Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily stress. See also Entertainment (disambiguation and The Entertainer (disambiguation Entertainment is an activity designed to give people Recreation or fun is the expenditure of time in a manner designed for therapeutic refreshment of one's Body or Mind. Personal life (or everyday life or human existence) is the course of an individual Human 's life especially when viewed as the sum of personal choices It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to try to help relieve feelings of depression or general sadness. In the fields of Psychology and Psychiatry, the terms depression or depressed refer to both expected and pathologically chronic or severe Sadness is an Emotion characterized by Feelings of disadvantage loss and helplessness

History

Some believe that this diversion is more inherent in today's urban, technological existence because it de facto removes people from their biologically normal natures. Entire industries have sprung up to foster a growing tendency of people to remove themselves from the rigors of daily life. Principal amongst these are fiction literature, music, sports, films, television, roleplaying games, pornography, religion, recreational drugs, the internet and computer games. Escapist fiction is Fiction which provides a psychological escape from thoughts of everyday life by immersing the reader in exotic situations or activities Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Pornography or porn is the explicit depiction of Sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Recreational drug use is the use of Psychoactive drugs for Recreational purposes rather than for work, medical or spiritual purposes The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather Many activities that are normal parts of a healthy existence (e. g. , eating, exercise, sexual activity) can also become avenues of escapism when taken to extreme.

In the context of being taken to an extreme, the word "escapism" carries a negative connotation, suggesting that escapists are unhappy, with an inability or unwillingness to connect meaningfully with the world.

However, there are some who challenge the idea that escapism is fundamentally and exclusively negative. For instance, J.R.R. Tolkien, responding to the Anglo-Saxon academic debate on escapism in the 1930s, wrote in his essay "On Fairy-Stories" that escapism had an element of emancipation in its attempt to figure a different reality. "On Fairy-Stories" is an essay by J R R Tolkien which discusses the fairy-story as a literary form His friend C. S. Lewis was also fond of humorously remarking that the usual enemies of escape were jailers. Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963

Some social critics warn of attempts by the powers that control society to provide means of escapism instead of actually bettering the condition of the people. For example, Karl Marx wrote that "Religion is the opium of the people." This is contrary to the thought of Saint Augustine of Hippo, who argued that people try to find satisfaction in material things to fill a void within them that only God can fill. " Religion is the Opiate of the people " is one of the most frequently quoted statements of Karl Marx. A saint (from the Latin sanctus) is a human being to whom has been attributed (and who has generally demonstrated a high level of Holiness and Sanctity The Philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is Matter, and is considered a form of Physicalism. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity.

Escapist societies appear often in literature. The Time Machine depicts the Eloi, a lackadaisical, insouciant race of the future, and the horror their happy lifestyle belies. The Time Machine is a novella by H G Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two Feature films of the same name as The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H G Wells ' 1895 novel The Time Machine. The novel subtly criticizes capitalism, or at least classism, as a means of escape. Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where Classism is prejudice and/or discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic class Escapist societies are common in dystopian novels for example Fahrenheit 451, where society uses television and "seashell radios" to escape a life with strict regulations and the threat of the forthcoming war. A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος alternatively cacotopia, kakotopia, cackotopia, or anti-utopia) is the vision of a society Fahrenheit 451 is a Dystopian Soft science fiction Novel authored by Ray Bradbury and first published in 1953

A German social philosopher Ernst Bloch wrote that utopias and images of fulfillment, however regressive they might be, also included an impetus for a radical social change. Ernst Simon Bloch (ɛʁnst ˈziːmɔn blɔx July 8, 1885 &ndash August 4, 1977) was a German Marxist philosopher According to Bloch, social justice could not be realized without seeing things fundamentally differently. Something that is mere "daydreaming" or "escapism" from the viewpoint of a technological-rational society might be a seed for a new and more humane social order, it can be seen as an "immature, but honest substitute for revolution". A daydream is a visionary fantasy experienced while awake especially one of happy pleasant thoughts hopes or ambitions

External links

• Ernst Bloch, Utopia and Ideology Critique