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Martin asked:
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My name is Martin Benderson. I am a student from Sweden. At present I am working on a project
concerning novelty seekers. At the moment I am trying to gather different opinions from various
groups of people about the subject. I would be very pleased if you could help me to answer some
questions.
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Why do you think we have a need to escape from reality?
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Do you think the civilised society increases our need to escape from reality?
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Do you think people find hope by escaping from reality?
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============
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- I don't think we need or want to escape from reality entirely unless we are trying to lose
consciousness. We seek to escape particular aspects of reality that we don't like or can't cope with.
Any sort of heavy involvement with something, such as being a workaholic, is an escape. But then
simply reading a novel or a magazine can be an escape from the moment or surrounding state of
affairs. In the case of novelty seekers, are you sure they seeking to escape something? Avoiding
boredom, or seeking thrills seems more positive than anything implied by the notion of escape.
Avoidance of boredom is different from trying to escape aspects of reality. Boredom is a
psychological state and while real it is not an aspect of external reality.
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- Probably. We live in very rational and easy times which may give rise to feelings of boredom. But,
as I said, we don't always seek to escape from external reality. So do we seek to escape
"civilisation"? In some ways, sometimes. But novelty seekers don't essentially seek to escape
civilisation. Presumably some novelties are high-tech and/or social.
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- Hope, I suppose, is optimism about the future. So, no. It would be better to try to change aspects of
life you don't like than try to escape from them if hope is to be well-founded: This applies to the
person who escapes through drink, drugs or over-work. If the novelty seeker wants to avoid boredom
he will constantly need to find new novelties which might be frustrating rather than giving rise to hope.
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— Thinking of novelty-seekers brings to mind travellers who are really trying to get away from
themselves, but won't be able to do so by moving on. Moving on provides short-term hope. So with
novelty seekers, possibly. They are not trying to escape external reality or civilisation, but something
within themselves like boredom, but activity isn't the answer. I think the drive is internal rather than to
do with the way the world is and so internal change would need to be made.
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Rachel Browne
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