to what extent is community essential to happiness ?

Chris's end was a bit of tragic irony. Chris discovered in his last minutes that being a rather inept hermit in the wilderness is not the meaning to life. Chris realized what most of us already know, that we are social beings and need each other. I think the fascination of Chris was his counter-culture sense of adventure. Many people find it refreshing to reject the madness of our consumer life style. Chris, in that sense, was successful. The direction he went was not. Alone and unprepared in the Alaskan wilds he suffered a horrid death.