A famous game mechanic in certain adventure games of the eight and sixteen-bit eras involved starting the main character off sans the main tool he needed to win. The Legend of Zelda set this trend by throwing the main protagonist Link into the wilds of Hyrule completely unarmed.
As a result, the play testers were forced to compare notes and work together just to find the most basic equipment. This spirit of collaboration carried them through the whole adventure and turned a single-player game into a cooperative experience.
The slow but accelerating collapse of Western society is retroactively turning the Zelda sword hunt into an apt allegory for young men trying to carve out a living amid the chaos. If you are under 50, the system you were taught to thrive in is passing away. Many feel like the world is crumbing around them, leaving them stranded in a strange place without the tools they need to survive.
What can Zoomers, Millennials, and Ys do in such a disorienting situation? As in so many other aspects of life, The Legend of Zelda offers the answer.
You’ve got to find your sword.
In the context of post-Western post-America, your sword is the tool that lets you interact with this new environment so as to draw resources from it. Instead of a physical weapon, your sword represents the skills and knowledge required to survive – and even flourish – in this crumbling social order.
What is your skill? There are as many answers as there are people. And like Link, each of us acquires an inventory of useful skills and knowledge as we go along. Each new skill and piece of information is another tool in your survival toolbox that will increase your chance of success.
How do you gain this knowledge? Again, the answer differs from person to person. But again, Zelda gives us a clue. Learn from the example of the play testers who shared their knowledge and experience so all of them could win. Whatever your path in life, it is certain that cultivating a trusted group of likeminded peers will make the going easier. Man sharpens man as iron sharpens iron.
The decadent elites who have seized control of the world hate us, and they fear the prospect of their subjects gathering together to share knowledge. That alone is reason enough to network with sympathetic people in your field of interest.
Earlier I stated that everyone will have a different specific answer to the challenges that beset him, but that rule admits of one exception. Every knowledge-seeker must first establish a relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the Divine Logos and the source of all good.
Seek Him first, and the rest will be added.
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