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Cyberpunk pt13: Rapture, Rome & The US Economy

29/04/10

Egofreaky

Cyberpunk is one of those genres that is clearly defined by it’s elements. It’s always got some form of post humanism, some form of technology corrupting society, some form of secret cabal that controls the rest of the world, some form of societal degradation, and always, always there has been a massive shift in the economy to either total collapse, or brink of collapse with everything controlled by the aforementioned secret cabal.

I know that most of these posts on cybperunk have been concentrating on technology that already exists, and me calling out the scoffers who claim bullshit on the tech. Well, what about the societal concepts as well? Having been paying attention to the crap that’s going down both here and abroad lately, it’s beginning to make me seriously think that perhaps Ben Elton, William Gibson and Masamune Shirow were onto something.

Andrew Ryan

I read an article in The Age the other day about how Ayn Rand caused the global financial crisis. Those of you that have been playing BioShock (which should be all of you. No, really, it’s a great game!) should be aware of who she is… or at least her fictionalised anagram self. That’s right Andrew Ryan is in fact an anagram for “Ayn Rand ew”. For those of you that haven’t played it, the game takes place in the fictional, Atlantean city of “Rapture”. Rapture was meant to be a place out of time and society where the best and brightest could go to work for themselves to the purest form of the ideology known as Objectivism (defined by the euphemistic term “rational self interest” a.k.a self centered greed), which is actually about as rational and objective and Scientology is scientific… The city is eventually brought down by the power of an organised labour union, the antithesis of Rand’s ideologies, as she believes that those that require help from others to maintain a fair power balance in economic negotiations are parasites… fittingly enough, the sequel of the game explores what’s wrong with obsessive collectivist action, so it’s nicely balanced in it’s propaganda I guess. After all, the titans of industry still actually need their “parasites” to actually do the actual work.

I know she's not really as bad as Hitler, but take her ideologies to logical extremes and you actually do end up at the exact same place. Ironic really, considering what happened in her life.

But I digress. What happened in Rapture is a retelling of what happened in Rome, and is now again happening in the U.S. A rich elite form at the expense of the middle classes, squeezing more and more of them into the lower classes, where life is not really liveable in any form. Near religious belief in a free market (even though many of them actually attempt to get regulations into place that will actively benefit them, because, you know, that doesn’t count if it’s to their advantage), over stretched military commitments that are bleeding the state coffers dry, scape goats found in any non-military government program (because the wars that take up the lions share of the taxation revenue are never to blame), further scape goats found in smaller chunks of the population, and then numerous political decisions that small but vocal and violent minorities dislike.

It is the birth of the fall of an empire, and fallen empires leave behind barbarism and destruction in their wake.

Rome was burned and sacked. Modern cities will have riots, mass slaughters by militias on both sides, and perhaps some extremists will attempt demolition works.

Rome is the classic example. The contraction of Roman power left behind the dark ages, in which a lot of ignorance and violence permeated. Again, Bioshock captures it well. But there are other examples that are also more recent and obvious. Contraction of French imperialistic power in then “Indochina” let to a rise of communism, the most obvious form of collectivist action, and eventually became the Vietnam War, until US imperialistic power basically leveled the country. Similarly, imperialistic attempts to install democracies in Southern America, Africa, and the Middle East have led to failed states that are strongholds of barbarism and amazing ignorance. You can’t, in all intellectual honesty, blame it on Islam either as there are clear indications of similar happenings in any other country where this power vacuum occurs – and the South American countries are predominantly Catholic!

Some people have even been purchasing fortified, habitation ready vehicles from the cash strapped space programs of various governments

This leads directly to the societal tropes of Cyberpunk fiction where only the mega rich are truly safe, locked away in their splendor, never having to pay attention. This is directly parodied in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, where the protagonist is eating dinner with his cosmetic surgery addicted mother in a restaurant when terrorist blow up a table nearby, and the mother calmly ignores this as she’s perfectly safe. After all, she’s rich. Likewise in the past, the rich have escaped to the country side. If they’re not currently doing that, they’re buying into walled estates and gated communities with posted guards, or buying apartments in high rise buildings that can only be reached by having a key for the elevator (good fucking luck if the building gets set on fire).

Either way, the rich remain safe and rich, even as money becomes less and less useful unless you happen to control a significant portion of it, and the ways to struggle out of the poverty cycle become fewer and fewer without having to resort to crime.

… and it’s happening right now.

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