Thursday, March 29, 2007
The Professional Wrestling Circus: A Breeding Ground for Conservatism
On April Fools Day, the biggest event of the professional wrestling calendar, Wrestle Mania 23, takes place in Detroit. As such, this is the opportune time to look at an industry that is so political, it is considered more political than the world of party politics itself.Professional wrestling is a dog-eat-dog world that is so cutthroat that there are no trade unions in the industry. The results and some elements of the matches maybe predetermined and choreographed, but the infighting behind the scenes between the wrestlers and the promoters and among the wrestlers themselves is more real than you can imagine. The off-screen feuding, backstabbing and power plays are far more vicious and bloodthirsty than both the on-screen battles and the most bitter grudges in party politics. The wrestling promoters are all corrupt without exception, while nepotism among both the promoters and wrestlers has been running rife since the existence of this dysfunctional circus.
However, despite these problems and others such as rampant drug abuse caused be frequent and relentless injuries, poor pay for 90% of wrestlers in the business and a short life expectancy, the public and Conservative party can learn a lot of positive virtues from this misunderstood industry. Even the laziest wrestler works harder than the average employee does by putting their bodies through such tremendous punishment, that if it occurred in most other working environments, it would cause a public scandal. The wrestlers are expected to be multifaceted performers that are as proficient at acting, public relations and even psychology as they are at what is in effect a form of manual labour. As such, many wrestlers develop into libertarians so fervent in their beliefs, that even Baroness Thatcher would be proud of them and see their trade as a character-building and self-reliant example to the rest of us.
Some of these wrestlers have even made or are in the process of making a successful transition from the wrestling world to the rather calmer environment of party politics. The classic example of this was the surprise 1998 gubernatorial victory of the infamous wrestling icon Jesse “The Body” Ventura in Minnesota. Governor Ventura enjoyed a popular term in office before he decided to stand down in 2003 to prepare the ground for a presidential campaign next year. No doubt, the political influence of retired professional wrestlers will gradually grow during the future within the United States and their conservatism could be as vital for the future of free-market capitalist society as actor Ronald Reagan was in winning the Cold War for the West.
Labels: jesse 'the body' ventura, lycra, politics, wrestling
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