Patriotism and play on my mind at the moment...
This one comes from 2003, but I think it's interesting - an analysis of the proposed citizenship ceremonies for prospective UK immigrants. It aims to 'make gaining British citizenship meaningful and celebratory rather than simply a bureaucratic process', in the words of Bernard Crick, the distinguished proposer. In terms of the rhetorics of play, this is truly ancient stuff - the carnival and ritual that allows for membership of a community. But, as ever, to take one form of play for the whole of play is mistaken. How much mental play does this allow? How much freedom is in this play?
Tie this to the positive patriotism expressed in much of the UK papers this morning about Britain's medal haul at the Olympics - with the fabulous Kelly Holmes as exemplar - and you can see why Blair recently took his opportunist chance to re-validate competitive sports in schools. Again, one rhetoric of play predominating - play as power-and-contest, suggesting that the 'nation that plays together, stays together'. Yet what about play-as-fate-and-chaos - the need to live with chaos, failure and fragility? Or play-as-triviality - the right to regard all prizes as finite follies, a 'tinsel show'?
And finally, I noted from the pieces on the new Scottish parliament building in the Herald magazine this weekend, one dominant ludic metaphor: this ornate, almost Gaudi-like building, deeply non-Presbyterian in its style but open and civic in its design, will compel our politicians to 'raise their game' to match their surroundings. Can they be as creative as their new context? Or as global-class? And can they pursue infinite as well as finite games - ie, not just political jousting, but a progressive vision for Scotland in the world?
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