So first things first, what is a LARPer? Technically the term stands for live action role playing. The common usage being for kids and adults who dress up in medieval attire and have fake sword battles in parks and various other places. Now you’re probably wondering how do a couple of dorks hurt us all as men?
Well first off don’t take the term too literally. A LARPer is anyone who fakes or pretends to be something that they are not. For the kids and adults in the park it’s being a knight or elf or whatever. However this applies across all sections of society and can be seen many different places. Those who pretend to be something that they are not. And for various different reasons are not called out for it.
Now obviously I’m not saying those playing dress up need to be told that they’re not actually real knights or whatever, rather I’m going to talk about how LARPers and LARPing (in the general sense) hurt us all. And it goes beyond simply being a poser or pretender into deep territory that can explain a lot of what you see in the modern world. So let’s dig in.
LARPing and Public Perception
You’ve probably heard it somewhere before that you need to be a man before you can be a gentleman. The Art of Manliness did a pretty good breakdown of the concept here that I’d recommend you check out. Essentially it states that the difference between a gentleman and some dork LARPing as a gentleman is that the gentleman is first and foremost a man. Whereas the dork (or gentledork) is not first a man but is simply aping the manners and dress of a gentleman.
He apes the trappings without having the center core, robbing the whole idea of its power. Put another way a man must first embody the barbaric virtues before embodying the civic (or moral) virtues are going to mean a damn thing to anyone. The gentleman gets respect across society whereas the gentledork is laughed at by all of society. Again because one is a man first and foremost whereas the other is just gentle, which is laughable by itself.
The gentledork not only does not embody the ideal of being a gentleman (a man who could smash your head in but chooses instead to be nice) but also takes power away from the idea. So anyone new to the idea when they see the gentledork will confuse it with the gentleman and thereby the gentleman ideal will go the way of the dinosaur because of the public perception of it. And a once powerful idea becomes powerless.
The Neutering Of Powerful Ideas
So what LARPers and LARPing does (again in the general sense of the term) is take power away from powerful ideals and ideas. The LARPer being weak or lacking something his or herself apes the trappings or mannerisms of the ideal. And when the ideal doesn’t fight back and put the LARPer in its place then the ideal slowly but surely loses power. And another powerful ideal and/or idea bites the dust.
Which is a very bad thing considering how few powerful ideals and ideas there truly are out there. With LARPing and LARPers going unchecked these ideals and ideas become neutered with no one to “defend” them or at least perform quality control. And when one lacks powerful ideals or ideas to look towards they will look towards whatever lesser substitute that the society as a whole offers them. For example look at how people who play with balls and people who are famous are revered.
When the last powerful idea is neutered people are left with whatever the lowest common denominator is. They are left with ideas with little power but at least they offer something. For example the suburb boy aping the gangster because it’s his only contact with masculinity that he sees, something I’ve written about before. The vacuum of powerful ideal and ideas will always be filled, usually with something lesser.
The Loss Of Ideals
A sad and powerful thing and one that has a profound effect on the society around us as a whole. LARPing and LARPers (again not necessarily in the literal sense but the general sense of the word) neuter and destroy once powerful ideals. In order for an ideal to be powerful it must be held to a standard and certain requirements met. It has to be “defended” and held to a standard. Just like any group or tribe, an ideal is no different.
Just like you get hazed when you join the football team, boot camp grinds you down, and in order to join a gang you often have to get beat in. Without standards, without things to weed out the weak, the lesser, and yes the inferior. Ideals, just like anything else, lose their power and significance. Put another way LARPing is not a victimless crime.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
