Response to Fun-Life Controversy

The “controversy” around “more fun, less stuff” has generated more response than any mailing I’ve made to date. The text below includes:

Highlights.
Comments on Joy
Comments on Fun
Thoughts on Stuff
Fun’s bad press

Most of the material below is directly quoted from replies. While working it into a semi-coherent account, the wording has been adjusted here and there and some new material added from my experience. A PDF of all the unedited originals (without names) is available for the asking.

The problem was that some see the word “fun” as tainted due to antisocial activities that some consider to be fun.
The question asked: What else might we use in the “More _____, Less Stuff” meme?

Some highlights:

“Joy” was the most often mentioned word, followed by those who thought that “Fun” is just fine. “Love” and “Life” were also mentioned several times. The more than 50 other suggestions are listed at the end. A fine spectrum of possibilities that are ours without any material requirement.

Notable among the suggestions were:

It’s fun when it is fun for everyone.

And, vaguely related:
More contentment, less content.

Speaking for Joy:

When you have joy, it affects all areas of your life, and that of others …

What if we reframed the entire climate conversation: not around guilt, blame, carbon calculators and net-zero targets, but around meaning, connection, and joy?

“Joy” would have very positive connotations in many faith circles …

"More Joy, Less Stuff": This option evokes a sense of uplifting emotion and contentment.

Even Joy has a down side. One respondent knew someone who felt “joy” when they got revenge on someone. I’d like to think this is a rare phenomenon.

Speaking for Fun:

The original Aristotelian view was that leisure was the greatest good.

Fun is a key component of healthy individuals.

More fun means great company and a laugh together.

Fun is caring - fun is sustainable - fun is leaving the planet a better place than you found it - fun is being a good ancestor. Fun is also transcendent - fun is loving and taking responsibility for others - fun is family and unconditional love - fun is many of the things that money can’t buy - and very few of the things that money can buy. Most of all - it is about people becoming human beings - not human havings.

Fun doesn't have to be frivolous. (Although no harm in a bit of frivolity once in a while.)

From Peace Child International: for years, we have said: “If it isn’t fun - it isn’t Peace Child”

Fun is almost always whimsy - not taking yourself too seriously - relaxed while also stimulating.

… more inner happy, less outer happy.
Inner comes from heart or mind, outer from objects or material stimulus

“More Fun Less Stuff” - hits you right on your funny bone and makes you smile. It’s perfect! No need for further explanation.

Consider the divine. Therein lies order, our perception of right and wrong. It’s all laid out for us, and it ends in fun.

I rather like “fun”. It’s curious how deeply entrenched is the Puritan ethic.

I read your post on Fun, it was fun, and obvious your audience does not spend much time with 3,4 and 5 year olds. People who actually know fun.
Fun is farting, throwing stones in the water, digging in sand, sticking out your tongue, running naked in the sprinkler, making stuff out of junk, drawing with crayons, cutting pieces of paper and gluing them together.....

About Stuff:

[Continuous] growth, which is impossible in a finite world, is not necessary for us to meet each other’s needs and have fulfilling lives.

The excess accumulation of stuff Adler concluded was due to either an insecurity, an addiction, or an absence of sound moral values. So, to offer a suggestion, replace "fun" with "constructive leisure."

Without tragedy, frivolity will frankly go on forever, since "stuff" (possessions) breeds endless distraction (fun).

How “fun” is seen as bad

“Fun” … is often used as a synonym for irresponsibility.
… there will always be some of us to whom it will give the creeps!

“Fun” in my impression of the term is “trivial and selfish”. People do too many destructive, unhealthy, selfish and wasteful things in the name of “Fun”

Some [people] want to kill animals for fun. Some want to torture them … even to torture and/or kill other people.

Some people want to do things for fun that require industrial production, consume resources, emit pollution, and/or have negative effects on others, other lifeforms, and even ecosystems.

Rather a sad reflection when someone thinks fun is derived from harmful activities, or behaving irresponsibly.

The idea that fun ought to be scoffed at, made fun of (lol) or deprioritized … has something to do with a martyr-ish "activism must be hard and painful" mindset.

This may have some roots in the evolution of Christianity.
In Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, historian R.H. Tawney traces the evolution of commerce from Catholicism through Protestantism to Capitalism. As commerce became more widespread, financial dealings, including charging interest became more acceptable.

John Calvin provided the bridge. He accepted commercial activity assuming pious behaviour. Calvin’s vision, Tawney wrote, “is perhaps the first systematic body of religious teaching which can be said to recognize and applaud the economic virtues. Its enemy is not the accumulation of riches, but their misuse for purposes of self-indulgence or ostentation.”

A respondent reflected that this: has moulded our minds (in my opinion, purposely). Fun is not allowed! Fun is dangerous! Fun is irresponsible! Fun doesn't advance our species! Fun is not what God wants! Must work until you drop, no happy emotions allowed, and then you'll be allowed into heaven!

A further concern is that this background is intentionally promoted as a control mechanism. One can never get past the fear of hell and will therefore accept authoritarian directives to stay serious and work hard.

As soon as that opinion doesn't affect you anymore, you can begin to enjoy your life. Have fun, in other words.

Is fun a public good or a privilege controlled by others?

I find that when someone decides they are the arbitrator of what is “fun” and what is harmful for someone else they are a person who supports the patriarchal control system that is imbedded in the corporate capitalist culture.

One even suggested that our holidays are engineered to promote materialism:
Does stuff convey love of each other and love of our planet? Unfortunately, the push to be consumers for every holiday and special occasion tries to convince people that this is the case.

This has been an ongoing issue and we studied it as based on the question of whether access to worthy use of leisure is an individual right or is a privilege that needs to be earned and is controlled by “rule” determined by someone else.
Those who have a problem with the word are either knowingly or unknowingly supporters of leisure as a privilege that is earned after work.

Wrap up:

When the voice on the inside is stronger than the opinions on the outside, you have begun to master your life.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Rather than acquiring stuff, along with joy, life, love and fun, the following qualities are ours to enjoy:

Peace, Wisdom, Kindness, Health, Happiness, Company, Laughter, Play, Enjoyment,

Adventure, Experiences, Appreciation, Wonder, Quality living,

Active Contemplation, Serenity, Harmony, Contentment, Spirit,

Humanity, Connection, Vitality, Life satisfaction, Nature, Nurturing, Value, Meaning, Freedom, Frolic, Thriving, Enchantment, Delight, Magic, and Consciousness of our universal connection to the great mystery

Sexuality and gratification were also brought up. As controversy has long revolved around these, the formula” It’s fun when it's fun for everyone” can be a guide.

Population was another concern:
Fewer Lives... Less Stuff... for our Earth to Live Longer

In addition to replacements for “fun” in more fun, less stuff, some fully reworked expressions, were offered:

More delight, less darkness
More ‘us’, less stuff
More lite, more light
More Connecting, Less Stuff
More Being, less holding
More nature, less mindless crap
More Fun, less Excess accumulation
More rejoicing, less bemoaning
More hiking, less gear
More travel, less luggage
More dance, less grindstone
More song, less whine
More merriment, less stuffing
Make merry, bag the burdens
More merriment, fewer things

"More malacology [invertebrates], less anthropocentrism.”

More contentment, less content.

More enchantment, delight, and magic!
More consciousness of our universal connection.

Thanks everyone for your interest. May you share the intent of more joy, less stuff.

======================

Note our 8-minute video:

sustainability

forest