The Stigma of Escapism, Everything We Do, Sehnsucht, and More

Friday, April 26, 2024

Happy Friday y'all.

Escapism is an idea that continues to be on my mind. In fact, I can't get it out of my mind. I can't not think about it. It's there from sun up to sun down. I want to explore the idea more. I want to see how far the escapism rabbit hole goes. Who knows how far it goes?

So, I figured it's time to start tackling this and breaking it down slowly to better understand it. I may end up starting a separate newsletter entirely devoted to this single idea, but for now, the best thing to do is to just start.

Here are 10 things related to escapism I found interesting from the last week or so. 

1/ The Stigma of Escapism

To start off this week's newsletter, I'd like to share a video I watched over the weekend called The Stigma of Escapism by Jaela Kennedy.

Kennedy talks about her experience with escapism and her animation journey. 

Kennedy first speaks of one of her earliest childhood memories: celebrating Christmas with her family in a homeless shelter and receiving her first notebook. As a natural social hermit, drawing was how she learned to express herself. She practiced every single day. However, she still failed to connect with others and eventually transferred to a new school. Unfortunately, as anyone who's ever had to transfer schools knows, it ain't fun. Fortunately, however, she learned to cope — with art. She noticed her technique was a classic example of escapism. Distracting herself by drawing in her gifted notebook allowed her to escape the trauma around her. Escapism is often seen as a negative, whereas the positive variant is often forgotten. Kennedy makes a point to say she is living proof that isn't the case all of the time. 

The point is the good and bad parts of escapism both involve distraction.

The bad is distracting yourself from things you have control over: chores, homework, etc. 

The good is distracting yourselves from things you don't have control over: what you see on the news, your past, etc.

Her method of escapism allowed her to cope with uncontrollable circumstances. Over time, she was able to create fictional characters she could grow up alongside and learn from, design characters for TV shows, get public attention, earn income from her art, and even tell her Ted Talk through animation. 

She gives credit to that tiny notebook that served as the clay to mold herself into the person she is. She learned at a young age that she'll always have a pen and some paper to tell her story no matter where she is or whatever she's going through.

That is the power of escapism. 

That is choosing to escape to life, not from it. 

2/ Self-suppression vs Self-expansion

Furthermore, you can think of escapism on a scale. 

Norwegian psychologist Frode Stensberg argues that there are two states of escapism. 

On one side, there's self-suppression, and on the other side, there's self-expansion. It's the difference between engaging with life or disengaging with life. Running away from your problems or opening yourself up to discovering solutions. Escape from life or escaping to life. 

The key to life is to escape to it, not from it. 

3/ Puzzles Again 

I read once from the political historian Alan Brinkley that during the 1929 stock market crash, people turned to radio, magazines, and movies to help people deal with the economic state of the country.

Last week, I mentioned an article on escapism, but I forgot to mention that in that article, the writer also shares how puzzle sales peaked in 1933, right in the middle of the Great Depression that followed the great stock market crash. Puzzles gave people an opportunity to succeed in some way. Puzzles in any form intrigue us. As I've mentioned before, after checking out Malcolm Gladwell's writing class, puzzles have a hold over our imagination. Humans love it when all the pieces fit together – whether that's putting a puzzle together on your kitchen table, playing Tetris during the day or in your dreams, or reading a good murder mystery novel. Solving a puzzle is a win, however modest it might feel. The thing is, during a time like the Great Depression, any win feels anything but modest. Adding that last piece feels like a triumph. 

Puzzles/games allow us, again, to focus on things in our control.

This becomes more evident in times of turmoil. 

4/ Escaping to Write Escapism

Continuing on the topic of escapism, there's the song called Escapism by British singer and songwriter Raye. 

Raye shares how, after a previous breakup, she indulged in unhealthy coping mechanisms (drugs, alcohol, random hook-ups) and ultimately tried to run away from her problems as fast as possible. 

What I find interesting is that she and a friend literally escaped to a log cabin in Utah in the middle of winter to go and write this song. This makes me think that self-suppression and self-expansion can be paradoxical in a way. By going to the cabin in the woods to make music, she is running away from society, suppressing her behavior, so to speak, but on the contrary, by getting away from it all, she then has the time and space to expand and flex her creativity skills and come up with something original that people enjoyed listening to. 

Running away isn't going to solve your problems. But perhaps after you realize that and turn around, the distance created between you and the problem is now seen from a new and wider perspective, such that you now have a vision of what you need to do to solve it. 

5/ Escapism is Necessary

Sigmund Freud once said that escapism is a necessary element of life. In his own words, "They cannot subsist on the scanty satisfaction they can extort from reality."

It's like in the movie Inception, where the dream architect, Ariadne, gets her first taste of the dream world. In the story, when she wakes up from her dream, she storms out and abandons the team's mission, angry about the implications of what her role will entail. Nevertheless, the main character, Cobb, knows right off the bat, like Freud knew, that she'll be back and that reality will not be enough anymore. The ability to escape into the dream and design and build things that she would otherwise never have the chance to in the real world (like folding a city in half on top of itself) will become a necessary element in her life. In that sense, dreaming becomes a vital part of living. 

6/ Bread and Circuses

Another interesting phrase related to escapism is "bread and circuses." Attributed to the Roman poet, Juvenal, it refers to gaining public approval not through policy and or service, but through entertainment. He argued that people choose to give up their civic duties and instead "anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses." Juvenal wrote that about 2,000 years ago. 

7/ Toasting to Escapism

"Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives... and to the "good life", whatever it is and wherever it happens to be." – Hunter S. Thompson

If there is anyone that understood escapism it was Thompson.

8/ Everything We Do  

"Most people believe human motivation is all about carrots and sticks, or pain and pleasure. But neurologically speaking, everything we do––the root of all human motivation––is about the desire to escape discomfort." – Nir Eyal 

Everything we do can be seen as a form of escape, for better or worse. 

9/ Sehnsucht

I found a German word related to escapism, too: Sehnsucht. It translates to a longing, craving, yearning typically for an ideal alternative experience but often without hope of actually attaining whatever it is. 

10/ 1 Fun Fact about Escapism

The word escapism appeared in 1933 (the same year puzzle sales peaked). 

I didn't know this but you can go on Merriam-Webster's website and check out the first known used dates for different words. Starting with 2022 you can work your way back. It's quite interesting to see what words have appeared over the years. 

That's it for this week. If there is any material related to escapism that you’ve come across, please send it my way. I’m curious to learn more.

Thank you for reading, and have a great day! 

—Garrett