An Objectivist On Bioshock
Okay, only a few people might find this interesting, but I was fascinated. Twenty Sided's Shamus Young managed to find an Objectivist who had played through Bioshock. As you may know, Objectivism is a philosophy based on the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. And Bioshock's world - the undersea city of Rapture - was pretty much an Objectivist paradise gone horribly, horribly wrong. The city's founder was even named "Andrew Ryan" - a deliberate reference to Ayn Rand.

I'll just link to it here. You can read it, and come back. Or not.

Bioshock: An Objectivist on the Objectivism

I only read Atlas Shrugged a couple of years ago. I resisted it for a long time because my parents loved the book, and so naturally I couldn't possibly enjoy it. Though when I found out that the drummer and principle lyricist for my favorite rock band - Neil Peart of Rush - was a fan (even a self-professed "Randroid" for a part of his life), I was a little more predisposed to read it.

I finally got around to it, and was impressed. Not that I subscribed to the philosophy. I felt that Rand's vision of society had the same fundamental flaw as Communism - even though it was, in many ways, the direct opposite of Communism. And it's the problem suggested by "The Inspector" in his discussion - it requires a societal change to the point of suppressing human nature in order for it to work.

Human beings may be self-interested by nature, but we also have an amazing tendency to engage in behaviors contrary to our long-term self-interest. I may recognize that it's in my best long-term self-interest to eat better and exercise more to live a happier life in the long-term, but that doesn't make it easier for me to turn down a cheeseburger or to take the time out to go to the gym.

Bioshock did point out some of those flaws with the faux-Objectivist utopia. Take Adam & Plasmids, for example. It is apparent that their long-term use has some nasty side-effects, but the corporate bordello of Rapture allowed them to be marketed and sold without any kind of supervision or regulation. They needed no testing. So by the time the game starts for you, almost all survivors have gone insane. As you can tell from the recordings, the final weeks and months of Rapture's civilized existance consisted of a war over "who controls the Adam."

(It doesn't take much to shift the 1960's alternate history story to the real world of the same time period, and hear the recordings talking about "who controls the atom.")

What would be really interesting would be to see another game's take on Atlas Shrugged from 2009's vantage point. In a lot of ways, we're living the early chapters right now. My feeling is that Rand extrapolated upon the events and government policies during the Great Depression, and extrapolated them to the nth degree for her story. Businesses not being allowed to fail, government intervention in the name of preserving the status quo which does more harm than good. That kinda thing. We haven't quite gotten to the point where the world's entrepreneurs and executives have decided to go on strike, yet.

Theoretically, there's a movie (trilogy?) planned for 2011 based on the book. And there's a Bioshock movie planned for next year. Now THAT could be an interesting contrast, particularly since both will probably be simplified a bit to appeal to the broader market's tastes.

Labels: Geek Life

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