How Parkour Civilization Surprised Me

     There will be two types of people who read this blog: those who have seen Parkour Civilization, and those who have no idea what I'm talking about. At first, I fell into the latter group, and was confused by the memes and references that had began to spread into my Twitter and Instagram media feeds. Parkour Civilization, which was a video series by Minecraft Youtuber Evbo, revolves around the idea of a dystopian society where everything is decided by parkour jumps. Now, I haven't been tapped into Minecraft Youtube for a long while, and I was completely unfamiliar with who Evbo was. However, on a half whim, other half joke, Wade and I decided to check out what all the hype was about, and sat down to watch the series.

    Immediately, I was surprised that this wasn't the 20-minute long Youtube videos I remembered watching when I was younger: this was two 2-hour long MOVIES that were written, acted, and filmed completely within Minecraft. Already I was intrigued by the idea of long-form content being produced in-game, even though it felt like usual Minecraft slop content that targeted younger kids, and not 20 year old college students. But regardless, Wade and I decided to keep watching.

    I'm not going to go very deep on the actual content within the movies, but to give a quick summary, the protagonist, Evbo, starts out as a "parkour noob" who lives in the lowest level of society. Throughout the film, he progresses upwards through the world, literally elevating through social levels, and simultaneously improving their parkour skills and the complexity of the challenges he faces. This is a very simple premise, but by the end of the video, I had realized it was actually a strong metaphor for systemic oppression and the myth of meritocracy in real life. If this sounds absurd, let me explain.

    The premise of parkour civilization is that people from the lowest level of society can climb social classes into better lives for themselves through literally climbing upwards and going through parkour courses as challenges to move up. The tenet from which society is built off of is that everyone has the chance to move up in life, if they prove that they can earn it through parkour skill, which is a stand-in for merit in real life. 

    However, by the end of the movie, it is revealed that there are several impossibilities put into place to prevent people from truly climbing the social ladder (or rather, parkour course). Here lies the example for systemic oppression in parkour society: the promise of upward social mobility through a challenge to "prove you are worthy", while in reality it is physically impossible without the use of outside intervention and "cheating" the system in order to actually complete the course. This isn't the only example of systemic oppression either.

    One of the most iconic moments from the film is the introductory statement: "Here in parkour civilization, no one chooses to jump for the beef. It's better to be safe and do the one block jump for the raw chicken, rather than risk your entire life for just half a hunger bar more." The very first concept introduced to the audience in parkour civilization is the daily decision every parkour noob faces daily: attempt a safe jump for barely enough food to get you through the day, or try a riskier jump for a reward that is only slightly better, where the risk outweighs the reward. Through this daily challenge, the rulers of parkour society achieve two things.

    First, and most simply, by only offering two bad choices for food, the lower classes have no choice but to accept the food that is barely enough to keep them alive, which leaves them weak and unable to revolt. However, the more effective result of posing this daily choice is the psychological averseness to risk that the lower classes develop as a result from facing this decision daily. By offering a binary choice, both of which have a subpar reward, but with one having a higher risk of death, society conditions those in the lowest level to always take the safe option rather than the riskier option, since the difference in reward is negligible. This means that parkour noobs are less likely to even attempt to progress in society, and they become complacent with their status in parkour civilization.

    By the time I started processing these ideas in my head, I knew I was cooked. The fact that a meme Minecraft video had made me draw parallels to real-world inequality and oppressive regimes made me realize that either A) this was an attempt to radicalize the youth or B) I really needed to go to sleep. However, regardless of whether this was created with the intent to represent real-world issues and problematic power structures, I had thought about it. And that's really impressive to me.

    At a time where the ability to create content has become so widely accessible, literally anyone can make whatever they want, if they have the passion to fuel their ventures. And while I fancy myself a writer, the reality is I haven't put that much art out into the world. Now, I could make excuses and say I don't have the resources to make what I want, but as this proved, the resources are secondary to the passion of the creator. Some guy (who is probably around my age) decided he wanted to make a dystopian story with class issues and a quirky premise, and even if he isn't a millionaire or had a production company finance his ideas, he still made it. Using Minecraft of all things! If that isn't a powerful example of resources coming second to the passion of a creator, I don't know what is.

    Isn't that inspiring? Sure, it's a little goofy that I'm almost a 20 year old dude writing about a Minecraft video instead of getting a job or something more productive, but I think finding inspiration in strange places, like a dystopian film in Minecraft, is what makes life so beautiful. And honestly, I feel genuinely inspired to create after watching these videos. Even if I write a script that never gets published, or stare at a blank page for hours on end, isn't it worth taking a risk, no matter how slight the reward is?

Jump for the beef, not the raw chicken.