Terran Franklin

If you’re thinking that this is about the new sequel that arrived today, you’re wrong.

I just want to ask the folks reading this a question:

What would be the first thing that came to your mind when I mention Ayn Rand’s name?

For some people, it was a philosophy which I’ll mention later this article.  For some, it was a book some bored English teacher made you read.  For some of the 9-12’ers, it’s what some of you are bending towards.

But if you’re like me, if you think of Ayn Rand, your mind leads to this:

How many people haven’t even thought of Objectivism until Bioshock came about a couple years back?  No need for hands.

For the uninitiated, Bioshock is a unique form of first person shooter that takes a belly-up spin on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.  In this version, all the strikers setting in an underground city in the middle of the Atlantic.  Unfortunately, the John Galt of the tale, Mr. Andrew Ryan, was not as perfect as Miss Ryand’s beloved revolutionary.  The underwater city of Rapture became a stark example of what happens when Objectivism goes bad and makes Karl Marx look good, with little girls reduced to stem cell collecting beasts who get their stomachs ripped out, while almost everyone is either wallowing in guilt over their own sins or drowning them with DNA-altering substances.  And that’s not including walking tanks in diver suits.

And then there that Atlas fucker.  Would you kindly don’t get me started on him?

Two things came to my mind at the end of Bioshock 1:  The first was the obvious:  How would Ayn Rand do on this game?  When I looked over Bioshock on TV Tropes, I was shocked to find that some Objectionists actually want to be in Bioshock’s Rapture, if not the original version Ryan intended.  Couple this with the negative concepts of Ayn Rand herself.  Ayn Rand believed that all sex is rape, even the sex in marriage.  (What would she say about Masturbation?) Ayn Rand had a religious-like trait of “My Way or the Highway.”

Would Ayn Rand be at home in the bottom of the sea in a bunny mask, strung up on Eve and Harvesting the LIttle Sisters?

Bridget Tannenbalm:  Tsk!  I didn’t know brutes came in females, no?  I suppose she rips her own children from her womb for an encore.

Will someone help me if I’m wrong.  I wish I was making this kind of shit up.  (I heard in one site that the best thing to do with a little sister is to just leave it be.  Assist her Big Daddy by killing off the Splicers, and maybe she’ll thank you with a little Adam and walk merrily on her way.  Unfortuantely, it isn’t an option in the first game.  Or the second either.  It should.)

The second one not only deals (a little bit) with the sequel, but also comes into play in Blood and Metal book II, which is between drafts right now.  In a sense, I made my own version of Rapture in the alien city of Vintnaos.  Or at least the ruling family there.  Especially their patriarch, John Galt Knothole.

The reference is more telling once you know his story, which is called “The Shrug” in Maatlan history.

In a nutshell, Maatla had their own version of Atlas Shrugged in the Medieval continent of Ritanica, where most of Book 1 takes place.  500 years earlier, the continent was more together, but they were exploiting their successful people—the innovators, industrialist, inventors, artist, and what have you—to the point where they couldn’t function, much less live, in that continent.  They eventually started to move en masse from the region, often with just the shirts on their backs, fearing that they will be hunted down and dragged back into slavery by their government—and an occasional rogue church.

Enter John Galt Knothole.  He founded Vintnaos from a trade post in between countries from an ancient civilization.  (Most of it had to be taken down, but there is an historical park where relics are stored.)  He offered the strikers an opportunity to come to Vintanos and be citizens there, protected by an army of Knights and represented by a King who believes that the strength of the country comes from the people, not their government.  JGK was a realist, though. He knows that some rules needed to be made and some taxes needed to be taken, but he ensured that his control on the government would be minimal, that the successful people will be able to operate their businesses without overdue restrictions, and promised a kingdom as free as it was possible in that era.

Not knowing any other alternative, the strikers ran full tilt to Vintanos, at times picked up and hunted like dogs—pun non-intended, we’re talking about a furry planet here—by Ritanica’s Tyrannical Rulers, in Maatla’s bloodiest chapter in history.  One particular battle in a valley gorge could top Gettysburg in the gore category.  When the smoke cleared, Vintanos became the second greatest city second to Vidica—Maatla’s answer to Rome—and their top Economic power, while Ritanica regressed to the dark ages and their countries splintered into warring states.

We fast forward to Blood and Metal.  Vintanos is ruled by an inexperienced Sarah Knothole, forced into the throne by the loss of her father.  Here comes this alien wolf with a sign of him being alive and planning his return.  And with them, a philosophy that could be considered JGK 2.0 in some people.

But the messenger, Eric Krockett, would have a word of caution for those who only think of self-interest.  Or consider that Altruism, which makes the driving force of the main antagonists in Bioshock 2, to be the Enemy of John Galt/Ayn Rand/Andrew Ryan’s philosophy.  It needn’t be.

We’re talking Ying and Yang here.  Eric would prefer that people balance their self-interest with public responsibility.  Either side, pushed to it’s extreme, is bad.  And now we have examples with both extremes.  Move too far into self-interest, to the point where you’re taking advantage of other people, and you make Lennin a realist.  Move too far into altruism, to the point where individual efforts are squashed and people lack no sense of self, and you make Miss Rand a prophet.  She’s already being made a prophet during the last year with the Tea Party movement.

Eric’s American Philosophy seeks a balance between the two extremes, where one is leavened by the other.  Your right to throw your fists ends in another person’s face, so to speak, and the best way to help others is to do it in a way that helps yourself as well.  He’ll also speak of the kind of riches that do not have monetary value, and that sometimes it’s better to reserve some rights to something rather than go all or nothing.  (AKA the Open Source Creative Commons approach, one of the many Earthling intentions Maatla adopts.) This happy medium might prove to be the most approachable by the general population of the city, and could prove to be better for the less fortunate of the citizenry than the occasional call for revolution.  (Hell, they might be making Che-style shirts with Eric’s face on them.  I think I have a marketing idea here.)

But anyway, expect Bioshock’s sequel to be out by now, and do keep posted on this blog for the progress of BAM II, would you kindly?