I think it's hard to imagine human civilization to have, at any point in time existed without this type of dual world. Like you point out, fantasy does, at times, contain the absolute best parts of us, and I think it is those aspects that help to actually push us forward. At its core fantasy is the result of imagination, and imagination is necessary for advancement, the blending of those fantasies with actual reality therefore is almost inevitable. Of course then there are the negative fantasies, and yeah, when Those begin to blend with our actual reality it is dangerous, even when done to a small degree. Of course some people are more prone than others to do that.

While there is a lack of historical data on this particular subject, I can't help but wonder if when times are 'tough' (in a historical sense) if people begin to have more negative fantasies? And that if the environment is right that blending of those fantasies with reality become more common. I mean, it's just conjecture at this point but I mean, currently we live in a world that, while not horrible by a historical standard, is quite stressful to the human mind.

Anyway, it is an interesting thing to think about, though a bit much for 1:30am ^^;

This!

thank you!

This reminds me a little of an amusing book I read not too long ago called Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. A book about a man who grew out of being a gamer, and had a mid-life crisis and attempted to reconnect to his gaming past. He also went out there deep into the fandom to find some of the people who take things maybe just a bit beyond the norm. It was a fun read. Here's a review.
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/0.....-gaming-geeks/

That sounds like an interesting book, I'll have to try and track a copy down. Funny enough it makes me think about how modern culture really looks down on people that fantasize. I mean, we have an almost insane double standard really, we laud inventors and artists for their creativity (only when it proves profitable though, usually it seems) but then insult and denigrate others who show similar traits but in a less 'useful' manner (utilitarian I mean, not something that is harmful, i.e. how average people perceive 'being furry'). Like how the book review mentioned that often times when ever such fantasy cultures are spoken about it is as a cautionary tale. Sure there are extreme cases out there, but that's true of everything, hell, there are extreme realists (nihilists) out there that probably simply sit around and do nothing at all because 'reality' dictates that nothing you do matters in the long run.

Anyway, what it really all boils down to is that it seems that right now, in modern society (modern society starting somewhere around 1500 that is) we (western civilization primarily, though others are likely guilty of it too) place a great deal of emphasis on 'growing out of' specific things. At some magical point we are told that we are 'too old' to believe x, y, and z, and that we should act like an adult and not believe such silly things and we sure as hell better not Act like we believe those things, yet what has it really gotten us? Honestly I don't know for certain about this, but it didn't seem that the ancient Greeks had mid-life crises, I didn't read about any in all of Plato's dialogues (and there were a people that Really enjoyed fantasizing about lots of things...and usually trying to live those things out), but in our culture it's expected that at some point you will lose your mind and...ironically...try to start living a fantasy after decades of being a 'normal adult.' I guess what I mean by all this rambling is that having and living in a fantasy world seems to be perfectly natural and healthy, and yet we live in a time where doing that is laughed at.

I am not quite sure what you mean by “negative fantasy”, HyenaWolf. Is it a negative fantasy to imagine your tyrannical boss getting fired after a humiliating dress-down by Mister Big for having screwed up the way for the department to does its work? Imagining owning a hypnotic ring that will make anyone do whatever you wanted them to? Daydreaming about being able to “leap tall buildings in a single bound” or beating the snot out of that seventh grade bully and his lackeys who pick on you every day at school?

Fantasy, like imagination, is the mind’s laboratory where we can rehearse different approaches to real life problems. It can also be the mind’s theatre where we can take a vacation and for a little while and can live in a world that is friendlier, kinder and more fun. Sometimes the real world sucks so badly with its sharp teeth that we need to take a mental vacation to keep from going out into that real world and doing something extremely harmful to other people or even ourselves. Fantasies are good things and accepted things and have been around ever since Humankind could create them. Written down they are called novels. Put up on a screen they are called movies. Drawn on paper or painted on canvas they are drawings and pictures that we the viewer can escape into for a few pleasant seconds.

Can fantasies be bad? You betcha! A couple of decades ago, a kid tied a curtain around his neck and leaped off the roof of his Dad’s garage to fly like Superman wearing his "super cape" did. Another kid committed suicide because the old “Battlestar Galactica” TV series that he escaped into every week went off the air. How many kids have gotten into drugs because they saw the cool easy life style of "successful" drug dealers portrayed in a movie? And what about heroes in war movies never getting wounded in the face or maimed or killed? Or how everyone is kind and loving to little children. That last one's the bad fantasy that we give to our children so that they can live in a friendlier, kinder and more fun world.

Robert Kennedy could have been talking about good fantasies when he said, “Some people see things as they are and ask Why? I dream of things that never were and ask, Why Not?”