West vs West

Here at this blog, we’re inclined to frame the crisis facing the West as a spiritual battle between Christendom and the totalizing Death Cult seeking to destroy it.

But just yesterday, a reader pointed me to a post that examines our civilizational decline through the lens of video RPGs, which we are also fond of here.

The twist is that fellow blogger Malstrom sees the current struggle not as Western civilization battling a hostile invading religion, but as two warring civilizations.

Or perhaps one civilization with dual personalities tearing itself apart from within.

Let’s take a look at his theory.

There are multiple Western Civilizations. The West is certainly a large geographical place, is it not? Some might point to the Western Civilization as being around two thousand years old or less. I’d say it’s double that age frame.

There are also multiple Western Civilizations RIGHT NOW. Yes, today.

Civilization is not so much an architectural style but a thought process of metaphysics. And these different metaphysics create different cultures which create different civilizations.

Change the metaphysics, change the world.

Shills for early Modern heresies understood that dynamic.

And it worked. You’ll still hear people – even dissidents claiming to oppose the Death Cult – dismiss metaphysics as a medieval spook. Complex, internally consistent, and challenging, yes. But lacking any real-world truth value. Unlike, say, empirical science – which is just what the West’s internal enemies want them to think.

One Western Civilization is a Christianized Paganism. The Second Western Civilization is the Protestation of the former. While you may think these are mere religious differences gone today, you would be completely wrong. There are two Western Civilizations that exist today.

The Christianized Paganism is easier to find its roots. You have the Greeks and Roman Empire metaphysics converted (e.g. instead of an Emperor, you have a Pope). This Western Civilization can mostly be found in non-English speaking countries or in some isolated conclaves of English speaking countries.

This is the Pantheon, a Roman temple to all the gods built by pagans in the early second century, and a Catholic basilica since the early seventh century:

There is no more complete and striking symbol of Western civilization than Pentecost Mass being offered in a former pagan temple conquered and baptized by Jesus Christ.

“Christianized Paganism” is rather a misnomer, though. It tends to suggest paganism with Christian window dressing.

St. Paul explains the true interaction of Christianity and paganism in his Areopagus Sermon in Acts 17. There, he reveals that God allowed pagan worship before the coming of Christ, and because He’s the only real God, the pagans did end up worshiping Him unwittingly.

So it’s not that paganism was entirely false. Paul even confirms that pagan poets – who were viewed by the ancient Greeks as something more like prophets – did get some of their theology right.

But he also told them they had to repent of any worship that was superstitious.

What Christianity did was complete the work God had started by clearing away what was false in paganism and rebuilding on those foundational aspects that were sound.

Just like Christians establishing a church on the site of a pagan temple that had been destroyed by cleansing fire.

So if the Current Year threat to the West isn’t paganism, long since conquered by Christianity, what is it?

As far as the Second Western Civilization, it is better to see it as ‘Anglo-Saxon’ especially with its English language. The Paganism has been rooted out and obliterated in this civilization. It is the civilization of individualism, of hypocrisy, of the Enlightenment thinkers, but also of constant Revolutions. The modern ‘Woke’ culture is a byproduct of the Calvinistic Second Western Civilization metaphysical reality asserting itself. While Christianized Paganism stresses the experience of life, the Western Protestant Civilization stresses the rules of life. Aesthetically, Christianized Paganism bathes itself in the glamour of the ancient arts. Western Protestant Civilization lives in a stark utilitarian mindset and removes all such ancient glamour.

Malstrom isn’t the first observer to notice the Death Cult’s Puritan DNA.

Even I have pointed out that we can trace the crisis’ inflection point not to 9/11, or the 90s, the 60s, WWII, WWI, the American Civil War, the French Revolution, or even the Enlightenment.

The inciting point of rupture in Western metaphysics was the Protestant Revolt.

And some compelling evidence shows up – in of all places – WRPGs.

Since cognizance of the Two Western Civilizations is not commonly known, Richard Garriott become very confused. Every Ultima game after Ultima IV became a protestation of Ultima IV. In Ultima V, it was a hypocrisy of the Ultima IV virtues being turned into very hard laws (e.g. Tax All Your Wealth To Enforce Compassion). Ultima VI was the hypocrisy of the Ultima Christ figure (Avatar) actually DESTROYING the world and destroying a race of people (i.e. the gargoyles).

By Ultima VII, there were so many new developers that the series was in full protestation mode. Ultima VII centers around a religion called the Fellowship. The Fellowship, based on Scientology, is nothing but hypocrites and self-serving leaders. The game also has an apocalyptical feel to it… as if everyone in the world stops caring about life and just wants to be left alone. Ultima VII: Serpent Isle ups this with showing a branched off civilization which ultimately is wiped out (with all the people in it being shown to be hypocrites). And those people were only building on the ruins of another destroyed civilization.

Ultima VIII is even further protestation against Ultima IV. Here, the ‘hero’ must do evil. Instead of destroying the Black Gate in Ultima VII, you must create the Black Gate in Ultima VIII. In Ultima VIII, you ‘win’ by destroying everyone, making their lives miserable, and killing all the titans.

Here I must confess to not being a fan of Western RPGs. To be even more honest, I think Malstrom may just have explained why.

And the capstone of his argument cites a genre I am much more familiar with: JRPGs.

In particular, the greatest Japanese RPG of all time.

The final battle of Final Fantasy 6 is Dante’s Divine Comedy. The bottom is Hell and Satan, the middle is Limbo full of people, and the top is Heaven where you see a woman (Mary?) at the very top.

And, of course, Kefka descends down as an Archangel.

NB: Final Fantasy VI isn’t the only game in the series to feature Marian imagery. I’m told it makes a pretty strong showing in FF XV.

What is Final Fantasy 6 about? It isn’t about the villain winning (because he does win). The game makes it abundantly clear that the game is about ‘life and dreams’. In other words, the ‘experience of life’.

In fact, all the early Final Fantasy games point to the Christianized Paganism in their world building. Dragon Quest also does it.

There might be some smoke here, but there’s a lot of fire.

It does go a long way toward explaining some core aesthetic, thematic, and character differences common to W and J RPGs.

And since video games are visual media, let’s explore those differences in pictures:

 

 

Now compare the above images with …

 

 

Now consider that as outsiders looking in, Easterners face a greater challenge immediately grasping the nature and meaning of these differences.

They don’t see the two Western civilizations. They just borrow the elements they find more appealing.

Kefka is not a hypocrite. He simply hates the life experience. Despite the lack of meaningful dialogue and backstory, Kefka catapults to the most effective video game villain because of his hatred for ‘dreams’.

Another confession: Golbez always edged out Kefka for best FF villain in my book.

But now I may have to reconsider my rankings …

Going back to Final Fantasy XVI, the reason why the game feels so ‘off’ isn’t because the game was modeled on Western Civilization. The reason was because the game was based on the OTHER Western Civilization. Final Fantasy, as a series, always modeled itself on Western Civilization but it used the Christianized Paganism. Final Fantasy XVI was based on English writing and voice actors. The world of Final Fantasy XVI is stark, dark and devoid, and no one really lives life in this game. There is no real reflection of beauty, not in the game or in the soundtrack. It is a game about revenges, about guilt, about hypocrisy.

The game feels like it has a different source material because it does.

FF XVI has been getting a lot of buzz in my circles.

And to be frank, I don’t get why.

Nothing I’ve seen of the game so far has made me want to play it.

Now I think I know why.

If it’s “Metaphysical rebel take on the Middle Ages,” aka Final Fantasy Game of Thrones, count me out.

I’ll just go play more Vampire: The Masquerade games, which also have strong Catholic undertones.

At this point, it occurs to me that a few words of reassurance should be spared for my separated brethren in Christ.

The point of this post isn’t to identify Protestantism with the Death Cult. That’s not the case.

Instead, the Death Cult is a Christian heresy that mutated from a secularized offshoot of American Protestantism.

History is messy, and the Reformers were sincere in their conviction that they were doing the right thing.

What’s more, it’s plain unjust to blame people for centuries-old metaphysical revolutions they had no hand in.

So don’t shoot the messenger.

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