Fun For All

As I write this, there is a Rock, Paper, Scissor, tournament going on in my dorm. Everyone has been assigned brackets and pools, and everyone is supposed to play. This brings me to the topic of this little blurb.

I hate mandatory fun.

I like Rock, Paper, Scissor just fine, and I'd play on any other occasion. The thing is, i hate being told I have to do something that people think is fun. If I want to do it, I will, I don't need someone telling me that I have to participate. Camp of the Woods suffers from this same pulsing brain tumor of an idea. If I want to not have "fun" and be miserable, I have every right.

Here's the main flaw with this mandatory fun that kills it. Making something mandatory makes it a chore, no matter what it is. You send a group of kids to an amusment park and give them the criteria that they have to eat such an amount of cotton candy, then it isn't about enjoying the treat. You're fulfilling a requirement. If a thing is supposed to be fun, give people the freedom to make it so.

Another reason mandatory fun shoots itself in the foot is because of how people thing about the term "mandatory." Many people will refuse to participate because the activity is mandatory. This is what happens a lot at Camp. When speakers come, or events are scheduled, and are "mandatory," many of us go out of our way to not attend. I'm guilty of this, my brother is, and I know a number of our friends are as well. Honestly, fun is arbitrary. Some people really like the whole Rock, Paper, Scissor tournament. Me? I hate these idiotic little games, they just aren't fun to me.I have every right not to participate then.

Look, not everything needs to be voluntary, there are things out there that need to be done. Yet trying to force people to have fun is just not a useful. I feel things would flow so much smoother if we all stopped trying to force our own perceptions of entertainment onto people. Heck, if that happened, we'd be rid of all those annoying movie critics and judge things solely one what we enjoyed.

On a related note, I'm the only one undefeated in the dorm.

Just something to chew on.