Does he though? In Atlas Shrugged, which Bioshock seems to be somewhat of an antithesis to, it’s not the capitalists that go crazy, but the socialists, who enact more and more draconian laws depriving the productive class of all their profits in order to funnel more money to the unproductive, which ultimately makes working entirely unprofitable.
Both works are basically at opposite ends of the spectrum — Atlas Shrugged depicts a communist utopia gone wrong, while Bioshock shows a capitalist utopia gone wrong. They’re both myopic in their own way, but the common thread seems to be that absolute power corrupts absolutely, which is a truth no one can escape. In reality, a functioning society requires a delicate balance between both forces, not a winner-takes-tall approach. Unfortunately, that idea seems to be lost on both of them, which is probably what anon is trying to hint at.
tim@infosec.pub 2 months ago
What’s your take on it? (I just like reading takes on Bioshock)
Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
That executive meddling ruins final bosses.
But on a serious note, look at modern society and the tipping points we’re reaching. AI, climate change, ultra-individualism bred by class disparity. Rapture just happened to get capitalism’d a hundred years earlier.
There are points to be made about comparability to Hitler’s rise, slavery through class busting and then mind control, races to the bottom, oligopolies, regulatory capture, and-and-and- but this is a greentext community.
TheBat@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s been a long time since I played it. And honestly, it doesn’t have to be a take. Things are spelled out for the player from what I remember.
The ‘intellectuals’ in the rapture considered activities such as plumbing, cleaning etc to be beneath them. Which led to having an underclass of workers doing these things and eventually there was a rebellion.
Basically, cooperation is far more important than intelligence (or any other talent for that matter) in isolation.
An example I can give is Josh Trank. After Chronicle, his directorial debut which received great reviews, he got opportunity to direct Fant4stic. The production was an absolute shitshow.
Compare that to David Fincher. He was directing music videos before he got Alien 3. That movie had a lot of studio interference. David kept his head down, did his job and moved on. Only spoke negatively about Alien 3 after more than 15 years.