As a child of the 1980s, I was a big fan of pro wrestling. Watching wrestling served as my earliest political education. As German political philosopher Carl Schmitt pointed out, the essence of politics lies in the “friend/enemy” distinction: political activity is a recognition and embrace of the forms of association that are beneficial to one’s interest, along with the undermining of associations that frustrate one’s objectives. The friend/enemy distinction is dramatically showcased in pro wrestling: you cheer the good guys and jeer the bad guys—not because they are bad, but because they are not the good guys.
In the ‘80s, pro wrestling inculcated this outlook in its viewers by creating narrative frames for the action. These narratives made much use of geopolitical themes: wrestlers like Nikolai Volkoff (who embodied Soviet Communism) and The Iron Sheik (who caricatured Iranian theocracy) were the bad guys. We learned they were bad because we saw how their appearance and behavior contrasted the good guys like “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan or Hillbilly Jim, who represented American virtue, power, and innocence. But more than anyone else, Hulk Hogan embodied this Americanism.
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