The Concept of 'Play'

Greetings from Fun City. Life choices are based largely upon existing cultural models. It's like eating at a restaurant. You order from what's on the menu, and it's the rare exception when you order anything that's not on the menu. And if you'd prefer something that's not on the menu, it becomes a crap-shoot as to whether or not you'll get what you want. They'll either accommodate you...or they won't. But the attainment of your desire is entirely beyond your control. Your success or failure is dependent upon the structure of the model, in this case, 'stuff they've actually got in the kitchen.' This then, is the cultural 'model' for the experience of 'eating out.' The same modeling concept applies equally to the slightly more elaborate concept of life choices. The culture in which you are immersed provides you with a convenient menu of options and presents them as the ‘norms’ for the attainment of your purposes in what may well be your one and only life. This urgency is what produces, in humans alone, the phenomenon we call ‘existential angst.’ It’s the knowledge that all we have are our choices in the face of an inevitable death, and to make the wrong ones (in the long-term, anyway) is basically the same thing as pissing our lives away. There are two aspects we deal with in making life choices; one is the ‘what,’ or the specifics that our actions will entail, the other is the ‘how,’ or the ‘basic philosophy’ we choose to adopt regardless of how we handle the specifics. It is in the ‘how’ that all committed hedonists, libertines, radicals, pagans, heathens---whatever handle you choose to self-apply---are joined at the hip. It is in the understanding of the concept of Play.


The concept of Play is fundamental to human development, but is virtually non-existent in the world-view of our day. Modern American culture, defined by the corporate will, the corporate state, and corporate propaganda---all underwritten for the most part by the fundamentalist right---offers up a cultural model that is nothing more than a sham to intelligent individuals. It's the white-collar conservative sell-out lifestyle that has built an entire nation of neurotic psychopaths who have long ago given up on any consideration of the notion of the 'meaning of life.' The cultural model poses the greatest threat to our young people; they always know the truth intuitively, but all too seldom know that they know it. Through the combination of insecurity and the unceasing inculcation of the 'conformity message,' most of them will sooner or later fall victim to the lie. By the time they figure out that they had it right in the first place, they're 45 and will spend the rest of their lives trying to recover what they already knew when they were 17. And what did they know? They knew what it meant to play. To play, is to follow one's instincts. To play is to follow one's bliss. To play is to approach life with a determination to make your own choices, not those that are made for you by those who haven't the slightest understanding of who you are. (continued...)