[The President in Civil War] is not a dictator but a political actor LARPing a dictator. An ambitious politician who has climed to power by joining in the national LARP and is shocked that it all turned so real. Only the United States could LARP a performative president all the way to totalitarian tyrant because only the United States has professional wrestling.
Damien Walter, in Alex Garland’s CIVIL WAR has a clear and simple message [youtube.com]
Watch the full video if you want to understand the reference to wrestling.
I have not seen Civil War… but that’s an interesting way to think about politicians in the US, LARPing their way through the elections and office. Though when I think of LARPing I think of fantasy settings, live action Dungeons and Dragons at a renaissance festival, or Vampire the Masquerade, with college students dressed as gothic Victorians.
Maybe the left is LARPing, acting out a fantasy. But the Right seems to be more firmly in a different, though similar pastime – Reenactments, specifically of the actual Civil War, maybe with a little fantasy of re-running it…
The sad state of American politics. Disgruntled LARPers and Civil War reenacters pretending to run the most powerful country on the planet. How much of politics is LARPing? How much to they believe? How much is ego wrapped in party ideals? Are we LARPing our way to a new Civil War?