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To the Editor,
"Cobra Kai," an enjoyable Netflix series based on the 1980s "Karate Kid" movies, features original cast members Ralph Macchio as Daniel Larusso, and William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence.
In the films, Lawrence was the villain; hero LaRusso's rival, and a violent bully. Now, however, updated to the present, Johnny Lawrence is more sympathetic; a protagonist. He's shown as a man who's made poor choices, lost his way, and rather cynical, beaten down by life.
Longing for the past and his glory days, Lawrence is inspired to restart the Cobra Kai martial arts school that had given him purpose and direction, if questionably so, in his youth. Drama ensues.
Played somewhat for laughs, this iteration of Johnny is portrayed as a moderately unintelligent, uninterested, gruff Neanderthal. An aging, testosterone-soaked, world-weary extension of the bully of his youth. A politically-incorrect throwback to "toxic masculinity," stuck in the 80s and laughably inept in the modern, tech-savvy world. A character whose relatively conservative, Reagan-era views are outdated now, meaningless in our enlightened, "woke" age.
Hollywood, insulated from "real" people and viewing conservative ideals as buffoonish, tries writing conservatives as buffoons, but often fails, accidentally creating popular, resonant characters.
Most average people, however, outside the "in-crowd" media bubble, are at least moderately conservative.
While I'm sure the show's Hollywood staffers are contemptuous of Lawrence's traditionalist opinions, as with Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker, and William Shatner's Denny Crane, of "Boston Legal" (also characters whose conservative views were intended comedically), they created a character whose traditional views and blunt, commonsense opinions resonate with we average, "flyover country" commoners.
I can't disagree, when Lawrence says today's youth are weak, and ruled by their "anxiety;" that they tend to lack direction and grit, and need toughening-up. The other characters frown when he says these things, but he's correct.
Two generations now, of kids and younger adults, are soft and weak, both emotionally and psychologically, thanks to our society's extreme, "everybody deserves a trophy" focus on feelings, and personal validation at all cost.
Artificially fostering confidence and self-esteem by telling every kid they're "special," that their every thought, feeling, and problem is valid, is wrongheaded, and really, even somewhat dangerous. Nice as that all sounds, as "engaged," and "involved," eventually reality happens, and they find they're not all that special. They're just people, and now, too often left emotionally unprepared for misfortune.
Such superficial, "touchy-feely," indulgence is how you arrive at a generation so sheltered and fragile, many emotionally collapsed, sobbing, over losing an election, literally needing "safe spaces" with counselors, cuddly puppies and kitties, Play-Doh, coloring books and crayons.
Tough. Deal with it. That's how we learn to handle adversity and disappointment.
Real accomplishments, results, and their acquired abilities; the knowledge that one can "do", what and when necessary; that's what builds genuine, confident self-esteem, not endless hugs and insubstantial affirmations.
Archie Bunker, Denny Crane, and now Johnny Lawrence, understand this, as do most of us common folks. That's why those characters, all intended as ridiculous caricatures, became popular.
Rob Denham
Weirton