Letter to the Editor: To Make The Trap Seem Inevitable
To send a letter to the editor, simply write in. You’ll get a reply and we’ll anonymise any blogged version.
Reader B writes:
I purchased a used copy of Escape Everything! and am devouring it. It’s remarkable how much I can read once my time and attention are not being sucked into The Trap.
I have also ordered copies for my parents — for them to acquire the understanding and vocabulary your work establishes — and for my classmate who is taking a “mini-retirement,” and whom I think would really be guided by your writing.
May I ask a question that you are uniquely able to answer, as both the editor and a former librarian? From page 92 of your book: “An Escapologist is a person who has become aware of The Trap, who has considered its mechanisms, and has resolved to escape.”
You acknowledge that most people are unaware of The Trap, but does your work analise the mechanisms through which The Trap keeps itself obscure? I found a partial answer on page 154: “The reason so many people think they need to work full-time is because of the staggering number of obligations they have: television licenses and/or satellite television packages need to be paid for, as do cars; home entertainment;…
This makes sense, but surely there are other strategies the ruling class uses to make The Trap seem inevitable — like school curricula and Hollywood — that normalise the consumer economy. But what else do you see that keeps The Trap so undetectable?
I suffered for decades from what I believe is toxic indoctrination first in the Northeast USA and then in a multinational professional services firm, and had to overcome resistance before I even knew to seek out works such as The Idler and the New Escapologist. My goal right now is to better understand how The Good Life was hidden from me to find any remaining “manacles” that still limit my thinking.)
Admiringly yours,
B
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Wow, what an email. Your question, alas, is huge and all-encompassing. The Trap captures us as soon as we plop out of our mums. I remember a “Tom the Dancing Bug” comic from about 2002 (I tried to find it today but couldn’t) depicting a baby with a barcode on their forehead and someone off-screen saying “don’t worry, little consumer, we’ve got it all planned out for you.”
You mention school. Yes, that is one way. They say school is there to prepare us for life and yet most of it is algebra and gym class and oxbow lakes and all manner of nonsense that will never come up again. It’s a very surreal place really. We aren’t generally taught how to cook, to change a lightbulb, to respect our lovers, to balance a household budget. Whether its by design or simply how it has gradually evolved, school basically gets us used to the idea of sitting still, doing what we’re told, and not thinking about whether this experience makes a blind bit of sense. Just like at work!
I suppose television is another thing. Ever since starting the magazine, I’ve suggested people don’t bother with TV. Read books instead. You’re more likely to come across a plurality of ideas in books than on TV, which (high-quality dramas, comedy and documentary aside) tends to parrot the usual old shit without question.
Social media obviously. Much has been written about that and how it establishes and distorts norms. Supermarkets because they present a limited choice and too many tempting ultra-processed foods that are bad for you. Toxic masculinity. Advertising. Certain phrases in language (“there is no alternative,” “it can’t be done”) that people parrot unthinkingly. Urgh. The list goes on.
It’s best not to get paranoid about this stuff though. Escape it the best you can, look into (or invent) the alternatives, and move on.
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More-akami
Here’s some more from that Murakami book:
However, there isn’t just one reality. Reality is something you have to choose by yourself, out of several possible alternatives.
He’s talking about a mysterious semi-fictional town that appears in his latest novel. But he’s also talking about free will. Every choice you make creates, in a way, a new reality.
Escapologists are keen to choose one of the myriad paths into a reality of self-directed fun and to avoid one of the myriad paths back into The Trap.
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