that should be made.

The first point is a contention made in the first article, namely that Millennials are disinclined to visit landed nudist clubs because few other Millennials or none at all seem to be there. Indeed, most visitors seem to be decidedly older. I can't disagree with that. But my first reaction is that, for various reasons, Millennials who consider themselves naturists probably don't make enough effort to invite others near their age to visit the clubs with them. Who besides a Millennial naturist could be more persuasive? If enough Millennial naturists did that the problem would mostly be solved. However, it's unfair to place all the responsibility on Millennial naturists.

The second point is that Timothy's first post brings up a dozen or so factors that disincline Millennials (Gen-Zers too) from participation in naturism. An important one is that young people often don't have the time or financial resources to travel far for visits. A second factor is that visiting nude beaches could be cheaper, easier, and more fun (if there's one nearby, of course). A third factor is that, compared to older folks, young people spend more of their time with online social media instead of in-person activities. My problem with that discussion is that the various factors aren't clearly enumerated, so it's difficult to focus on each specific factor.

Something else that occurred to me is that there's an analogy from physics that could better illuminate what's happened with naturism. If an object is propelled upward against the force of gravity (like a tossed baseball or a bullet from a gun), then the trajectory has a parabolic shape - provided no other force besides gravity and the original one is involved. What goes up must come down (unless some other force opposes gravity). The object slows down until it stops at the top of the arc, and then speeds up as it falls downward. But that sequence can change significantly if other forces become involved along the way.

How does that analogy apply to naturism? Naturism, even in a single country, didn't start with a single event. There was always a series of increasing efforts to propel naturism upward... until those efforts tapered off in the last couple of decades of the past century. Then the downward trajectory began as efforts continued to diminish. The forces necessary to slow the descent and turn it around just haven't been there. So that's where we are today.

An Earth satellite can't be boosted into orbit without a continuous force carrying it upward. But then something interesting happens. If the satellite achieves a stable orbit (like the Moon has), it will just stay in orbit indefinitely, as its momentum parallel to the Earth's surface compensates for the downward force of gravity. A social phenomenon like naturism can't quite attain a stable orbit, because there are almost always forces acting against it. Therefore, some countervailing social force is necessary to keep it going. In terms of naturism, an adequate force just isn't there.

But it could be if enough naturists would put in the effort. And as a practical matter, these need to be younger people. The best that older naturists can do is to help enough younger people appreciate the value of social nudity and naturist body-freedom.

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