Where Are We Escaping To?

I was scrolling down Twitter when I stumbled upon this post by Sargon of Akkad. 

Long story short, a YouTuber named HeelvsBabyface made an outrage video on wokness in an upcoming video game. A Leftist called him out for complaining about something so superficial, and Sargon of Akkad did his usual slamdunk take. However, while reading all of this, something stuck in my craw. I kept coming back to the first paragraph of Sargon’s post—namely this part:

“It’s everywhere in the real world, and now it’s in his escapism, which he paid good money for. Why should he not be angry?”

This sat wrong with me for a few reasons. HeelvsBabyface has been in the YouTube game long enough to know the state of the industry and his position in it. He certainly knew that Starfield was going to be woke long before he purchased the game. Furthermore, it would take an astounding lack of self-awareness to not realize how little the YouTube critic crowd has pushed the industry back on these points. And while I don’t want to make any accusations, I also can’t imagine how he doesn’t realize how he directly benefits from the outrage and how wokeness directly helps his bottom line. 

But putting that aside, I have a bigger concern than the outrage cycle and its perpetrators. It’s a self-destructive process that sinisterly feeds on itself, and everyone should stay away from it. That’s old news. What I’m concerned about is the type of escapism we are all referring to. 

Anyone on this side of Twitter knows Tolkien’s lavish praises of escapism. But for anyone unfamiliar with the quote, here it is:

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”

Now I think this is a shade of what Sargon was referring to. Or at least, he referred to escapism as harmless fun to take one’s mind away from the real world. Either definition works. But I want you to imagine a different form of escapism. Our jailers are very clever, and they noticed Tolkien’s words. However, instead of using his message for the purposes of the transcendent and uplifting the human soul, they put their talents to a much darker purpose. 

In their escapism, the prisoner is led to the courtyard boxed in by a chain-linked fence. Here he is freed from his cramped cell and his grating shackles. Here he is given all sorts of assortments—perhaps a basketball court or a soccer goal—and he is left to his own devices. The prisoner takes these with relief and enjoys his newfound freedom. 

However, the purpose of these amenities is not to help him better himself; they are to drain them. These things occupy the prisoner’s mind. They tire his muscles, and soon he needs rest. The horizon is placed tantalizingly close, and the sunshine whets the appetite enough. When the prisoner is taken back into his cell, he is satiated just enough to be content with what he has. The prisoner has been lulled into complacency, and worse, the guards can now threaten to take such freedoms away if he misbehaves. 

For many, this is the role of television, movies, and video games in their lives. And to be clear, what I’ve said here has been said a thousand times before. But this message must be repeated, reframed, and restated until it finally sinks in. So much better is within our grasp if only we push aside the garbage that is drip-fed to us. 

This is not a condemnation of these mediums, but rather a condemnation of the putrid state they mire in. HeelvsBabyface should not be beholden to Starfield in any way. He should not be beholden to Bethesda or any other video game company. Yet, he cannot exist without the industry that he claims to despise. His outrage video was inevitable, and they’ll milk him for it. He is a slave to these forces as much as he outcries otherwise. 

And the most insidious part of all of this is that these properties do have good elements baked within them. The prisoner cannot be tempted if the guards just shovel garbage in his mouth. Sometimes these good elements are merely the nostalgia of what came before, sometimes it’s in the unrealized potential of these products, sometimes there is admittedly a glimmer of genius left.

However, these moments are becoming scarcer and scarcer as the woke is allowed to flex its muscles, free from all restriction. And the most depressing part of all of this is that they are unapologetically malicious, and people still come back to them for content. Watching HeelysBabyface’s video did not strike me as a man raging against the system. Rather, it seemed a man utterly demoralized and wanting for the beatings to stop. This is what they want, and I reject that wholeheartedly. 

The escapism of the modern world is not the escapism of Tolkien. It is rather an addiction, a poor substitute meant to keep us busy. This escapism seeks only to waste our time, and to channel what energy we have into meaningless pursuits. The good news is that people are rapidly waking up. The bad is that we’ve got a long way to go before establishing a counter culture of any real force. 

I didn’t write this article to criticize HeelvsBabyface. I didn’t write it to proclaim to the streets the evils of the AAA game industry. I’m not even condemning people who participate in this culture (I have done so many times and probably will continue to do so in the future). None of us are perfect. What I am asking is to be aware of what you are committing. When you consume art, make sure it is not the art consuming you. 

Escapism is good, but be sure you are actually escaping.