Escapism is an ever-rising trend for years to come

Victor Shvets writes …. In the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, Imperial Rome experienced an entertainment and arms race of monumental proportions. Relatively sedate shows of the republican era gave way to evermore extravagant gladiator games, public executions, and chariot races (remember the Gladiotor movie). Although Rome had traditional theatres, all the action was in the games and races. As the Emperors granted more public holidays and the public became addicted to bloody entertainment, new and evermore cruel games had to be devised. Although modern sensitivities would no longer tolerate such bloody spectacles, we have migrated some of the same emotions to an artificial reality and games (zombie invasions, dead space, call of duty) while at the same time, public is becoming so inured to news violence, that even terrorist attacks no longer seem to be able to survive for much more than one or two news cycles. According to BLS survey of the US Consumers, in 2015, ~65% of leisure time was spent on watching TV, games or socially using PCs . According to Nielsen on a broader definition of media (including tablets, smartphones, social sites), consumers are now spending more than 10 hours per day. No matter how one cuts it, alternative reality and what we call opium of the people has emerged as an equivalent of Roman games . Only dystopian portfolios can consistently perform in dystopian world.