Reality is the Place With the Food

Reality is one of those things we tend to put up with until something better comes along.  I have yet to meet anyone who was entirely happy with reality yet we endure it with varying degrees of reluctance and resentment.

One of the principal methods used to deal with reality is to get as far away from it as we possibly can.  The most common way of doing this is essentially to compartmentalise.  That is, slice reality into a small, self specific piece and focus completely on that interacting with the rest of reality only when absolutely necessary.  Others simply remove themselves from reality completely and operate according to an artificially constructed reality that exists only in their head.  I call this the Insane or Ideological approach to reality.  Such people while frequently gifted tend to be appallingly dangerous.

Something that has become increasingly popular in recent times is computer generated alternate realities; things like Second Life.  Originally thought to be of interest only to computer geeks and money launderers Second Life has become highly popular with a lot of people who probably wouldn't classify themselves as either (I'll wait for the jury's verdict before committing myself).  In Second Life people can take on different personalities, different jobs, build homes and generally behave as they would in the "real" reality.  Frankly I can't see the point, you can do all of that simply by living your life and you can save yourself the expense of buying a computer.  I suppose the appeal is in the nuancing, you can be yourself but that little bit sharper, smarter, sexier and happier than you are in real life.  Personally I find maintaining one personality to be hard work, I'm certainly not going to take on any more.

I think the idea of a leisure pursuit that duplicates the existence one is trying to escape from, albeit in idealised form, completely misses the point.  Slightly more understandable is something like World of Warcraft.  I emphasise the word "slightly".  In this game you wind up in a totally different world as (if you wish) a totally different species.  The sort of things you encounter are slightly more of a change than simply being a rocket scientist instead of an accountant.  Only not so much.  The situations may be different but the people aren't.  How could they be?  Short of a collective personality transplant any alternate reality is going to wind up pretty close to the real one because it is inhabited by the same types of people.  Finally of course reality wins because its the only place we can get food.

I personally live in a fantasy world during most of my spare time.  I rewrite, reinterpret and put a gentle gloss on my life to make it a little more acceptable to me.  However I never fail to realise that it isn't real, just a gentle self deception to make my life a little more bearable.  It might not be reality but you can see it from there.  I'm not divorced from reality, we've just come to a mature decision to see a little less of each other.