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O
NE OF the bastions of childhood is play beauty, money or power – is valued only because
– and yet this is by no means an area we expect that it will make us happy.
exclusive to children. A real, global trend So to call yourself a ‘player’ rather than a
that’s gaining pace is the notion of ‘play’, form- ‘worker’ is to immediately widen your concep-
ing a new manifesto for the way we choose to live. tion of who you are and what you might be
Yet how many brands reflect this social reality? capable of doing. It is to dedicate yourself to
In his book The Play Ethic, author Pat Kane realising your full human potential; to be active,
says, ‘This we know – we’re stressed out, debt- not passive. As Sartre said, ‘Play is what you do
ridden, exhausted. We have less time for our when you feel at your most free, your most
families than we feel we should have. We take voluntary’.
fewer pleasures from our entertainments and At the beginning of this new century, the
consumptions than we expected to take. We feel social group that seems to be playing for keeps
less connected to our communities than we ever is the digital generation. For them, play is natu-
did. In our workplaces, we subject ourselves to rally what you do with your world; there’s no
routines and duties which at best seem pointless, angst or self-loathing about it … these are the
at worst unethical or immoral. Yet we also feel backpackers of Alex Garland’s The Beach, using
like hollow citizens, too weary to respond to any cheap flights and travel literature to make the
political entreaty with anything other than a world their playground. But why ‘play’ and why
shrug. In short, we are workers.’ now? Eugene Levitt (author of The Psychology of
The trivialisation of play was the work ethic’s Anxiety) says, ‘One of the major roots of play
most lasting, and most regrettable, achievement. today is fear of risk and the ever growing sense
This is ‘play’ as the great philosophers under- that things are falling apart … a broader infan-
stood it: the experience of being an active, tilisation of society makes play a socially
creative and fully autonomous person. As Brian acceptable course to take.’
Sutton-Smith, Dean of Play Studies at the Yet the subject is an enormous one – and one
University of Pennsylvania says, ‘The opposite that is seemingly impossible to sum up neatly.
of play isn’t work. It’s depression. To play is to According to Roger Guillard (author of Les Jeux
act out and be wilful, exultant and committed, as et les Hommes), ‘The world of games/play is so
if one is assured of one’s prospects.’ varied and complex that there are numerous
Over 2000 years ago, Aristotle concluded ways of studying it. Psychology, sociology, anec-
that, more than anything else, men and women dotage, pedagogy, and mathematics so divide its
seek happiness. While happiness itself is sought domain that the unity of the subject is no longer
for its own sake, every other goal – health, perceptible. Not only are such works as Homo
and the board) and nothing that takes place 1. play has a new pervasiveness
outside this ideal frontier is relevant. To leave by 2. IT in general and mobile phones in partic-
mistake, accident or necessity may disqualify or ular will give a major boost to play
entail a penalty.’ Elsewhere, Meyer Barash, 3. play rarely provides us with moments of
translator of Man and the Sacred notes ‘Play is an liberation
occasion of pure waste: waste of time, energy, 4. play is now as much about community-
ingenuity, skill, and often of money . . . it is also building as about commercialism
an essential element of human social and spiri- 5. a culture of fear now surrounds play.
tual development.’
Another take on the subject was the wonder- The Work Foundation says that the rise of
ful book Flow – the Psychology of Optimal many high-potential small and medium-sized
Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who companies, who offer a fun and flexible envi-
tried to understand as exactly as possible how ronment, is forcing larger organisations to
people felt when they most enjoyed themselves, reconcile the working environment they offer.
and why. His first studies involved a few hun- ‘The irrevocable decline of job security means
dred ‘experts’ – artists, athletes, musicians, that fun may be a more durable adhesive tying
chess masters and surgeons – in other words, talent to an organisation than a promise of pro-
people who seemed to spend their time in pre- motion and advancement.’
cisely those activities they preferred. From Led by America, management theory favours
their account of what it felt like to do what they play; on both sides of the Atlantic the vocabulary
were doing, he developed a theory of ‘optimal of business is today suffused with metaphors
experience’ based on the concept of ‘flow’, that are as inane as they are playful. Managers
meaning the state in which people are so ‘draw up a game plan’, ‘get on the fast track’,
involved in an activity that nothing else seems ‘stay in the right ballpark’ and play ‘hard ball’.
to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable They ‘touch base’ with everyone. (And at a time
that people will do it at great cost, for the sheer of turmoil in America where the difference
sake of doing it. Csikszentmihalyi noted that ‘it between ‘reality’ and ‘image’ is ever more
has long been recognised that the productive blurred, it’s well worth remembering Jean
activities of a society are a useful way of Baudrillard’s comments from America – ‘it is
describing its character: thus we speak of hunt- Disneyland that is authentic here’.)
ing-gathering, pastoral, agricultural, and So – there we have it – an occasion of ‘pure
technological societies. But because flow activ- waste’ that is utterly vital to our well-being as indi-
ities are freely chosen and more intimately viduals and as a society. In The Play Ethic Pat
related to the sources of what is ultimately Kane says that the radicalism of the play ethic is
meaningful, they are perhaps more precise that it asks us to seriously consider what the
indicators of who we are.’ American Constitution calls ‘the pursuit of happi-
Yet, in a modern ‘Play Nation’ playtime is no ness’. And the roots of our happiness, surely, lie
escape – in a recent study into cultural trends deep in our playful selves. ‘As well as all the previ-
James Woudhuysen from the Policies Studies ous prescriptions, proposals and policies, we could
Institute wrote, ‘Play has insinuated itself into do worse than to occasionally becalm ourselves
the pores of everyday life as the direct outcome and try to recover those early moments – when the
of the need people have for community, safety art of life was easily learned and joyfully practised.’
and security in a world that is seen as frag- From the interactive, ‘fun’ office of the knowl-
mented, stressful and dangerous.’ He had five edge economy to the carnival atmosphere of the
major points to make: anti-capitalist demo, participation in playful per-