Escapism maybe undersells the thing they're trying to attack and the thing we're trying to exercise in all this. I would frame it as they're trying to destroy and warp the human imagination.
Imagination is the thing we 'escape' into when we indulge in escapism, so it seems like a frivolous attribute for kids playing cowboys and indians, but imagination is also what we engage when we tell eachother stories of any kind, or are moved by meaningful art, or when we plan cities, or when we remember the past, or when we talk about culture, or preserve any of the timeless values we conserve as a species. We use real concepts of human values, which we have to imagine in order to grasp them, since they are mostly not apprehensible to our physical senses. We then share them between eachother in the form of works and culture. I suppose I'm also talking about Jungian archetypes and myth, for those who are versed in those reference points (ie. not me).
Our political and cultural opponents are waging a wholesale war on our imaginations, in wanting to ensure we can only engage in the realm of the imagination on their terms. Their aim is to ensure we can only exercise our consciousness in a way that propagates their ideology. Some of them do this intuitively, because they simply sense that this is the route to ideological domination.
Others - utopianist, end-of-history types - have an over-rationalised, materialistic view of creation, which creates an imperative to prevent their adversaries (us) from engaging with self-indulgent, 'childish' stories and 'harmful' superstitions. This imperative is somehow an objective moral one, even though this mindset can never be reduced down to any absolute morals. They're waddling in a 'Baby's First Atheism'(tm) brand nihilist paddling pool which young people splash into when they find out that the trusted figures in their lives have been lying to them.
This view finds some sympathisers even on the right, who transplant their religion into the empty moral core of this philosophy and use it to say we should leave behind our 'childish escapism' and face reality, be it the obligation to vote harder or to worship God or whatever. However, entertainment culture is reality too. More often than not, culture dictates all the parameters of our most material realities. The life of the mind is part of life itself. Giving up on games like they want you to is like giving up on fiction novels, cinema or theatre at the inception of those media, which were all disparaged as frivolous diversions in their day too. Here in 2024, we can look back at the ground lost to cultural opponents in those other pursuits and think 'if only...' - but gaming is still relatively young and gamers gave culture warriors a bloody nose, firm and early.
'Escapism' often gets you closer to the truth of life, not further away. You'll find far more truth about what it is to be female in a classical painting of a non-existent woman, than you will in the gender ramblings of the modern medical establishment. It's hard to see those who deter us from imaginative escapism, by saying 'grow up' ,as anything other than slimy subversives, since it's the same shaming tactic at both poles - either 'grow up and go lift weights innawoods' (ok most milquetoast conservatives won't go as far as innawoods, innasuburbs is fine) or 'grow up and be on the right side of history'.
Basically I'm just not gonna stop it (the gaming!!).
I know... UGH I KNOW!! I'm sorry etc...
Escapism maybe undersells the thing they're trying to attack and the thing we're trying to exercise in all this. I would frame it as they're trying to destroy and warp the human imagination.
Imagination is the thing we 'escape' into when we indulge in escapism, so it seems like a frivolous attribute for kids playing cowboys and indians, but imagination is also what we engage when we tell eachother stories of any kind, or are moved by meaningful art, or when we plan cities, or when we remember the past, or when we talk about culture, or preserve any of the timeless values we conserve as a species. We use real concepts of human values, which we have to imagine in order to grasp them, since they are mostly not apprehensible to our physical senses. We then share them between eachother in the form of works and culture. I suppose I'm also talking about Jungian archetypes and myth, for those who are versed in those reference points (ie. not me).
Our political and cultural opponents are waging a wholesale war on our imaginations, in wanting to ensure we can only engage in the realm of the imagination on their terms. Their aim is to ensure we can only exercise our consciousness in a way that propagates their ideology. Some of them do this intuitively, because they simply sense that this is the route to ideological domination.
Others - utopianist, end-of-history types - have an over-rationalised, materialistic view of creation, which creates an imperative to prevent their adversaries (us) from engaging with self-indulgent, 'childish' stories and 'harmful' superstitions. This imperative is somehow an objective moral one, even though this mindset can never be reduced down to any absolute morals. They're waddling in a 'Baby's First Atheism'(tm) brand nihilist paddling pool which young people splash into when they find out that the trusted figures in their lives have been lying to them.
This view finds some sympathisers even on the right, who transplant their religion into the empty moral core of this philosophy and use it to say we should leave behind our 'childish escapism' and face reality, be it the obligation to vote harder or to worship God or whatever. However, entertainment culture is reality too. More often than not, culture dictates all the parameters of our most material realities. The life of the mind is part of life itself. Giving up on games like they want you to is like giving up on fiction novels, cinema or theatre at the inception of those media, which were all disparaged as frivolous diversions in their day too. Here in 2024, we can look back at the ground lost to cultural opponents in those other pursuits and think 'if only...' - but gaming is still relatively young and gamers gave culture warriors a bloody nose, firm and early.
'Escapism' often gets you closer to the truth of life, not further away. You'll find far more truth about what it is to be female in a classical painting of a non-existent woman, than you will in the gender ramblings of the modern medical establishment. It's hard to see see those who deter us from imaginative escapism, by saying 'grow up' ,as anything other than slimy subversives, since it's the same shaming tactic at both poles - either 'grow up and go lift weights innawoods' (ok most milquetoast conservatives won't go as far as innawoods, innasuburbs is fine) or 'grow up and be on the right side of history'.
Basically I'm just not gonna stop it (the gaming!!).
I know... UGH I KNOW!! I'm sorry etc...
Escapism maybe undersells the thing they're trying to attack and the thing we're trying to exercise in all this. I would frame it as they're trying to destroy and warp the human imagination.
Imagination is the thing we 'escape' into when we indulge in escapism, so it seems like a frivolous attribute for kids playing cowboys and indians, but imagination is also what we engage when we tell eachother stories of any kind, or are moved by meaningful art, or when we plan cities, or when we remember the past, or when we talk about culture, or preserve any of the timeless values we conserve as a species. We use real concepts of human values, which we have to imagine in order to grasp them, since they are mostly not apprehensible to our physical senses. We then share them between eachother in the form of works and culture. I suppose I'm also talking about Jungian archetypes and myth, for those who are versed in those reference points (ie. not me).
Our political and cultural opponents are waging a wholesale war on our imaginations, in wanting to ensure we can only engage in the realm of the imagination on their terms. Their aim is to ensure we can only exercise our consciousness in a way that propagates their ideology. Some of them do this intuitively, because they simply sense that this is the route to ideological domination.
Others - utopianist, end-of-history types - have an over-rationalised, materialistic view of creation, which creates an imperative to prevent their adversaries (us) from engaging with self-indulgent, 'childish' stories and 'harmful' superstitions. This imperative is somehow an objective moral one, even though this mindset can never be reduced down to any absolute morals. They're waddling in a 'Baby's First Atheism'(tm) brand nihilist paddling pool which young people splash into when they find out that the trusted figures in their lives have been lying to them.
This view finds some sympathisers even on the right, who transplant their religion into the empty moral core of this philosophy and use it to say we should leave behind our 'childish escapism' and face reality, be it the obligation to vote harder or to worship God or whatever. However, entertainment culture is reality too. More often than not, culture dictates all the parameters of our most material realities. The life of the mind is part of life itself. Giving up on games like they want you to is like giving up on fiction novels, cinema or fiction novels at the inception of those media, which were all disparaged as frivolous diversions in their day too. Here in 2024, we can look back at the ground lost to cultural opponents in those other pursuits and think 'if only...' - but gaming is still relatively young and gamers gave culture warriors a bloody nose, firm and early.
'Escapism' often gets you closer to the truth of life, not further away. You'll find far more truth about what it is to be female in a classical painting of a non-existent woman, than you will in the gender ramblings of the modern medical establishment. It's hard to see see those who deter us from imaginative escapism, by saying 'grow up' ,as anything other than slimy subversives, since it's the same shaming tactic at both poles - either 'grow up and go lift weights innawoods' (ok most milquetoast conservatives won't go as far as innawoods, innasuburbs is fine) or 'grow up and be on the right side of history'.
Basically I'm just not gonna stop it (the gaming!!).
I know... UGH I KNOW!! I'm sorry etc...