Elizabeth Amato wrote a great introduction to the series COBRA KAI over at Liberty Law blog today. I have been following this show since it started, and I’ve got to say it has maintained its quality over 3 seasons. I highly recommend the show and Amato’s article about it- but hold off on the article if you want to avoid SPOILERS.
Without giving too much away, here is why you should watch: it’s a perfect show for our Trump/post-Trumpian era in America. The main character, Johnny Lawrence, who was the bad boy in the original Karate Kid movie, in 2021 is now a loser. Out of a job, he has developed a drinking problem (specifically glass bottle Coors). He’s the kind of blue collar, high school educated white man who has fallen on hard times in our era (the kind of guy from the “Fishtown” zipcode in Charles Murray’s Coming Apart, you might say). But there was something good in Johnny that kids in 2021 can learn from: the necessity of THUMOS, or spiritedness.
So, I would argue the best lens for understanding COBRA KAI is through Plato’s Republic. I will have to discuss that in a future post. Elizabeth Amato does a very good Tocquevillian study of COBRA KAI though, tying in his discussions of honor and soft despotism. COBRA KAI teaches the kids of today to embrace what the theme song of Karate Kid 2 said: “I am the man who will fight for your honor”
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Glad to see Elizabeth at L&L! A treat to read her brief in behalf of a show I also spoke up for when it first started. Cobra Kai Studies indeed!
https://thefederalist.com/2018/05/08/cobra-kai-tackles-the-american-class-wars-in-orange-county/