#Ethics of Escapism

[omegaphilosophia]

The Philosophy of Escapism

The philosophy of escapism explores the human tendency to seek distraction and relief from reality, often through activities that provide temporary respite from the pressures, challenges, or monotony of everyday life. Escapism can take many forms, from engaging in entertainment, such as movies, books, or video games, to indulging in fantasies or even using substances. The philosophical examination of escapism raises questions about its ethical implications, its effects on the human condition, and its potential as a coping mechanism.

Key Concepts in the Philosophy of Escapism:

Definition of Escapism:

Seeking Relief from Reality: Escapism is generally understood as the act of diverting oneself from the realities of life, especially when those realities are unpleasant or stressful. It often involves engaging in activities that provide a temporary sense of comfort, pleasure, or detachment.

Positive and Negative Aspects: While escapism can offer a necessary and healthy break from stress, it can also lead to avoidance behavior, where individuals neglect important aspects of their lives or responsibilities.

Psychological and Existential Dimensions:

Coping Mechanism: Psychologically, escapism can serve as a coping mechanism to deal with stress, anxiety, or trauma. It allows individuals to take a mental break, which can be rejuvenating in moderation.

Existential Escapism: Philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus have explored the concept of existential escapism, where individuals avoid confronting the inherent meaninglessness or absurdity of life. In this context, escapism can be seen as a way to evade existential angst or the responsibility of authentic living.

Ethical Considerations:

Balance and Moderation: Philosophers often debate the ethical implications of escapism, particularly whether it is a morally acceptable way to deal with life's difficulties. While some argue that moderate escapism is necessary for mental health and well-being, others caution against excessive escapism that leads to neglect of one's duties or relationships.

Authenticity vs. Illusion: There is an ethical tension between living authentically—facing reality as it is—and retreating into illusion or distraction. Some philosophical traditions, such as existentialism, emphasize the importance of confronting reality and finding meaning within it, rather than escaping from it.

Cultural and Social Aspects:

Escapism in Popular Culture: Escapism is deeply embedded in popular culture, with entire industries, such as cinema, literature, and gaming, dedicated to providing forms of escape. The cultural significance of these activities raises questions about their role in society and their impact on collective consciousness.

Societal Escapism: On a broader scale, escapism can also be viewed as a societal phenomenon, where entire groups or cultures may turn to escapist practices as a way of coping with social or economic pressures. For example, during times of war or economic hardship, the popularity of escapist entertainment often increases.

Philosophical Critiques of Escapism:

Stoicism and Escapism: Stoic philosophy advocates for facing reality with courage and rationality, suggesting that escapism is a form of avoidance that prevents individuals from developing resilience and wisdom.

Existentialism: Existentialists, particularly Sartre, criticize escapism as a form of bad faith, where individuals deny their freedom and responsibility by fleeing from reality. For existentialists, true freedom comes from acknowledging and embracing the absurdity of life, rather than escaping from it.

Escapism and Art:

Art as Escape: Art has historically been a means of escape, offering individuals the opportunity to experience alternative realities, explore new perspectives, and express emotions that might be difficult to confront in everyday life.

Aesthetic Experience: Some philosophers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, have celebrated art and aesthetic experience as a vital and life-affirming form of escapism that transcends mundane reality and offers deeper insights into the human condition.

Escapism and Technology:

Digital Escapism: In the modern era, technology has significantly expanded the possibilities for escapism. The internet, social media, virtual reality, and video games offer immersive experiences that allow individuals to escape from reality in unprecedented ways.

Virtual Reality and Ethics: The rise of virtual reality and other immersive technologies raises ethical questions about the boundaries between reality and escape, and the potential consequences of living increasingly in digital or simulated environments.

The philosophy of escapism examines the complex motivations behind the human desire to escape from reality and the various forms this escape can take. While escapism can provide necessary relief and even foster creativity, it also presents ethical and existential challenges, particularly concerning the balance between facing reality and seeking refuge from it. The ongoing philosophical exploration of escapism helps us understand its role in the human experience and its impact on our lives, both individually and collectively.

[gghero]

9 hours 9 persons 9 doors is possibly the funniest game on replay for many reasons but my underrated comedic bit of knowledge is the mystery of how the Kurashikis got all the money to run the second nonary game because at some point if you remember the door 4 santa dialogue you gotta just conclude "it was probably gambling right I mean if I had postcognitive esp I would absolutely cheat at gambling" but then on replay you look at that scene and the options youre presented with and the implication is actually like "dont be ridiculous. gambling is stupid. we OBVIOUSLY used the postcognitive esp to cheat at the STOCK MARKET what kind of idiot are you"

[thatboreddrake]

So, do y'all remember a while back I made a post about a Stormlight AU where Kaladin becomes an Edgedancer instead of a Windrunner? So that idea was bouncing around in my head, and @catcas22 and I wanted to put down some bullet points of how this would actually change the story:

Kaladin goes off to study as a surgeon in Kharbranth before Amaram comes recruiting

Roshone drafts Tien, but Lirin elects not to send word to Kaladin, as he fears that Kaladin would quit his training and return if he knew

Kaladin gains a reputation as one of the more promising surgeons in Kharbranth

Eventually, one of his patients gets transferred to Taravingian's secret Diagram project (so they can drain their blood for a Death Rattle)

Kaladin, naturally, wants to stay with them and make sure they recover

He's told to "forget about them and move on to the next patient"

He can't accept that, so he starts digging into where the patients are being transferred to (with the help of an unusually talkative spren)

He is interrupted from his investigations by a request to help heal an important foreign dignitary from a strange form of poison

His path intersects with Jasnah and Shallan while he helps Shallan recover from Kabsal's attempted assassination

Over the course of her recovery, Kaladin confides in Jasnah his worries about Taravingian, and enlists the two of them in helping him get to the bottom of it

The three of them use Jasnah's Soulcasting to break into the underground facility

Kaladin freezes when he realizes what Taravingian has been doing and desperately starts trying to heal the people who are having their blood drawn

Kaladin swears his Second Ideal in attempting to escape Kharbranth with the captives

Kaladin, Jasnah, and Shallan depart for the Shattered Plains with as many of the captives as their ship can carry

Meanwhile, in northern Alethkar:

Tien breaks in battle and tries to run away using Lightweaving (Sanderson has confirmed that Tien was some level of Lightweaver)

Tien is captured, then sold into slavery on the Shattered Plains because Amaram decides he's too much trouble

Without Kaladin there to save him, Amaram is killed by nascent Skybreaker Helaran

Helaran gets word that the Surgebinder in Amaram's army is still at large, and heads for the Shattered Plains

Now, on the Shattered Plains:

Tien ends up in the Bridge Crews on Bridge Four (because you gotta have Bridge Four)

While returning from the greatshell hunt, Bridge Four is sent to help the Kholins return to camp

Adolin strikes up a conversation with Tien, as he reminds him of Renarin in a way

Moash arrives on the bridge crews and decides he's going to organize the crews so that they can have a chance at escaping slavery

Adolin notices that an oddly intelligent windspren with a mischievous streak has begun following him around

His conversation with Tien and the rest of Bridge Four has him realize just how bad the situation is under Sadeas for the bridgemen

While considering what to do, he discovers that Tien died on one of the bridge runs

At the urging of his windspren friend, Adolin defies Dalinar's wishes and takes up dueling again, seeking to gain a chance to challenge Sadeas for the freedom of the Bridge Crews

Dalinar is furious and strips Adolin of Plate and Blade, effectively benching him for the rest of the book

When Dalinar leaves for the Tower with Sadeas, he leaves Adolin behind

Adolin refuses to stand by and takes his personal guards to follow after Dalinar, recruiting an off-duty Bridge Four to help him get there

Moash agrees, as he figures that eluding one lighteyes would be far easier than escaping the whole army

Adolin encounters Sadeas's forces on their way back and orders a double-time march to try and save the Kholinar forces if he can

He arrives at the Tower in time to see the Kholinar forces routed and swears the Second Ideal of the Windrunners in a desperate bid to save his army and his father

Moash rethinks his plan after seeing a lighteyes leap, essentially unarmed, across a canyon to try and save his men

Bridge Four establishes an escape route, but the Kholinar forces are decimated by the Parshendi

Adolin fails to find his father, who has been captured and brought back to Narak by Eshonai

Suddenly finding himself to be highprince of Kholinar, Adolin surrenders his Shardblade, which has begun to scream whenever he touches it, in exchange for the bridge crews's freedom

And that's everything that changes for the Way of Kings! I'll go more into Words of Radiance/Oathbringer later, but that's what I have for now!

[ahoyimlosingmymind]

what makes me laugh so hard about the joker 'dilemma' of whether he should be killed or not is that... I don't think a single person in Gotham besides Bruce would be even bothered if some gothamite woke up one day and killed the clown on a street corner. they might even throw a party.

and yet this is the issue that tore him and Jason's relationship off it's fuckin hinges

[fandomscraziness22]

my Podcast Mania! ornament is back and better than ever! With 70 podcasts, this thing is full of goodness! Find it here!

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

"Murder is Werewolves" - Batman

I don't got the SPOONS to do this thought train justice, I have seriously been trying to write this thing for MONTHS so just, idk, have this half baked skeletal outline of the essay I guess:

I don't believe that Batman's no-kill rule is primarily about rehabilitation or second chances.

His refusal to believe that Cassandra could have killed someone when she was eight years old because "how could a killer understand my commitment not to kill" is absolute fucking MOON LOGIC from a rehabilitationist standpoint. No jury on the planet would think for even a second that she could reasonably be held accountable for her actions in that situation! Her past cannot condemn her to being incapable of valuing human life under a rehabilitation centering framework. However, Batman's reasoning makes perfect sense if he believes that killing is a spiritually/morally corrupting act which permanently and fundamentally changes a person, and that corruption can never be fully undone.

Dick Grayson killing the Joker is treated both narratively and by Batman as an unequivocally WIN for the Joker. The Joker won by turning Nightwing into a killer. Note that this is during a comic in which the Joker transforming people was a major theme! Batman didn't revive the Joker because the Joker deserved to live; he revived the Joker to lift the burden on Dick.

His appeal to Stephanie when she tried to kill her dad is that she shouldn't ruin her own life. He gives no defense of Cluemaster's actual life. Granted this is a rhetorical strategy moment and should be taken with a generous pinch of salt, but it fits in the pattern.

When Jason becomes a willful killer, he essentially disowns him, never treats him with full trust ever again, and... Well, we can stop here for Bruce's sake. Bottom line is that his actions towards Jason do not lead me to believe that he thinks Jason can become a better person without having his autonomy taken from him, either partially or fully.

The Joker is, for better or worse, the ultimate symbol and vessel of pure, irredeemable evil in DC comics now. He hasn't been just another crook in a long time. He will never get better, he will only get worse. If you take it to be true that the Joker will not or can not rehabilitate, then there's no rehabilitationist argument against killing him.

Batman does not seem to consider it a possibly that he'll rehabilitate. Batman at several points seems to think that the Joker dying in a manner no one could have prevented would be good. Yet Batman fully believes that if he killed the Joker, he himself would become irredeemable.

Batman's own form of justice (putting people into the hospital and then prison) is fucking brutal and clearly not rehabilitative. He disrespects the most basic human rights of all criminals on a regular basis. It is genuinely really, really weird from a rehabilitationist standpoint that his only uncrossable line is killing... But it makes perfect sense if he cares more about not corrupting himself with the act of killing than the actual ethical results of any individual decision to kill or not kill.

In the real world cops are all bastards because they are too violent to criminals, even when that violence doesn't lead to death. Prison is a wildly evil thing to do to another human being, and you don't use it to steal away massive portions of a person's life if your goal is to rehabilitate them. In the comic world, Batman is said to be necessary because the corrupt cops are too nice to criminals and keep letting them out of jail. I don't know how to write a connector sentence there so like I hope you can see why this bothers me so damn much! That's just not forgiveness vibes there Batman!!

I want to make special note here of the transformative aspect. You don't simply commit a single act when you kill, no, you become a killer, like you might become a werewolf.

The narrative supports this a lot!

Why did Supes go evil during Injustice? He killed the Joker. Why did Bruce become the Batman Who Laughs? Bruce killed the Joker. Why was Jason Todd close to becoming a new Joker during Three Jokers? Because he killed people, to include the Joker.

Even if these notions of redemption being impossible aren't the whole of his reasoning (people never have only one reason for doing what they do) it is a distinct through-line pattern in his actions and reasoning, and it is directly at odds with notions of rehabilitation, redemption, and second chances.

So why does he give so many killers second chances?

Firstly because this doesn't apply to all versions of Batman. Some writers explicitly incorporate rehabilitation and forgiveness into his actions. You will be able to provide me with examples of this other through-line pattern if you go looking for them. The nature of comics is to be inconsistent.

Secondly the existence of that other pattern does not negate the existence of this one. People and characters are complex, and perfectly capable of holding two patterns of belief within themselves, even when they conflict to this degree. You can absolutely synthesize these two ideas into a single messy Batman philosophical vibescape.

Finally and most importantly to this essay: he has mercy on killers the same way that werewolf hunters sometimes have mercy on someone who is clearly struggling against their monsterous nature, especially if they were turned in exceptional circumstances or against their will. They understand that they are sick, damned beasts, cursed to always be fighting against themselves and the evil they harbor within. It is vitally kind to help them fight themselves by curtailing their autonomy in helpful ways and providing them with chances to do some good to make up for their eternal moral deficiency.

I think in many comics Batman views killers as lost souls. Battered and tormented monsters who must be pitied and given mercy wherever possible. (The connections to mental health, addiction, and rampant, horrifying ableism towards people struggling with both is unavoidable, but addressing it is sadly outside of the scope of this essay.)

Above all, the greatest care possible must be taken to never, ever let yourself become one of them, because once you have transformed the beast will forever be within you growing stronger.

To Batman, it is the most noble burden, the highest mercy, the most important commandment: Thou shalt suffer the monsters to live.

[rhapsoddity]

What are some of the more rare hybrids in your au? You said before Warden Hybrids are of legends and myths. What about others? Are there some that still are around but make up a low percentage of the population?

Most nether / end hybrids! Warden hybrids, wither hybrids and Ender Dragon hybrids are myths by this point, but ghasts, blazes, magma slimes ect are rare!

This is mainly as they've been hunted to almost extinction, as nether hybrids are the only way to get pure ingredients for potions, the synthetic alternatives aren't nearly as potent. Generally if you're a rare hybrid you hide your hybrid features at all costs, lest you end up in a resource farm, trapped being tortured for mob drops but not being allowed to die.

The only mobs from those two places that haven't been hunted are shulker hybrids, piglin hybrids, strider hybrids since they have nothing to do with potion ingredients

[rainbow-wolf120]

Cabin Boy: Pages 1-3

The first week on Razorbeard’s ship has been rough. No one seems to be too fond of Rayman. Hopefully he can prove himself worthy… eventually.

(No idea how long or how many pages this comic is gonna be so I shall wing it)

[fisheito]

yakuya in MY swamp? in MY ecosystem? no . i am still in disbelief. i hope you all know that my particles are bouncing off the everything. i am using periods as punctuation but the state of my mind is naught neareth final.

[gghero]

its him. mister unethical science of shitty little experiment fame

[satoruxx]

i’m in my psych lecture and she’s talking about relational-cultural theory and it’s abbreviated as RCT and all i can think about is stupid jjk……

[peccatulum-b-gone]

Hunt halted

After an extensive stakeout, it seems that the Erlking has once again vanished without a trace.

No worries, though. The rat will show up again where there´s cheese to be had.

[raeofalbion]

Stellar Blade screencaps | part 2 of ? Levoire

[voided-selfships]

It is five in the mORNING!!!

[clementine-kesh]

Thank u so much!! I tried finding your Phleelix post on my own but can't find it can u link it pls??

(I haven't quite made up my mind if i ship it yet but I wish to Ponder.)

-Levi

i can’t find the actual post either because tumblr search is bad (it was the list of lower decks-style voyager reboot episodes) but luckily i have a copy of that post saved in my notes app because it’s one of my faves so here’s the relevant bit:

FAITH OF THE HEART: a temporal anomaly confined entirely to the mess hall allows neelix to moonlight as the chef on the enterprise nx-01, but his loyalty to voyager is tested when he begins a torrid love affair with dr. phlox. b’elanna is disappointed when the hot they/them she matched with on spacebumble turns out to be a nearby borg cube.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

what are some cool games u have played? dont matter if u mentioned before. tell me again tell me again :D

uhh hmm.

well okami is my all time favorite the art & the music & the message/story are all just incredible theres not a single time ive finished it i havent cried. i absolutely adore ryoshima coast ive spent so many hours just running around there to listen to music. which fun fact for u i only know about this game bc in about 6th grade i picked up okamiden bc i thought the little doggy was cute & was like fine i'll play as this boy if i get a cool dog and u cannot imagine how excited i was to find out u DID play as the little dog. i was SOOOOO obsessed literally my exact thoughts were 'if issun is ammy's celestial envoy then i am going to be chibis' i have a metric fuck ton of fan art i did at the time bc i thought it was quote "the epic-est game for ds ever" also cried every time i finished it. i was 13 so i didnt know what "being down bad" was but do know i was as obsessed with kurow as i was with d-ne later and now tenshi not a single irl friend was unaware i was in love with him. also fun fact for u bc at the same time i was also getting super into vocaloid i was so convinced my vocap name would end up as chibiP to the point i named myself that in pkmn x chibiP after chibiterasu of course. please enjoy my banger old art which is not even a fraction of my output

yume nikki is my next favorite game specifically the og that changed my brain chemistry as a kid. i adore that game so much its hard to put it into words. its just so unlike anything else. there is absolutely nothing in the game that can directly harm u theres no real health meter theres no way to die during the main play the absolute worst that will ever happen is u get stuck or woken up. in a horror game. which is already just amazing. and the whole horror aspect just plays on something i dont think is often done as well in many other things. ur alone. u wander and wander thru worlds that loop and connect and seemingly have nothing to do with each other. theres no dialogue; talking to npcs just gets u a noise or animation at best. ur entirely alone with just urself. its all dreams so u know everything is of madotsuki's own creation, another layer to the all u have is urself feeling. the art is just unusual i cant even say any of it on its own is in anyway scary. the whole thing shouldnt be scary and yet every time i start wandering in a world i cant help but feel unease. amazing 10/10 no other game will ever have what this gave me.

everyone knows i play pkmn the best is still pmd sky that also rewired my brain i still cant play it without crying.

its been a long time since i was really just playing it as the chapters released & got translated but 1bitheart is so so so important to me too. i dont kin for multiple reasons but if i did nanashi would be my first choice. like- without saying that to her i got my one irl friend to play once & when she saw how nanashi was she turned to me and went "this is just you" hes very important to me even now. absolutely loved the whole friendship sim & the story & its twists & the endings & their implications left me in shambles at 1 am on a school night. my fave charas are nanashi enri & saaya btw. i should replay this.

i also love the etrian odyssey series i love the character portraits (esp with the more recent games' color customization) i LOVE the dungeon art & i think all the monster designs are so cool. adore the whole make ur own map aspect keeps me so entertained to take a step & look around & chart all the walls & path ways. unfortunately i fucking suck at every single one i am not very good at strategy games so i end up stuck at or before the 3rd stratum. but thats okay its still fun to me.

the other one i'll talk about at length is spirit of the north another game i loved the art of. u play as a fox & get a partner spirit fox & i just love it SOOOO much. its also a game with 0 dialogue but theres A Lot going on it if u care to follow along & explore & dig into details & the game play is also pretty fun to me. this is the one game i started learning the speedrun btw thats also a very fun way to play it but ABSOLUTELY play it as intended first it has so much to offer

aaaand special mentions to omori, oneshot, witch's house, mermaid swamp, corpse party, & limbus company