Seriously, though, I think that there is some danger of putting the cart before the horse. You know that I believe that the problems the modern world will face in the coming few decades are insoluable to human minds. I may think that humans are pretty low on the totem pole when it comes to intelligence, but I don't think they're universally too stupid to notice that they've gotten in over their heads.

People are noticing that the live they live in is a hell of a lot more fragile than the planet they live on...and they're choosing not to live in that world anymore.

I mean, it was appalling. It should stay dead. The only good thing to come of it was that Douglas Adams was able to recycle some of his scripts for it into the first Dirk Gently book...

She seems to blame the internet more heavily than scifi/fantasy for the escapism. Trouble is, she's wrong. People have stopped making face-to-face contact with other humans on a regular basis ever since the advent of television. Talk about an escape! The biggest human contact there is arguing with your husband/kids/sibling about what you get to watch!

But seriously, I think eople have been looking for ways to escape the monotony of their lives for a long time. We've just found better ways to do it now. Has anyone ever read a romance novel around here? Even the good ones? Oh PUH-LEASE! Romance is more escapist than scifi any day of the week...the concept of the tall, dark, handsome stranger who will sweep you off your feet is as old as time. (The physical description might have changed a bit...)

My mom chooses to escape through mystery novels. She gets to help the protagonist find out whodunit. My father reads history. He's escapging then too by stepping into the minds and decisions of great leaders who actually did have the means to influence our society and shape our world. My brother reads philosophy....'nuff said.

And I choose the ultimate form of escape...writing! No one else's worlds are good enough for me, I have to make up my own. Doesn't matter if I get published or not...the act of writing is an escape. And you know what, I know it and I don't even care. When I stop to think about the real world too much I become overly stressed because I really have no control over anything. I barely have control over what I specifically do with my own life and who I associate with....and most of those choices are behind me and can't be changed any longer. (like my choice to get married) Then let's not even go into the lack of choice I have about how much money the government takes from me etc.

So yes, I escape. And you know what? When I surface from my hole to spent time with family and friends, I usually play games. This, too, is a way of escaping, one used for as long as there have been humans! This weekend I'll be starting a new role playing campagaign...escaping! The more positive thing about these escapes is that it still forces me to asociate with real, live humans.

And here's a truism that we cannot ignore. Humans need human contact, it's part of what makes us human. Some people are choosing to get that contact over the internet, which I think is feeble if it's your only means of support, but I know very few whose ONLY means of support is over the internet. Most of the time I notice that the other faceless nics on a site mention family and friends that they asociate with outside the chat room or forum.