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foliumnondefluetThe general consensus seems to be "it's ok to be interested in something (fandom, anime, martial arts, whatever fringe activity) as long as you don't take it too seriously", but I think we have not really delved sufficiently in the reasons behind that statement. That is, is it at all possible to take something TOO seriously? If it is, then where should we draw the line?
I was reading something about cults and the following passage caught my attention:
[...] an underlying theme is simplicity. As a junkie once told him "Addiction simplifies life." That is to say one's entire existence revolves around this issue. Nothing else matters. You get up in the morning and you know what you have to do.
With this idea in mind you can begin to see how a person can try to turn anything into a behavioral anchor. All of that person's spare time, energy, effort and money is poured into that fixation. Whatever the fixation, the individual organizes his/her life around it. As chaotic and obsessive as it may seem to the outsider, this creates a form of order in that person's life. Think about it, how many hard-core fans (short for fanatics) organize their spare time around their hobby/passion? They literally schedule their lives and thoughts around it.
In exchange for obsessive devotion to a subject, many of life's difficulties are taken care of for that person. For example, if someone obsessively collects something, quite often that act of collecting can be used as a means not to engage in creating a healthy relationship with members of the opposite sex. That is to say the obsession becomes both an impediment to, and a shield against, having to deal with the complexities of a relationship. It is simpler for the person to collect than to deal with the requirements of a healthy relationship.
Put like this, having such "fixations" sounds rather negative, but the passage raises some questions:
This being said, I think we should definitely monitor our beliefs and activities on a regular basis to see whether they are causing actual harm to us. But then again, isn't "escaping from reality" just "escaping from consensual reality", i.e. society's idea of what should matter more? It's not such a straightforward question, because even "actual harm" is subjective. If the collector from the original quote never gets into a relationship because of sa hobby, there is never going to be proof that this does sa actual harm. Sa may even be worse off in an actual relationship...
I was reading something about cults and the following passage caught my attention:
[...] an underlying theme is simplicity. As a junkie once told him "Addiction simplifies life." That is to say one's entire existence revolves around this issue. Nothing else matters. You get up in the morning and you know what you have to do.
With this idea in mind you can begin to see how a person can try to turn anything into a behavioral anchor. All of that person's spare time, energy, effort and money is poured into that fixation. Whatever the fixation, the individual organizes his/her life around it. As chaotic and obsessive as it may seem to the outsider, this creates a form of order in that person's life. Think about it, how many hard-core fans (short for fanatics) organize their spare time around their hobby/passion? They literally schedule their lives and thoughts around it.
In exchange for obsessive devotion to a subject, many of life's difficulties are taken care of for that person. For example, if someone obsessively collects something, quite often that act of collecting can be used as a means not to engage in creating a healthy relationship with members of the opposite sex. That is to say the obsession becomes both an impediment to, and a shield against, having to deal with the complexities of a relationship. It is simpler for the person to collect than to deal with the requirements of a healthy relationship.
Put like this, having such "fixations" sounds rather negative, but the passage raises some questions:
- The example assumes that "to engage in creating a healthy relationship with members of the opposite sex" is some sort of marker of and requirement for full personhood. So many kinds of normative premises are implied in this example that I can't just pass them over. A "healthy" relationship is obvious codespeak for "normative". Gays and asexuals obviously have more interesting things to do with their time than "a relationship with members of the opposite sex", but even that aside the singlism is obvious.
- How often is "quite often"?
- This passage manages to present "relationships" as such a thoroughly unpleasant and complex chore that one puzzles why anyone would even want to "deal with" them. And collecting seems to offer an effective coping strategy for escaping this drudgery.
- What about all those people who obsessively engages in relationships as a means to avoid dealing with the requirements of healthy stamp collecting?
- Is this really any different from people who totally fixate on their career, their stock options, their relationships, or any other supposedly "acceptable" obsessions? We could say attach ourselves to nothing (All attachments lead to suffering. Scan for viruses.) but we all need something to attach ourselves to.
This being said, I think we should definitely monitor our beliefs and activities on a regular basis to see whether they are causing actual harm to us. But then again, isn't "escaping from reality" just "escaping from consensual reality", i.e. society's idea of what should matter more? It's not such a straightforward question, because even "actual harm" is subjective. If the collector from the original quote never gets into a relationship because of sa hobby, there is never going to be proof that this does sa actual harm. Sa may even be worse off in an actual relationship...
