Wikipedia defines escapism as a "mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" or dissociation from the perceived unpleasant, boring, arduous, scary, or banal aspects of daily life."
If you look it up you'll find that Google associates the word with Video Games, Art, and surprisingly, The Great Depression (1929-1939) - I don't know what The Great Depression has to do with escapism, however. Maybe some of you readers can clarify?
"Escapism" is also a best-selling travel magazine based in the US, recently named the largest independent travel magazine in the UK, with a whopping 250,000 readers. Their Facebook page has a comparably smaller crowd of 8,325 user likes, a fantastic number considering this Facebook page has 50 as of this moment.
Why is the magazine, or video games, or art so popular?
The connection with travel and video games is rather obvious: people find life too confining or just plain boring and they compensate by finding excitement in the thrill of discovering a new place or in blasting the heads off of alien invaders - I personally prefer the latter. It's kind of similar with art, where artists find creative ways to enhance, to beautify the otherwise drab, monotonous rise-eat-work-home-sleep life that most people have by producing sculptures, paintings, dances, etc.
So here's what it all boils down to: Life is unpleasant, boring, arduous, scary, and banal. But does it really have to be?
There's a terrifying theory out there that WE, the homo sapiens, have brought this upon ourselves. We have created enterprises that have reduced thriving individuals into cogs in the machine and by so doing, have doomed our species into a meaningless, hollow existence for good.
What this theory fails to notice is that there are some people who fully enjoy being a cog in the machine. In fact if you think about it, people who work in the gaming industry, or art, or even travel magazine publishing, aren't they all cogs in their respective machines? Working hard day and night to provide escapism for the masses?
So what can we take away from all this? Well, for one, choose your trade wisely. Choose your field wisely. When studying a particular major, make sure you're passionate about it. For Indonesians (and most Asian parents), when it comes to your passion, your parents don't know better, YOU do. So, trust yourself! On top of things, think about how your study will help you be better in your career in the future, and not just the money it promises.
You might find it hard to believe, but there are people who do enjoy working jobs that some might consider mundane, such as being an accountant, restaurant servers, mall clerks, or even teachers. These jobs may not pay as well as lawyers or orthodontists, but if it's their passion, people will stick around.
And if it's not, if you've been feeling miserable every time you wake up because you HAD to go to work, maybe quit your job and find another? Heck, if you think you're up for it, why not join the escapism businesses? It is, after all, no longer just an idea. It's a lucrative industry on it's own, worth billions.
In conclusion, the passion fruit is actually tastier than its hundreds of seeds might suggest, and I think I might need to get some. Ciao!
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