Playing the Future: How Kids Culture Can Teach Us to Thrive [Hardcover]

'Playing The Future' (released as 'Children of Chaos' elsewhere) has many intriguing topic including the study of Dungeons & Dragons and VR; Youth Subcultures (Goth, Skateboarding, Television, Computer Games); the longterm effects of new media shows; and the rise of Attention Deficit Disorders. Rushkoff dares to suggest with the last that they may be useful as 'coping strategies' for the postmodern era of the individual drenched in UV ray computer monitor glows.

'Playing The Future' was marred by publisher errors that saw the book not promoted much in the U.S., although it was well received elsewhere. There was also an inevitable backlash against Rushkoff when a comment regarding a US$7500/hour fee from a single seminar was mentioned offhand during an interview and then promoted as Rushkoff selling out Generation X secrets to faceles trans-national monoliths. Rushkoff had forseen the growth of the Internet in 1989 and delivered much early ground-breaking work on cyberculture.

These public debates do not diminish the power of 'Playing The Future', which is crisply written and features many unique insights into the rise of Youth Culture and the future trajectory path of the Humanities. Rushkoff is not scared to take on institutions such as the conservative factions of the Christian Church and show that they are failing to adjust to the needs of youth in the contemporary environment.

'Playing The Future' will be re-released in late 1999 as 'Children of Chaos' within the United States. Rushkoff's insights and arguments have largely been on-track since the book's initial release.

The blurb on the back of hardcover version of this book really says it all: This book is "like channel surfing the planet with a witty genius friend who can explain the pattern that connects it all together" (Mark Frauenfelder, Online editor, Wired magazine).

The book is reads like a compilation of short sections, each of which deals with an issue to do with our current culture. Since he is a media analyst, much of Rushkoff's emphasis is on the media and modern technology. His contention is that the world of today and the future is changing rapidly. We are moving from the Machine Age to the Information Age, and much of this move is being driven by the media, and underpinned by changing technologies. Many older people are afraid of these changes and are doing all within their power to stop or at least slow it down, and are lamenting the change in attitudes and involvement of young people.

Rushkoff contends that we are disadvantaging young people today by not allowing this technology to develop and impact our lives, and that by fighting against it, we are diminishing the ability of our children to survive in the new world. He has an evolutionary basis of thought, believing that technology is the key to a new jump in man's evolutionary development. Although we may not agree with him on this point, whether we believe in evolution or not, we must agree with his assessment of the future - that the world is changing very rapidly and is not the same place it used to be. We need to adapt and change in order just to survive, let alone successfully manage the future.

Rushkoff looks at issues such as snowboarding, skateboarding, comics, movies, Star Trek, Barney, Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games, Goths culture, the media, video games, the Internet, UFO abductions, and many other examples of modern culture and it's effects.

In each of these views of issues, he highlights how the issue demonstrates the shift from the Machine Age to the Information Age, and how it shows the need for less structural controls and more "grass roots level" involvement of people. He maintains that "chaos" is the only legitimate basis for the new culture. By this, he means an organismic interaction between people, by means of technologically advanced equipment. The Internet provides the best example of how communities of like minded individuals will develop and self-regulate their activities. This is his view of how all structure within society should work, from government, to media and everything. We need to be free of all restraints and governance from above.

Whether this optimistic view of humanity's ability to do this is well-founded or not, as Christians there is much good to be gained by an analysis of Rushkoff's work. He often refers to the church, and correctly points out the weaknesses of the existing church in the new era of chaos. He even has some good ideas for churches. But his book's value is that it helps us to put practical examples onto our understanding of a changing youth culture. His book provides valuable material for analysis of modern youth culture, and for planning short to medium term strategies for the future. It also provides those who want to change with some good counter-arguments against the nay-sayers and those afraid of the future.

This is a well researched book, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.