the attack on escapist/indulgent behavior

Great Debates
1

I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here for a minute and expand on a point of conflict I read in the thread entitled “TV zombies on wheels”.

Why do some people criticize those who “escape” (however temporarily) from the tribulations of modern life?

For example, chronic TV viewership. Why do those who choose not to indulge in a “TV lifestyle” put down those who do? What becomes wrong IN YOUR LIFE if someone decides to be a TV zombie?

Other admittedly less benign forms of escapism (drug and alcohol use, even promiscuity) are criticized even more.

Some might say, “oh, what’s-his-name just sits on that sofa all evening and drinks/watches TV/procrastinates/watches movies/etc… and wastes his/her life…”. But what is the matter with going through life in an “escaped state” (assuming you can pay the bills and PERSONALLY FEEL you are living the life you want to live)?

Unless the behavior of the “escaper” doesn’t infringe on the freedoms of anyone, why don’t these people mind their own business, and lead their own lives?

My question is, why has escapist/indulgent behavior always been labeled as sinful?

After all, I think Billy Joel was on to something: “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints…”

2

I think it’s finding tuna salad in your sub when you clearly said chicken salad at the drive-thru order window.

[Joe Pesci voice] “Okay, Okay - They fffuck you at the drive-thru! They know that you’re going to be miles away before you discover they gave you the wrong thing. They fuck you, okay! Never get drive thru. Okay? Always go in-siiide the restaurant.” [/Joe Pesci voice]

We now return you to your scheduled programming…

3

In general I agree that people should be allowed to live their lives as they see fit. If that means sitting in front of the tv 24/7 then so be it. As long you’re taking care of yourself (i.e. paying your own bills) and your choices don’t impinge on other people’s lives then what’s it to them?

Of course that can be tricky if drugs and/or alcohol abuse is part of the escapism. Most people have family and that sort of behavior can most certainly affect those close to you.

That said I don’t know that it wrong for people to make judgements about other’s choices. If you choose to lay in your bed staring at the ceiling for the next 20 years I feel safe in saying that’s probably not very good way to live one’s life. You are, of course, free to ignore me and I wouldn’t presume to impose my values on you regardless of what I think of your decisions. Nevertheless I still think it’s a worthless way to live one’s life.

The only other issue I see is one might make a case for trying to be a useful member of society (whatever that is). You know, get out and do something useful. That’s a pretty broad brush to paint with I’ll grant but just the same I think there is something to be said for it.

4

It’s not so much that one should impose one’s judgment on others, but that people on the “outside” can sometimes see things more clearly where you are lulled into thinking life’s OK. For example, there I was toodling along fine in life, supporting myself and keep job and home just fine. I go into counseling for something else and they ask me why I haven’t lived up to my potential. I think my life of work, TV, etc., is just fine but I am challenged to think about whether I am being held back by fear or insecurity or whatever. I may or may not be, but it may take a voice from outside to bring up issues one doesn’t see.

That said, I did bristle at people who self-righteously acted like my watching a lot of TV was a waste of life and that their goals were nobler and loftier than mine. I’ve since gotten rid of my TV, not because of criticism but because it was my choice not to be dependent on it.

There’s a difference between encouraging people to be happier and goading or oppressing them into doing so, and this is what the legitimacy of the view depends on. Does it come from a place of derision or concern?

5

Acco40 wrote:

It’s such a nice day outside! Why don’t you kids go out and play, instead of sitting indoors and watching the TV all day? The TV’ll still be here when you get back.

Besides, we all know that becoming a TV zombie leads to sitting around all day using the Internet, and then you’ll grow up doing nothing but posting messages on an on-line bulletin bo-- hey, wait a minute!

6

What I don’t understand is people who attack tv and say reading is better. I hardly ever watch TV and I read all the time. Because for me it is more interesting/fun, not because it is “better”.

I think people critisize it because it leads to being self centered and can often be akin to painting over a problem instead of stripping off the paint and repainting. People who had real problems and patched them over with escapism thinks that everyone does this and that its a bad thing.

7

Watching tv is fine. Reading is fine. So is playing outside, or drinking alcohol. Until it reaches the point where it becomes maladaptive. Any behavior that is used to make someone feel better without addressing the cause of the bad feeling has the potential to be maladaptive. Your big work assignment is due, you feel stressed and overwhelmed. So you have sex/read/watch tv to reduce the negative emotion. Great, if it helps you relax enough to then get the job done. But if the job doesn’t get done, you feel more anxiety, and watch more tv/take more drugs/exercise more. And down the oubliette you go. My early life in a nutshell. Not pleasure seeking, but pain avoidance. Boy, did it suck.

Qadgop, MD

8

I don’t think anything goes wrong in my life if someone else becomes a TV zombie or a reading zombie or whatever. People should be allowed to live however they like.
That said, I think some people have problems with “escapism” because most of the behaviors involved can be seen as lazy, either mentally or physically. At the risk of sounding pretentious and generally full of shit, I think the classic Protestant work ethic would look down on any behavior that wasn’t “useful.” For example, in the book In Cold Blood, Truman Capote characterized Herb Clutter as a hardworking farmer who had no use golf or dinner parties because he doesn’t like activities that don’t “accomplish something.”

9

I love to read. It’s a great pass time. I read all the time. But I also have the TV on constantly. It’s comforting for me. It doesn’t distract me at all.
I think that people claim that TV is bad for you because you don’t have to do any of the thinking to be entertained. Furthemore, most of the standard “sitcoms” are really, really bad.
But before there was TV, people got a hard time for keeping their “nose in a book” all the time. Some people don’t understand how people can “sit around all day doing nothing but reading” while other’s don’t want to be outside in the elements getting hot in the summer, wet in the spring, or cold in the winter. So each side makes up reasons why their better than the other one.

10

First let me say, I love this thread. No really, I’ve spent the better part of the last decade studying, researching and teaching classes in various aspects of leisure and how people spend their free time. Yep, that’s right–I get paid to work at a job where I study fun. Ain’t life grand? :smiley:

Anyhoo… I’ll offer a couple different answers.

First, there is indeed a general sense (right or wrong) that watching television is a lower form of recreation. Why might this be? Well, some would argue because it is nothing more than a passive exposure to various stimuli and not at all a true engagement (where one is actively involved in something). We can recognize that there are certainly degrees of involvement in watching television: being engrossed in a movie or newscast to slouching slug-like on a couch mindlessly watching the images flicker on screen. Thus, generalizations on television watching are subject to these criticisms. It might also be said that television watching is a lower form because it promotes isolation. Interestingly the same criticism was leveled against reading novels (as opposed to newspapers). In the mid 18th Century, when novels first gained prominance, some folks were worried that this type of leisure would insulate people from their communities and give rise to a nation of isolated individuals who have no concerns for their fellow humans. Fast forward 250 years and the same critique is leveled at television.

Another take on the more general question about why ‘escapist’ behavior is considered sinful can be traced back to Ancient Greece. The ancient Greek word for leisure, schole, means "serious activity without the pressure of necessity. To Aristotle, in particular, the highest form of schole was to contemplate the good and noble truths of life (whatever those are). Spending one’s days this way was a virtuous pursuit, while spending them otherwise was at best neutral and at worse a vice. All day in front of a television would be a vice (read: sinful) according to Aristotle for two reasons.

One, it offers no advancement towards understanding the good and noble truths of life. Reason played a preiminant role–above simple pleasure-seeking. This idea echoed in John Stuart Mill’s critique of Jeremy Bentham’s ‘Calculus of Felicity’. Mill worried that leisure choices are not simply quantitative but are also qualitative. As such, some choices are in fact better, more noble, than others. Mill probably wouldn’t argue that pursuing ‘lower’ or ‘baser’ leisure pursuits is sinful or even unethical, but as a founder of a teleological ethical system, he probably would encourage people to pursue those things are more good rather than less good.

Aristotle’s second critique would again fall back on the notion that anything that separates one from his/her community is bad. Living a good and worthy life required participation in the polis.

One question that continually creeps up in this type of discussion is “Why do we leisure at all?” Is it so that we can refresh ourselves for work? Or do we work only so that we can afford to do those things we aspire to in our free time?

11

I may still be bleeding from the trashing I got, but I’m going to say a few words as the attacker on escapist/indulgent behavior. This is apparently a very sensitive issue, much more than I ever deemed possible, and probably would have had less vitriolic reaction to a posting about Republican Zombies or Democratic Zombies. The situation was acerbated by telling a member that letting a child watch TV in the back of a car was inept parenting. I should have known better than calling a parent an inept parent—that is a guarantee of a strong reaction. If, for example, I’d said that feeding a kid radioactive waste was inept parenting, the parent would probably come back defending his actions as a parent.

Contrary to common opinion, the “TV Zombie on Wheels” wasn’t a wholesale condemnation of TV or escapist/indulgent behavior, though it is very clear that my opinion of TV is exceptionally low. Criticism of a certain kind of behavior is nothing new. If I were to make criticisms about nose picking as a base behavior, the nose pickers could rightly say their nose picking inclinations are own business and there is nothing wrong with the thing they do just because I may find it vulgar. Well, that is all very true, but just because I criticize an action does mean I want to force that person into my way of thinking.

Why would I ever want to criticize nose picking? Because it is vulgar IMHO. Why would I want to criticize TV watching (in a car)? Because it is indicative of a zombiesque addiction IMHO. I even had the sneering arrogance to assert that people should have the ability to do without it for a week.

12

I don’t see anything wrong with relaxing in front of the tube after a long day at work. I go to the gym four times a week, I belong to both the Alexandria and Fairfax County Public Libraries and I hang out at the various Smithsonian museums downtown on Sundays (the National Gallery, especially). I also drop a lot of disposable income at Borders and Barnes & Noble and am currently reading the new David McCullough biography of John Adams.

At the same time, I like to watch old movies on Turner Classic Movies, I watch Iron Chef on Food Network, and I gots to have my Buffy on Tuesdays. Frankly, I think staying home and watching TV on a Saturday night is a lot more interesting than hanging out in a smoky bar surrounded by drunken queens dancing to Britney and getting cruised by creepy old men.

So am I a zombie?

13

No you see there is a difference. In this case you would have some objective evidence to back up your opinion. Unlike the case of condemning a parent because (shudder) they let their kid watch TV on an eight hour car trip.

Trying to portray the reaction to your rant as irrational knee jerk defensiveness on the part of parents does not make the original rant rational.

14

That’s a question I’ll let you answer for your self.

15

Well mostly TV watching bugs me when it is in my house. Specifically, when my roomates sit on their arse all day watching TV, it is like having a very loud, very drunk and somewhat stupid guy ranting in the corner, screaming for your attention and laughing at his own jokes, and then trying to sell you stuff.

I will never live with others again.

Beyond that, I have a couple of issues with TVm and escapist/indulgent behavoir in general.

I don’t dig TV for a couple reasons. First off, I am a commie, so I resent how TV is constantly trying to sell you stuff. Beyond that, it is actually selling you to advertisers. When you watch TV, you are the product. I don’t like to see people participating in that economic structure. I also hate TV news, because people seem to think that TV news is an adequete way to get informed about the world. In reality it is sensationalist and nearly content-free. Once again, it is another ploy to make money off you.

My beef with escapism in general is that when you are participating in escapeism, you are not living a self-examined life. I believe that living an examined life can actually prevent evil, and I believe that it is our moral duty to think critically and constantly. If people did that, then no one could ever say “I was just following orders”. I believe that critical thinking is essential to changeing the world for the better and preventing evil.