Escapism Part I of II

I wonder why escapism has such a negative connotation. We look at people who have pursuits like reading, watching movies, loigagging, playing video games, spending time in academics, drinking, laying around chatting with their friends as escapists. Dead weight. Unable to handle the real world.

When I think of escape I imagine scaling the walls of a prison. Sunlight after darkness. Words like liberation and freedom come to mind.

I am always weary of people who use the term escapist behaviors. These are usually the people making up the box I want to get out of.

I like to ask them what am I escaping from? What is reality? Inevitability the discussion comes back to the shirking of responsibility and vague terms like not living up to potential and falling short of some sort of social contract we apparently all signed but no one seems to have a copy of.

I realize that idle waste of time is an elitist luxury and that not everybody is entitled to it but if that is what I want to purchase with my work what is the problem?

Why is working hard to buy a lexus more acceptable then working hard to purchase the right to day dream all day? Why is one considered richer then the other when they only differ in what they choice to buy?

I don't know what I am trying to say here or what this is supposed to mean, but I do know that some time ago I escaped in my mind. That I am off the reservation. Wandering the wilderness. I kind of feel like Neo somedays staring at the matrix. I can see it, I can go in and out of it but most people don't know that it is there.