Friday, February 16, 2018

Escapism: Never A Full Escape

As someone who loves entertainment, particularly movies and video games, I have had to affirm to others the uses of entertainment throughout my life, refuting charges of escapism (not that escapism is inherently wrong), escapism being a habitual retreat away from reality into something else.  Of course, not everyone who regularly visits fictional worlds via entertainment does so strictly out of a desire for escapism, but sometimes people suspicious of entertainment just being an escape from reality need to be reminded that entertainment can never actually leave reality behind in full.

What motives for seeking escapism in entertainment might someone harbor?  Perhaps a longing for a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure.  Or perhaps a desire to flee from the pains of the "real world," as an alcoholic might flee to alcohol in an attempt to hide from something else.  But this flight can only go so far before one realizes that reality remains present.

Whatever the medium, whatever the story, there is no such thing as entertainment that totally escapes from reality.  At the very least all entertainment and art still captures and exemplifies necessary truths (such as a thing being what it is or how there must be a way that reality is).  And some entertainment certainly goes far beyond a minimal acknowledgement of logical axioms, also addressing complex, significant issues of metaphysical, ethical, or existential nature.  Since humans tend to care about these issues, their creations will tend to reflect their wrestlings, longings, and inquiries.

People may sometimes enjoy entertainment for purposes of personal escapism, not consciously intending to enjoy or seriously contemplate the explorations of philosophical subjects so natural to art, yet this escape that they seek can never be total.  Entertainment and art cannot fully escape reality because that is an impossible thing; they cannot not convey some sort of worldview because it is impossible for their creators to not have worldviews.  Art is not some realm that is capable of avoiding all contact with truth, and the humans that create it are likewise utterly incapable of entirely dismissing reality--even when they might try their very hardest to do so.

Truth cannot be silenced or denied in full, and it will and does have the final say in all things, even if what exactly that say is in a given matter remains unknown for the present time.

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