Play Within Life
Life imitates play in many areas:
The legal system carries many elements of play: the wig worn by a judge in some courts, the robes of the prosecutor and defense attorney, are no different from the mask worn by a stage actor.
Even non-modern wars carry features of games; knights are the last representatives of the play culture within wars. Their costumes, codes of conduct, and even ways of fighting are closer to the agreed rules of play than to the pragmatic rules of real life.
“Play is the Masquerade, the Potlatch, the Kula Ring.”
Play stretches across time, intertwined with life for thousands of years, taking shape in different ways within every culture. In every era, it has received the respect it deserved, serving as a mediator in resolving social tensions. Only within the span reaching from Modern Society to our present day has its value become diminished. Just as the aristocrats’ habit of dressing in color was mocked and replaced with duller clothing, or as chocolate was dismissed as childish and coffee was chosen as the more suitable stimulant for serious, productive people—so too has play been pushed aside by the materialist world.
“The domain of play belongs to the primitive, the child, and the poet.”
Many rituals whose origins reach back to primal times contain elements of play. Initiation ceremonies, seasonal celebrations, reenactments of the hunt, and countless other rites bear the characteristics of play. From the first days when belief began to emerge up to the present, religious ceremonies and forms of worship have remained in close contact with play. From the earliest tribal communities to modern society, social structure and play have always existed in mutual interaction.
Sport is play; the very notion of the “Olympic Games” hints at this. Many of the necessities we used in defining play can equally be found in the definition of athletic contests.
Philosophy is play; it asks questions, poses riddles. On the path toward understanding and meaning, it employs winding methods.
Theater is play. It is founded on drama, and even its earliest beliefs lead us back to Dionysus, the most playful of gods.
Music is play. Play exists outside the measures of reason, duty, and truth; the same can be said of music. The ancestor of the word music, the Ancient Greek mousike, was broad enough to include song, instrumental accompaniment, poetry, and even dance. Tracing back to Apollo and the Muses (mousa), this concept was used not to signify a single art but the union of many, taking its place in education, religious rites, and social life in this very way.
All of these find their roots in play, and have managed to preserve this essence throughout the ages.
Yet industrialization has inflicted significant damage on this structure.
The professionalization of sport has rapidly pushed it into the realm of serious pursuits.
Philosophy has been reduced to a tool of manipulation, torn from everyday life and locked within the expertise of academia.
Art has been severed from its vital role in social life, becoming something concerning only the individual. It has come to be governed by specialization and market mentality.
“In modern culture, play is no longer truly played—and in those instances where it appears to be, it is carried out with deception.”
True culture cannot exist without a certain play-content, for culture demands a sense of moderation and self-mastery: not striving for perfection as its end, but rather accepting itself as bound within freely consented limits. True civilization always requires fair play. The spoilsport corrupts culture itself.
Speaking of the spoilsport, then—let us now set aside the game itself and turn to the players.
Thoughts on the game: