Yeah sure why not Just don't share it without crediting please :) [Disclaimer: I am not an expert on any of the real-world subjects discussed in this video. I pretty much made this as a joke, don’t take it too seriously.] Define “peak fiction”-the best fictional story there is. One Piece? No. Dune? I do love Dune, but… not quite. Jujutsu Kaisen? Definitely not. What’s really, truly peak fiction is, of course, Minecraft Parkour Civilization. Because it’s not just a basic Minecraft civilization video. Not only is it a story of failure, perseverance, and triumph, but what makes it truly great is that it’s seemingly filled with allegories to real-world class divides and economic systems. So, to what extent is Parkour Civilization an allegory for real-life classism and capitalistic social hierarchy and class mobility? In this video essay, I’m going to break down the deep allegory and symbolism within Evbo’s Parkour Civilization (where no one jumps for the beef) and by the end, you’ll want to overthrow the upper class. Firstly, it seems clear that the levels of Parkour Civilization are representative of different classes in a socioeconomic hierarchy. The noob level seems to be some kind of untouchable impoverished class, the pro level is the working class that is assigned labor by the master class, which is a kind of nobility. At the top, there is the Champion, an oppressive kinglike figure with power over even the master class, though the master class seems to have the option to battle the Champion to achieve becoming the Champion themselves, similar to how members an aristocratic class could try to overthrow a king in order to gain power for themselves. In this way, the structure of Parkour Civilization society seems to be akin to a medieval feudal structure, with a peasantry (with a significant difference being that they are more of an untouchable class than a laboring farmworkers class), working class, aristocracy, and king. But it goes a layer deeper and begins to differ from a basic feudal structure in one important aspect: the social mobility of Parkour Civilization. At the beginning of Parkour Civilization, it is immediately established that “every parkour noob has the same goal, and that’s to make it to the top layer, where all the parkour pros live, except most parkour pros are born on the top layer. If you’re a parkour noob, there’s only one way up: and that is through the Temple of Parkour.” Clearly, there seems to be some element of meritocratic social mobility here. Perhaps those who are skilled and who work hard can rise to the upper class? But no, it’s not that simple or ideal, even if that’s what the upper classes would have you believe. First of all, it is incredibly difficult to even enter the Temple of Parkour. It requires completing grueling tasks just to get a ticket, and it’s impossible to do without an adequate food source, forcing the noobs (who are only fed once per day) to risk their lives and jump for the beef (and no one chooses to jump for the beef) just to have the ability to gain entry. Already, the lower class’s upwards mobility is stunted severely, not even mentioning the fact that if they fail or take a wrong step at any point, they’re sent to parkour prison, where they’re forced to serve out a fifty year sentence or else lose their opportunity to level up altogether (more on that later). This is clearly a ploy to keep the peasantry under control, incentivizing their continued obedience and survival for the chance that they may ascend to a respectable class. But it’s a lie. In Parkour Civilization, Evbo discovers that it’s impossible to complete the parkour course in the Temple of Parkour. He has to use an illegal and invisible barrier block to do it-essentially, the only way to actually achieve class ascendancy is to do something unethical and illegal. The same is true for the course to level up from the pro to master level. Class ascendency is a lie. The class system in Parkour Civilization is extremely rigid. This bears some resemblance to the American Dream. The capitalistic, unequal system is kept in place by the promise to the lower classes that with enough hard work and dedication, they too can rise the ranks. But it’s incredibly difficult to do so, and the poor and homeless often barely have enough to get by surviving, much less profiting and saving to invest in their futures. Education is difficult to obtain, food is difficult to obtain, everything needs money that the lower classes simply do not have. Just as how everything in Parkour Civilization needs parkour, and how the false hope of the lower classes is kept alive by an impossible dream of ascendency. That leads us into the economy. Just like everything else in Parkour Civilization, the economy revolves around parkour, with more difficult parkour jumps being worth more. So here we have this core aspect of society, class divide, and economy that is essential and visible everywhere. Is this a metaphor for something in capitalism? Absolutely. Evbo implied it himself. Parkour is money. Think about it. To get food, you have to do parkour. To buy housing, you have to do parkour. The upper classes have the ability to do more (have higher spending power) and thus are wealthier. I’ve seen arguments that blocks are a better allegory for money. On the surface level, this seems to make sense, as they are a physical resource that’s controlled, distributed, and needed to buy things for the Pros. But after some thinking, I’ve concluded that this isn’t the case. After all, blocks don’t buy things, parkour does. Parkour that is done on and via blocks. That’s right. I think that blocks represent the means of production. Think about this. Assume that parkour is money, as previously established. The relationship between blocks and parkour is thus: blocks are obtained in order to perform parkour (whereas performing parkour is analogous to spending money). In the same way, the means of production are obtained in order to obtain and spend wealth and other resources. In Marxist Theory [note: I am no expert], basically, socialism is where the general population controls the means of production, as opposed to capitalism, where the means of production are concentrated mostly in the wealthy. Thus, Parkour Civilization clearly falls into the latter category, as the working class has to do labor just to obtain it temporarily, and the peasantry is absolutely prohibited from utilizing or obtaining it. This is no Dictatorship of the Proletariat. So, in that sense, it seems that Parkour Civilization is a general metaphor for capitalism and rigid socioeconomic class systems. But even if it is a metaphor for capitalism, is it? Well… not quite. There are no privately owned corporations per se in Parkour Civilization. All commerce is controlled by the government to some capacity. This may make some think of it as a communist economy. This is debatable-there is no attempt at a redistribution of wealth, so if it is communist, it is a failed communist state that fell short of its ideological goal. More accurately, it’s a pure command (or “planned”) economy, with the central government reigning absolute supreme over the entire Parkour Civilization, and no private sector. Still, though, most of the commentary seems to be on anti-egalitarian economies with class divides in general, rather than any one system specifically, regardless of what system it technically is. But is there even more to it than that? Yes. Because when parkour is failed, one falls into Parkour Prison. In prison, parkour must constantly be done to no reward, besides the fact that extra parkour can be done to slightly lessen the absolutely massive prison sentence. This seems to be a metaphor for the prison industrial complex [I am going insane]-prisoners, whose only crime was being poor and slipping up one time-are constantly exploited for labor under terrible conditions, often dying along the way. But even then, Evbo once says that even in prison, at least he has better access to food. This is a clear case of the lower classes being constantly exploited, even in prison. So this is an even more complex metaphor, with many negative aspects of modern America being reflected alongside the negative aspects of a planned Command Economy even among a starkly classist feudal-like society. But that’s it for this video essay. If you think there’s any more to OveranalyzeTM, leave it in the comments below. And if enough of you want me to, I might cover Season Two, or even Evbo’s PvP Civilization, both of which have some pretty interesting commentary to them. If you’d like to see that, subscribe so that you do!

@@GhostOfMessorem Thank you so much, I'm doing a project on Parkour Civilization for school and I wanted to quote you on bits.

@doonguss That’s awesome!!! Good luck!

@@ripfrickingben That means a lot! Thank you!

@@WildLukah Movies are art. Art can be analyzed and interpreted.

I unironically would if there wasn't SO MUCH OF IT

@@valentinfeusi63 Thank you so much!

@@o7_violet Thank you so much!

@@kamek200 Great comment! You worded a lot of things here better than I did in the video essay tbh lol

@@katjamm A man born onto the lowest tier of society overthrows his class-based authoritarian government, but no, it’s not political at all bc it’s Minecraft

@@ImdaRatManbaby Mb I’ll make my next one 60x longer

@@tright6 If you find Parkour Civilization too complicated to understand I have bad news for you

It kinda is about anti capitalism capitalism is the reason classism exists (and variants of it like feudalism was also a kind of proto capitalism) In a communist society or a socialist society the classes won't be as different from each other like it is now and it also shows how meritocracy isn't real no matter how much the upper classes want you to believe just like in the us

@@epicjava I need to watch that video lol

@@pottedplantplays Thank you!

If it was communist it wouldn't include the overarching class structure. i guess it could be argued that its a type of stalinist civilization, since they dont really have any marxist principles

What you just said is also a part of capitalism

“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” ― Lyndon B. Johnson The Noobs are quite litterally below the pros. The same way that the lower class in America is currently looking down on minority groups and homeless individuals

@@AmphibiansAreCool Yeah, I didnt say that. Oh wait, just noticed I forgot about homeless individuals. Ok, that makes sense now. Thank u for the elaboration.

@@TheEpikalREKT Maybe I should do another video about the sequel video. I honestly have no idea

@@GhostOfMessorem and if parkour is money, does that mean in parkour battles, they pay to hurt others?

Its quite litterally the furthest from "communism in practice" The civilisation is never having their leader overthrown by the CIA. The class structure is too prevalent and reflects the US way too much in terms of oppression

​@@AmphibiansAreCoolLMAO

That probably isnt possible if people dont sacrifice themselves to jump for the beef

That's what I thought Evbo taking over would be! Some kind of class revolution for the second movie. But... he sorta maintained the same system. Maybe there's commentary there!

No piece of fiction is created outside of the culture of its author. If your "Heros journey" in a dystopia reflects late stage capitalism, then that might say something that even the original creator didnt intend

Pog

Pog

Youre right. something like Company towns come to mind.

You must be fun at parties

@GhostOfMessorem I don't party with those under the hammer and sickel

I think its more that the capitalist model has oppression built in as a feature whilst these flaws only present themselves in communist systems when theyre corrupted by outside forces like the CIA or by an inside coup

So climate change starvation homelessness recessions are applicable to communism as well? no recessions don't happen in a planned economy in a planned economy the government will do what's best in the long term and not short term and everything will not be done for profit but for what gives the best living standards to the people so no overproduction like in capitalism causing global warming homelessness occurs when homes are seen as commodity instead of a necessity these things aren't true for communism or socialism and another thing about them is that when people are more equal the condition of an individual is similar to the conditions of the whole so if 1 person is starving then others are starving too but if 1 person gets to eat the others get to eat too when we produce enough food for 13 billion people every year we won't face 14 million de*ths by starvation in socialism or communism

@ the problem is that the group with power has no reason to care about the people. No one will regulate them in capitalist or communist societies. The reason communist societies were of the poorest places on the planet is the reason I gave. Who even plans out the economy, how will you know if they are qualified or care about other people? Our housing crisis wouldn’t be a problem if theres less corruption since the democratically elected leaders used lowering housing prices as a way to get elected, but they don’t due to bribery. How would communism fix those kinds of issues? There is no reason to fix things like that if the people in power aren’t impacted. Your point about all people being equal doesn’t line up since what will happen if you have 10 houses suitable for a single family each and there are 11 families needing houses? We live in a world of scarcity. In a communist system you can’t get people to do jobs they don’t want to do without slavery or forced labor, therefore scarcity will increase. More scarcity means more situations with too little resources. I don’t see what changes between the people in power in capitalism vs. communism for them to care about climate change. They can anticipate where to go to avoid it in advance or make it an issue somewhere they don’t live in for the kind of climate change that occurs regionally, such as water pollution and algal bloom. There is nothing preventing the communist with power from caring about rising sea levels or global warming as much as the capitalists with power. None of your points work.

Ip intelectual property