nihilism vs escapism

There are two ways that people deal with impossibly bad news; nihilism and escapism. 

Look at the cyberpunk genre. It started as a caricature of the politics, wars, corporate greed, and rising technologies of the 1980s and 19990s. It was an attempt to give a face to the dread that lurked behind every technological advance or world-changing event. Now cyberpunk has become a silent admission that we're all doomed. The corporations will skull-f*ck the planet to death while paying less than a living wage to the regular people they claim to serve. Politicians turn a blind eye to protect their re-election funding. The world is only getting more and more chaotic. If you're on a niche platform like this you're already trying to escape the surveillance state of social media and nonstop pop-up ads. So when we see Ryan Gosling and his e-girl trudging through impossible odds and changing the world just a little bit, we relate because his futile attempts to feel real represent us. 

On the other end of the spectrum is escapism. If cyberpunk is an admission of defeat and outrage against how f*cked we are then escapism is plugging your ears and singing loudly enough that you can't hear the screams anymore. The biggest example of that would be superhero movies. Shitty people can go spend $10 to escape real life for a few hours with the added bonus of second hand endorphins from watching their favorite hero save people. They walk out feeling like they were the ones who saved the day. They feel like they helped when all they did was sit in a dark room and eat candy for 2 hours. Then they go online and tell people who liked different movies to kill themselves all while ignoring that half of the super flicks they love were made by rapists and predators. In other words, if Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049 is the embodiment of overwhelming nihilism then Ryan Gosling in Barbie is the poster boy for extravagant distractions. Why worry about the homeless veteran and his starving dog that you saw under that overpass when there's a big musical number to enjoy? Feeling glum? Well, look at these pretty colors and funny jokes! So what's the best way to handle it?

Well, all things in moderation. To keep my Ryan Gosling analogy going because I've sort of committed to it at this point, think of The Nice Guys or The Gray Man. Gosling plays a witty fella who actively stands up against an overwhelmingly corrupt government system. He isn't blind to reality but he isn't dwelling in self-pity all day. In essence, unplugging from the news or the internet to escape and relax is really healthy but don't hide from reality forever. Healing and hiding are too very different things. Don't engage with the harshness of a failing system too often to burn yourself out trying to save the world all by yourself. Popular culture is simultaneously an escape from reality and a medium where we can examine parts of the human condition through fresh eyes. It isn't meant to replace real life and is isn't meant to pull us deeper into the inky black abyss of life either. We just have to take it one day at a time and remember that the healthiest way to live is a balance of many things.