Escapism is a fantastic fantasy and I am an escapist. There are many ways you can choose to escape - You can escape in parallel universes of stories, of TV shows, of the lives of others(celebrities). You can escape in small 3 minutes bytes in a song. You can escape in a game. You can escape alone or with others. I prefer to escape via TV shows, the ones I love to watch the most are either about escaping something or they’re about the misery of not being able to escape. Escape the kingdom, escape the job, escape the daily. Trapped in a family, trapped in a job, trapped in the daily.
When I talk about wanting to escape, people think I must be unhappy. After all, always wanting to escape must come from being unfulfilled. Or perhaps it comes from ungratefulness, hence the advice “If only we stopped wishing for a greener grass, we’d be happier”. Some think my desire to escape gives me a sense of purpose. They think this quick purpose is a drug I can’t quit and they want to cure me of this addiction. “Escapism - a malady like self-victimization.”
Now and then like all escapists, I question my motives. If we’re happy, why do we want to escape, we wonder if there is something there. Concerned, we try to quit it and we fail. We’re addicts now. We want to keep dreaming. People theorize and theorize about why we can’t quit. Despite all the reasons, maybe it’s hard for us to quit escapism simply because we don’t want to. We want to keep escaping but well, not in that sense. We don’t really want to escape(run away), but we do want to escape (plot a thousand different ways we can live a different today). We want to fantasize an alternate reality. For us, the joy that lies in fantasizing. There is a certain high about planning it that isn’t quite the same if you were to indeed escape. The anticipation of the drug hits harder than the drug. The journey supersedes our destination. Or in this case, the journey consumes us like freedom never could. It isn’t about quitting and manifesting, we know we don’t want to be anywhere else.
Maybe we want to escape because the everyday IS too mundane for us. “Just have more exciting things to do, be busier“ I’ve tried to set my life up to make the real world less mundane, it is not a feasible routine for the time and effort it takes. The setup drains the energy leaving me with nothing but fatigue when it is time to enjoy the fruits of my labor. It is better to have a big real escape one in a while rather than 5 small escapes everyday. Maybe all escapists know this. And maybe that’s why we plot it all in our heads and on our screens and in our conversations. We plot a thousand mini stories, chasing the next one like we’re all harmless fiends searching for the next hit. Maybe we are doing things for the plot and when we’ve plotted enough, the plot will materialize on an unsuspecting Wednesday afternoon. Maybe we’re escapists not because we’re running away but because we’re running towards the places it takes us, towards the friends we will make and the sights(literal or not) we’ll see. Maybe for the paths it takes us down, escapism is a gift and we’d like to keep it.