We’re Escapologists

i-quit-post

Escape is thrilling: the wind rushing through your hair as you scarper as quickly as possible, resisting the temptation to look back to see if they’ve found your note yet.

It can be an unbeatable high. But it can also be the most reasonable, economical and practical course of action.

Not that you’d necessarily know it. We’re not generally encouraged to see commitments to things like work or shopping as the traps they are and as such escapable. British culture instead promotes endurance, to grin and bear it no matter how bored or miserable you are. American culture encourages fight over flight, to go down with all guns blazing.

There aren’t enough people saying “Sod this. I’m getting out of here. Pass me the good tunnelling spoon.”

Those who give up and walk out are too often considered cowardly, uncommitted or, oh dear, “a quitter”. The pupil escaping double maths by playing truant is punished. Those who escape the workforce are considered lazy or wasted or eccentric. Emigrants are viewed with suspicion, though their only crime was to stray from the landmass they happened to be born on.

This is all rather silly. We should respect people who take action by quitting the jobs they hate, leaving the partners they no longer love, fleeing the cities they find depressing, and abandoning traditions in which they find no value.

The will to flee was once considered a mental illness. Drapetomania was the apparent madness responsible for a plantation slave wanting to escape his captors. An American physician called Samuel A. Cartwright named the condition and explained that it could be seen where a slave became “sulky and dissatisfied without cause” and could be prevented by “whipping the devil out of them”.

In his eyes, being forced into backbreaking unpaid servitude was not considered adequate cause for “dissatisfaction”.

The Nazis were anti-escape too. Those who attempted (or were thought to be plotting) escape from concentration camps were branded with a Fluchtverdächtiger badge in addition to the badge representing whatever crime against Fascism had originally brought them to the camp. Not only was it awful to be born Jewish or gay or simply workshy, it was equally contemptible to want to escape being worked to death or gassed.

Today, a CV overflowing with short-term or dissimilar jobs is seen as unprofessional or belonging to an unfocused, undisciplined individual rather than, as the case may be, someone who is sporting or widely-experienced. Frankly, a CV professing no deviation from a single career plan can only belong to a liar or a twat but employers don’t often seem to notice this.

Slave owners, Nazis and HR Managers. Those are the kinds of people who oppose escape.

Against the grain, some of us are happy to walk out on a displeasing situation. We’re Escapologists.

About

Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk

5 Responses to “We’re Escapologists”

  1. Spoonman says:

    Very enjoyable read. Would you hate me if I were to use the Fluchtverdächtiger as the official symbol for a blog about a couple’s newfound freedom after leaving the 9-5?

    On a side note, I very much envy your ability to read 65 books per year (that’s the number I remember from a previous blog entry). I think it would be great if you wrote a NE article on the subject.

  2. Oh yes, go right ahead and use it! In fact, I’d encourage it! Let’s reclaim the Fluchtverdächtiger. Let me know when your blog is live and I’ll link to it at our Fluchtverdächtiger page (http://newescapologist.co.uk/a-symbol-of-escape/).

    Haha. I read a ridiculous amount. I think 2014’s book list might end up even longer than last year’s. I’m not even a particularly fast reader, I just spend a lot of time (maybe too much) with my nose in a book. I’ll give it some thought, Spoonman, and see if I can make an article of it.

  3. Quitter says:

    I will be quitting my job in 2 weeks time. Haven’t decided the best way to do it yet. I’ve been on paternity leave for the last 5 months looking after our baby and have realised I never want to go back. I’m considering calling HR to give my notice and then sending my laptop & mobile phone by courier so that I never have to step back in that god-awful place again. Is it even worth worrying about?? Thoughts?

    p.s. I have pre-ordered your book. Keep up the marketing and then get the damn thing published 😉

  4. Thanks for pre-ordering the book, Quitter. I’ll honor your support by doing a good job of the book.

    Do you have the means to be a full-time stay-at-home dad after quitting? As for technique, maybe a candid chat with your HR department first? you could explain that you’re thinking of moving on and that you’d like to know what the usual procedure is. A formal letter is usually the best bet (and sending back company property by courier should be fine if you genuinely never want to go back) but it’s probably a good idea to politely check that you’re not duty-bound to finish up the contract or give two-weeks notice before storming out. The double goodbye is never good!

  5. […] + Do you want to be an ‘escapologist’? […]

Leave a Reply

Latest issues and offers

1-7

Issue 14

Our latest issue. Featuring interviews with Caitlin Doughty and the Iceman, with columns by McKinley Valentine, David Cain, Tom Hodgkinson, and Jacob Lund Fisker. 88 pages. £9.

8-11

Two-issue Subscription

Get the current and next issue of New Escapologist. 176 pages. £16.

Four-issue Subscription

Get the current and next three issues of New Escapologist. 352 pages. £36.

PDF Archive

Issues 1-13 in PDF format. Over a thousand digital pages to preserve our 2007-2017 archive. 1,160 pages. £25.