The Dangers of esacpism
...an early age, when our minds are not fully developed, and lack wisdom and understanding. It is not hard to go from being born immature, to living that way for the rest of your life (Love). Most people can see the obvious dangers of drug and alcohol addiction, but it’s the psychological damage that can be overlooked. The problem is that most do not see the dangers of the psychological dependency the way they can see it with drugs and alcohol. Once a dependency on escapism is established, could drugs or alcohol be far behind? It is this type of escapism that destroys families and relationships (Love). It can be much easier to avoid our problems, but that doesn’t make then go away. So why do we as a society “run and hide”? As a society we are self-absorbed, and aren’t aware of what’s going on around us. Technology could be to blame, isolating us from the real world. The youth of the nation are growing up with instant messaging and chat rooms, which doesn’t force them to get out and develop their social skills. Humans are restless. Anywhere we are, we try to rearrange, move, and form things to our liking. We alter our world to try and distance ourselves from it. If we can create a constant, then we will have security (Holmes). Escape is part of human nature, and in our case today, human culture. “Earth is never the home humans want it to be, hence the dreams of flying and of a paradise located elsewhere.” (Tuan 537). “What one escapes to is culture – not culture that has become a daily life.” (Tuan 547). It is this culture that feeds us misconceptions of how we should live and deal with or fears and problems. When we escape from the real world we are not ridding our self of the problem, we are merely pushing it aside to bite us again down the road. “No animal can survive unless it perceives its environment as it really is. Daydreaming or wishful thinking would not answer. The hard facts cannot be made to go away by shutting ones eyes” (Tuan 535). Think about it. An animal in the wild must always be on its toes, or else it risks being killed. Animals must adapt, just as humans do. Humans are like animals in the wild. The real world can be a harsh place to live, and if one shuts their eyes they are likely to miss out on opportunity or be overcome by their problems. This is not to say escaping from the stress of our lives is a bad thing, it’s just that many times it is used improperly and causes damage. Escape can be a very good thing, not only for mental health, but physical as well. People who are so caught up with work, bills, and all the realities of our world live their lives as batteries and sooner or later all their energy is drained away. However, we have to realize that there are times when we are powerless against the overpowering force of nature and reality, and must adapt to our world. Humans have a deeper thought process than animals do. We can step back to ponder the dilemma, rather than take it head on. We have the ability to reason and take the best action for each given situation. There are tools we use to counter adversity, whether it is counseling for a marriage gone bad, or a blanket to warm us during a snowy day. As civilized people, we have developed ways to deal with nature and the real world Escaping to a place that we can recharge allows us to continue living our lives, but allows us to enjoy it as well. What is it that we escape to? Escapism has different definitions to different people. One person may travel a lot for a living, and to relax he “escapes” from the stresses of his job by going home and watching TV. For others it may be the exact opposite. Someone may be tired of coming home and watching TV every night, so they travel to “escape” from the boring routine of their day to day life. We think we live in a world where what we can see, touch, and hear is all our reality is. To a certain extent that is true, but it’s our imaginations, which give us visions of new ideas and innovations. It is escaping to a fantasy world where anything is possible that allows us to think outside the box. (Tuan 537) So why is it that many see escapism as a bad thing? We escape from reality on a daily basis. What cultural product is not escape? All of the material things we buy are to escape from some aspect of our life, and most of the time we don’t even realize we are doing it. The music we listen to, the video games we play, and the movies we watch, take us to another place where there are no burdens of life. While some may see this as running from our fears, or avoiding our problems, it may actually be the opposite. Some f...