Recently though, I have come to understand just how unnecessary and misguided the notion of the romantic escape really is. What’s more, I believe I finally have a window into what caused Dilbert’s affliction to take hold of our society.

It all stems from the paradox of adult life: more possibilities, less freedom. You see, over the years we all accumulate more and more obligations in the form of degrees, jobs, changing families, taxes etc. At the same time, our natural fear of change coupled with the fact that many of these things are quite meaningful to us makes it harder and harder to ever think of leaving them behind. The inner turmoil this all causes manifests itself in those moments when you find yourself daydreaming about sneaking away into the wilderness.

William Wordsworth epitomized this feeling in 1804, as he sat longing to return to a patch of flowers he had once passed by:

For oft, when on my couch I lie / In vacant or in pensive mood / They flash upon that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude; / And then my heart with pleasure fills, / And dances with the daffodils.

These words are undeniably beautiful, but they and countless others written in the same vein also are the source of that problematic longing. Romantic narratives like “Walden,” “The Catcher in the Rye” and more recently “Into the Wild” have gained an increasingly powerful grip on popular opinion over the years. All of these stories share the common message that a truly meaningful existence is impossible within modern society.

However, it must be remembered these works and this feeling they have spawned are not the result of any real feature of the modern working world. Rather, these works are the product of the deep troubles that characterize artists in general, and accepting their teachings comes at a great cost.

That cost is exchanging the ability to see the avenues to happiness that surround us all for an outlook that offers nothing in return. In adopting the mindset of those cultural elites the only desirable path becomes one that most of us are not willing or able to embark upon — the escape.

An individual who buys into these romantic ideals then develops a dissonance between what she believes is right and how she actually behaves. The very definition of cognitive dissonance.

This condition is not exclusive to office workers either. I have seen it in business students who call capitalism a farce, art students who reject the notion of objective beauty and biologists who tell me that, deep down, the point of life is procreation. They are all infected like I once was.

The good news is that all these hip but contradictory opinions can be done without because for the vast majority of us, those writers are wrong.

The freedom to reflect and engage in meaningful work that people seek on that hypothetical commune is never far away. All you have to do is pause before putting on your headphones, resist the urge to go on Facebook and shy away from the coffee the next time these feelings crop up and instead ask, “Why?”

The only real cure for Dilbert’s condition is to look inside yourself, figure out what is troubling you and then start experimenting with ways to fix it. In the words of the Dalai Llama “When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.”

Thankfully, you don’t have to go far to engage in this kind of self reflection. However, curing my affliction did require recognizing that stories like Holden Caulfield’s eventual insanity and Alexander Supertramp’s death should be taken as lessons and not romantic ideals.

Now, I am not advocating an end to art or vacations. I only want a recognition that the feeling of growth that can color individual existence with meaning always is within reach. So, go out and start exercising, study toward a new career, make forays into the dating world or explore your faith more seriously.

Just don’t let that longing to escape get you down, because, in reality, your commune can be anywhere.

Christian Hokans is a guest columnist at The State News and a political theory and constitutional democracy senior. Reach him at hokansch@msu.edu.