
Is Everything Wrestling? - dnetesn
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/magazine/is-everything-wrestling.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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alexophile
Obligatory "Wrestling Isn't Wrestling" plug -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYvMOf3hsGA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYvMOf3hsGA)

You should really watch the video because it's amazing, but the tl;dw is that
WWE is a live-filmed TV show with stunts about an over-the-top wrestling
league. The world in the league has magic and wizards and all sorts of
outlandish fictional elements, but the show we're watching is a sort of meta-
show about that world.

With that in mind, politics is taking on a lot of the characteristics of
wrestling in that it's this meta show about itself that doesn't really
resemble the underlying truth. The big difference though is that the
underlying truth in politics is the real-life workings of government, not a
magical world of wizards, undead, and feats of strength.

With regards to papering over reality in favor of a preferable narrative–an
activity as old as recorded history–I think wrestling actually has a much more
honest relationship with fiction and truth than most things.

~~~
uremog
So... everything is Wrestling. Except for Wrestling.

"Everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power."

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ThrustVectoring
>Parsing both those layers — the behavior and the meta-behavior, the story
told and the story of why it’s being told that way

This is a fairly major way of partitioning literary analysis. I've seen it
called "Watsonian" vs "Doyleist" \- you can either take a look at the
narrative elements in the story, or at the circumstances facing the author.

------
mitchtbaum
Does anyone else yearn for life with what man has long called "wrestling"?

Our ancestors used to cultivate their might, overcome deep physical challenge,
and express useful skills in sanctified circles.

Wrestling used to mean something profoundly real to human-kind, as it still
does for many cultures who haven't taken a plunge into a commercial modernity.

I remember when I was young reading of loud gasps when `Okonkwo threw the Cat`
in _Things Fall Apart_ [0], one story's scene that resonates across distant
lands, around familiar campfires, and within men's bones.

0:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_fall_apart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_fall_apart)

~~~
Avshalom
Not wrestling specifically, but you certainly wouldn't be the first to feel a
sort of alienation from... I don't know: call it physicality. There's a
general sort of malaise you can see present in the US at least, it's why (or
possibly because of) we see so much shit marketed to us via faux authenticity.
Maybe it's just a perspective thing but I really think theirs a growing number
of people developing a kind of knee jerk agrarian-utiopianist streak. I don't
know what to recommend as far as further reading but it's certainly a concept
that has been explored.

~~~
rsync
"Not wrestling specifically"

Why not ? It's arguably the most basic of human athletic endeavors (besides
walking and running), it's extremely beneficial to your health (nothing
exercises every single little muscle in your body - but wrestling does) and
depending on where you set your output dial, it's as high output of a sport as
is possible.

Further, the popularity of BJJ opens up a lot of venues and increased interest
- male and female - all over the country.

Recommended.

~~~
stdbrouw
> nothing exercises every single little muscle in your body - but wrestling
> does

Citation needed.

~~~
jessaustin
...or you could just, like, engage in some physical activity. Wrestling is
fun, but if you're not still in school and your group of friends doesn't
include some adventurous people roughly your size it might be hard to get
started. Alternatively, you could just go to a party at which everybody gets
really hammered, and suggest wrestling at the right time. Don't be a dick and
get pissed off, though.

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jessaustin
At the very least, we can expect every future presidential candidate to have
appeared on a reality show at some point. "News" organizations seek ratings.
Nothing delivers ratings like the _frisson_ of seeing that same person who did
that silly thing on that show, now doing some other silly thing to piss off
the nerds on CNN!

~~~
drumdance
Waaaay back in 1992, when Jay Leno was taking over for Johnny Carson, I saw an
interview with him in which they asked him about having politicians on the
Tonight Show. He said he didn't want to have them on unless they did something
unusual "like play a saxophone or something silly like that."

Literally just a few months later then-candidate Bill Clinton appeared on
Arsenio Hall and played the saxophone.

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brudgers
With recent events indicate strong links between the lords of professional
wrestling and those of Silicon Valley, I have to give more credence to the
idea than I would like.

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olb
No mention of Idiocracy _?!_ This movie predicted our fate:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/)

Edit: I read the IMDb blurb – ”… five centuries in the future …”. I guess
we’re 500 years ahead of schedule.

~~~
B1FF_PSUVM
The movie used the projections from the 1951 "The Marching Morons" story:
[http://tonova.typepad.com/thesuddencurve/2007/07/the-
marchin...](http://tonova.typepad.com/thesuddencurve/2007/07/the-marching-
mo.html)

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B1FF_PSUVM
Next thing you know, the NYT will be reprinting the late Gore Vidal essays
where he talks about the "two wings of the owners' party".

Whew, real nutcase there. Ah ah. Ahem.

