Holidays are in no sense an alternative to the congestion and bustle of cities and work. Quite the contrary. People look to escape into an intensification of the conditions of ordinary life, into a deliberate aggravation of those conditions: further from nature, nearer to artifice, to abstraction, to total pollution, to well above average levels of stress, pressure, concentration and monotony -- this is the ideal of popular entertainment. No one is interested in overcoming alienation; the point is to plunge into it to the point of ecstasy. That is what holidays are for.

Summary

This quote by French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard suggests that holidays are not meant to provide a break from the busyness of everyday life, but rather to intensify and exacerbate its conditions. People seek an escape from their ordinary lives by immersing themselves in an exaggerated version of reality – one that is disconnected from nature and dominated by artificiality, pollution, stress, and monotony. Baudrillard argues that popular entertainment aims to plunge individuals deeper into their alienation, rather than trying to overcome it. Holidays, then, serve as an opportunity for people to indulge in and derive pleasure from their own alienation.

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