LARPing, ARGs, And A Cultural Relativism Tipping Toward Nihilism: Part III Of Building A New Credibility

by Travis Mateer

Do you see what my oldest kid saw while we watched Leave The World Behind? I’m sure you do, because it’s a screenshot, but in real time I completely missed the QR code on the map of the cyber attack on America.

Before we get to what this QR code directs people to, I’ll note that part I and part II of this series might be helpful to consult if my jumps into synchronicity and other ways I ascribe value to cultural content seem confusing. Ok, let’s continue.

Fucking amusement parks. This is a part of what we’ll be looking at because of the QR code, and also because of synchronicities. Here’s what a Reddit thread turned up:

Maybe I should tell you what ARG stands for, since you’re now involved in one. ARG stands for Alternative Reality Game (or Augmented Reality Game), and it’s a phenomenon that can easily suck you in, like reading about what online sleuths find when they actively engage with this “movie” content at an ARG level, which is what you’re doing right now.

Since we’re defining terms, what does Live Action Role Play (LARP) mean? Here’s one way of thinking of it:

The word I would pay close attention to in this definition is the word GAME. Why? I’ll answer that question with another question: why am I watching and, more importantly, PAYING MONEY to watch old movies, like Halloween 3? Because I’m engaging with this content in order to FIND things, not just to passively consume the content as entertainment. 

An entire industry of podcasts and video channels has emerged to feed this new game of searching creative content for easter eggs, and the blurring of consensus reality with “fictional” reality is a method, I would argue, for seducing viewers into this process of gamification. Add synchronicity, like I experienced with amusement parks, and it’s game over; you’re hooked.

Amusement parks? Yes, there’s an abandoned amusement park in Mr. Robot that plays as a central location for the hacker drama, and there’s an amusement park I’ve had come up twice that once put Butte, Montana, on the map (Columbia Gardens), and then there’s some amusement park scenes in one of the most fucked up tv series I’ve ever watched, which we’ll get to in a moment (Euphoria).

First, a note on what I mean by cultural relativism and my problem with it.

I went online to see if I could find something that helps me short-cut what I’m wanting to say about relativism and nihilism, and I did! Here’s something from someone’s else’s blog that helps me do some quick heavy lifting:

Relativism leads to the absurd conclusion that there’s no normative difference between a sadist’s values and a humanitarian’s values. Hey, if tormenting people for fun is perceived as good and right by the sadist, then it’s good. Who are we to judge his values? The relativist might reply, “No, what I mean is you can do what you want so long as you don’t harm other people.” That’s a fine response but you’ve just given up relativism. You’ve just conceded that there is at least one objective moral truth.

Another response might be that people can do what they want so long as it makes them happy (however you define it). Once again you’ve conceded the argument because you’ve committed yourself to the objective value of happiness. I.e., when actions conflict with happiness, we ought to favor happiness; happiness is more important than all other things. You are actually a realist/objectivist.

Again, relativism leads to the unsavory position that the Gestapo and Medicins Sans Frontieres are organizations of equal moral worth. If the Gestapo thinks it’s good and right to “throw the Jew down the well,” then, hey, who are we to judge? Punching someone in the face is no less praiseworthy as giving someone a helping hand. I doubt very much that anyone truly thinks that, beyond personal beliefs and preferences, there are no important differences between the values in the above examples. If you think there are important differences you’re a realist because you just made a judgment about one set of values having more value than another. If you don’t then you’re probably a nihilist. But you aren’t a relativist. More on that later.

I think this path of cultural relativism is being pushed on us, and is veering toward nihilism, by design. And the worst part? By bringing attention to what I see happening, I might actually be helping the psychopath class achieve their goals by highlighting how their narrative assaults on us are being deployed through creative content.

If you approach shows like Euphoria with the understanding that it’s part of a war for your soul, then I think there could be some benefit in the risk of watching. But if you DON’T understand that, then watching this shit could be damaging. 

I’m not trying to be overly dramatic here. Two easy ways for the psychopath class to control our biological machines (bodies) are by using trauma and sex. Euphoria, created by Sam Levinson, is the epitome of how this potent combo can be utilized creatively to ostensibly “entertain” us, starting with the show’s use of the 9/11 attacks at the very beginning of this exploitive story.

I’m not going to get into graphic detail about how this show depicts unhealthy sexual relationships facilitated by technology and drug abuse. There are some interesting efforts by the show to explicitly link the proliferation of porn to this overtly traumatic way of young people becoming sexual beings with each other, but ultimately I don’t think it’s worth watching the show to get the “moral” of the story, especially considering who Sam Levinson’s Daddy is.

I don’t bring in family connections to indict (ok, Pete?), but to provide critical context regarding WHO the people creating these shows are, and who they were influenced by. When your Dad is a fellow creator, like Sam Levinson’s Daddy, Barry, I think it might be helpful to look at what kind of material DAD has had a hand in creating, so here’s what Wikipedia has to offer:

Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. His best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as Diner (1982), The Natural (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bugsy (1991), and Wag the Dog (1997). Levinson won the Academy Award for Best Director for Rain Man (1988). In 2021, he co-executive produced the Hulu miniseries Dopesick and directed the first two episodes.

Hmmm, I see organized crime, gambling, drugs and war propaganda. Even the baseball movie with Robert Redford (who put Missoula on the map with A River Runs Through It) has some NOT so subtle drug references in the names of some of the characters, not to mention a pivotal scene that takes place at…you guessed it, a carnival! (emphasis mine):

In 1910s Nebraska, a young Roy Hobbs learns to play baseball from his father. After Hobbs Sr. suffers an early, fatal heart attack, lightning strikes the large tree next to which he died. Hobbs makes a baseball bat from the tree’s splintered wood, burning a lightning bolt and the legend “Wonderboy” into the barrel of the new bat.

Now 19 years old, Hobbs heads to Chicago for a tryout with the Chicago Cubs, leaving behind his girlfriend, Iris. While on the train, he meets legendary ballplayer “The Whammer” (based on Babe Ruth), sportswriter Max Mercy, and Harriet Bird, a mysterious woman who is following The Whammer. At a carnival during a stopover, Hobbs wins a bet that he can strike out The Whammer with just three pitches and easily does so. Hobbs later meets Bird in Chicago, and she asks if his boast that he can be “the best there ever was,” is true. Hobbs answers yes, and Harriet shoots him in the abdomen, then kills herself.

Sixteen years later, in 1939, Hobbs is signed as a rookie to the New York Knights, a struggling ball club in last place. Manager Pop Fisher is furious that Hobbs was signed without his approval, believing him too old, making him suspect of an ulterior motive by the team’s owner. He refuses to play Hobbs at first, but he later relents, electing him to pinch hit, after which Hobbs literally knocks the cover off the baseball. Hobbs becomes a baseball sensation, and the Knights’ fortunes begin to turn around. Max Mercy finds Hobbs vaguely familiar but fails to place him.

Assistant manager Red Blow tells Hobbs that if Pop loses the pennant this year, his Knights ownership share will revert to the Judge, the team’s shady majority owner. The Judge offers Hobbs $5,000 (equivalent to $105,000 in 2022) to throw the season. Hobbs, unlike Bump Bailey, refuses the bribe. While watching Hobbs pitch during a practice session, Mercy suddenly remembers him and introduces Hobbs to Gus Sands, a gambler who has been placing large bets against Hobbs. He also meets Pop’s beautiful niece, Memo Paris, who was Bump’s girlfriend. Their budding new romance causes a distracted Hobbs’ game to badly slump, all part of the Judge’s new plan.

What’s up with Red BLOW and BUMP Bailey? Maybe it has something to do with Barry’s roommate and his connection to drug trafficking.

That’s right, according to Wikipedia, Barry Levinson (who also studied broadcast journalism) was roomies with George Jung, a man who stumbled into a working relationship the Medellin Cartel. Isn’t that curious? (emphasis mine):

Levinson is of Russian-Jewish descent. After growing up in Forest Park, Baltimore and graduating from Forest Park Senior High School in 1960, Levinson attended Baltimore City Community College and American University in Washington, D.C. at the American University School of Communication, where he studied broadcast journalism.

He then moved to Los Angeles to work as an actor and writer and performed comedy routines. Levinson at one time shared an apartment with would-be drug smuggler (and subject of the movie Blow) George Jung.

I think this is a good place to wrap up part III of this ongoing series attempting to create a framework of new credibility in order to decode the creative content we are being influenced by.

Thanks for reading!