How important is it to maintain touch with reality?
  This point was driven home to me recently in conversation with a gentleman
who I've known for a while. He bears a fascination with things mysical and
fantastic. He shows a great interest in surreal, escapist writings (and has
written a great many himself). A few days ago I told him I couldn't
appreciate that sort of thing because it had little grounding in the real
world, and as such, simply wasn't practical.
  His response was that he did not like things which were practical and
grounded in the "real world". He did not wish to discuss the matter further.
  Maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe I misunderstood the whole exchange.
But to me, this moment, more than any other, truly laid bare the point I have
been trying to make for a while: People avoid reality, simply because it does
not please them.
  Some people are called "down-to-earth" by others. This means they have a
good contact with reality. They "keep their feet on the ground", so to speak.
This is considered a compliment. People who can remain down-to-earth are
praised, even admired, for this quality. People seem to think it is a good
thing for others to have. But they do not want it for themselves.
  So as I said at the beginning, how important is it to keep in touch with
reality? Is it important at all? Maybe if the world of fantasy is more
pleasing, you should just stay there. Right?
  It depends. Do you want things to get better, or to simply perceive them as
such? Only by actively examining the real world, studying what's real, can
you hope to achieve anything there.
  Why do people avoid reality? There are probably several reasons, but a
common one is that it's just too awful. People have problems in their lives,
or they see problems in other people's lives, and they feel hopeless. Rather
than try to deal with the problems, they shut them out, ignoring them,
locking themselves in their own warm, safe cocoon. Escapism.
  To me, escapism is not only impractical (because you can't solve problems
unless you are aware of them first), it's also selfish. There are people out
there in the world with problems worse than yours, who are actively trying to
deal with them because they don't have the option of ignoring them. You can
help. But looking away from them and trying to forget about them is not the
way to do it.
  Another reason people avoid reality is sheer boredom. There isn't enough
stimulation in the common and mundane. So they immerse themselves in a
fictional world where anything can (and does) happen, a place where life
never has to be boring. Some people even take joy in nonsense. They read
books, see movies, and expose themselves to other forms of media which, in
retrospect, they themselves admit make little or no sense. But they do it
anyway, because nonsense is "fun". And it's a way of getting away from the
real world. Little wonder so many people in the world today seem to be
unaware of the world around them.
  This is really something I've expressed before. I already spoke of "The
Matrix", and the way people tend to create their own Matrixes to separate
themselves from the real world. But it's worth pointing out, again, that
there are a great many people who actively avoid reality, just because they
can't stand it. Is it any wonder, then, that so many serious problems are
just being ignored? Think about this for a while. If you have never really
taken a look at the world around you, do so now. Take a serious, unbiased
look at the condition things are in. Don't try to look on the bright side,
and don't go the other way and try to look for the bad either. Just look.
See. What do you see?
  I will leave the answer up to you.