I recently saw a National Geographic
video clip which revealed to me something profound. The clip shows a man whose uses enormous diapers, a giant crib, pacifiers, and has a live-in nurse. The catch? He has no handicaps or mental disabilities––he even has a normal job.
I know that if I had enormous diapers, a giant crib, and pacifiers, it would be because I was making the world’s biggest pacifier sling-shot, and my live-in nurse would be there just in case the diaper sling didn’t release the ammo properly (like what happened to
this poor girl).
But the man on National Geographic wasn’t building medieval weapons out of giant surplus nursery items. For him, wearing diapers, sleeping in a crib, and being taken care of by a nurse are all part of his lifestyle: Infantilism. He finds comfort and stress-relief in pretending to be a baby. Babies have no responsibilities and no worries; their world is one of warmth and love. The real world is a hard place, and this man escapes by living a fantasy. As the man himself admits, Infantilism is Escapism at its fullest.
After watching the video, it occurred to me that all Escapism is Infantilism, which is why Escapism ultimately makes children of men. Escapism is not only an escape from reality, it’s an escape from responsibility, and therefore from adulthood. Our world does not need perpetual children; to shun responsibility is cowardice, and our world is desperately devoid of real heroes.
We become Escapists anytime we flee to imaginary worlds to escape reality. We flee to films. We turn to music. We run from reality by refusing to entertain disturbing ideas: the idea that we’re wrong, that we ought to do some unpleasant thing, that we ought not have done something that we did. We create worlds where we are heroes, where there is no evil––at least no potent evil, where the gods have spoken and declared us perfect as we are.
Of course, not all films or music or imaginary worlds are Escapist in the same sense. Nor should all shunned ideas be considered. (It is good to shun thoughts of murder, for instance. Those who entertain them make dangerous friends.) Sometimes an escape from the cares of the world is a good thing. Everyone needs a Sabbath.
The rule in determining between wrong escapes (Escapism) and right escapes (Rejuvenation) is this: a bad escape is an escape from reality, a good escape is a leap into reality. We may forget ourselves in a movie, but a good film will leave us inspired to live our lives; a bad film will leave us wishing for someone else’s life. A good piece of music will leave us searching the world for beauty, a bad piece will leave us searching the world for ourselves.
Children ignore problems and hope that they go away on their own. That is why they wear diapers. Given a choice, I would rather be an adult.
