When Irrational Games and 2K Games first releasedBioShockin 2007, it made an impact for several reasons. Not only was the game a well-designed first-person shooter with a gripping story and an unsettling atmosphere, but it had a breathtaking setting with its underwater metropolis that had only an echo of its former grandeur.BioShockwas a creative and engrossing ride from start to finish, and the in-depth lore of the environment and the characters that were crumbling away within it added to the polish of the entire game. Overall,BioShockwas an unforgettable and undeniably impactful game that influenced subsequent titles and the genre as a whole.
But it wasn’t just the nuanced and twisting narrative or visually impressive setting that setBioShockapart from its video game counterparts — it was the interaction with and examination of ideologies and philosophical issues. Althoughall threeBioShockgames tackle thorny questionsand interrogate various ideological belief systems, it is through the character of Andrew Ryan and his reasons for creating the underwater city of Rapture that the developers fully explore Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. While some of these aspects are open to interpretation and players can choose to engage with them as they see fit, they are undoubtedly foundational forBioShock’s setting and major characters, and represent some of the game’s themes.
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Exploring Ayn Rand’s Philosophy
Ayn Rand was a prominent writer and philosopher in the 20th century, known for her various works of fiction and for the development of a system of philosophical thinking that she named Objectivism. Her most well-known fictional works includeThe FountainheadandAtlas Shrugged— books that explored her opinions on Capitalism and Individualism. The latter is probably the most relevant toBioShockand the story it explores, as the game could almost be seen as a sequel of sorts to the events in the book. Set in a dystopian version of the United States, companies are crumbling as the government attempts to prop up private businesses and their enterprising owners with restrictive laws and regulations that will mean they are doomed to fail in their attempts to create something worthwhile and profitable.
A mysterious millionaire named John Galt is attempting to encourage business owners to disappear and strike against these rules and deprive the group of “looters” who are taking advantage of the business owners' successes. At first a mythical figure, Galt is discovered to be the man behind the disappearances of many prominent creators, which leads to the country’s downfall. At the end of the book, they are planning to create their own capitalist society based on Galt’s individualistic philosophy, which believes that creators will never be able to make anything important if they’re constantly expected to prop up the societies in which they live. This is essentially one of themain tenets of Rapture’s creation.
At its heart, Objectivism is a belief in the individual above all else. It rejects faith and religion and states that a person alone has the power to change their circumstances and achieve their goals. To Rand, man was “a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” Free will was paramount, and according to her beliefs, there was no such thing as fate or determinism. A person should only work for their own gains, and shouldn’t be reliant on anyone else or seek to serve others. This is summed up perfectly with one ofAndrew Ryan’s infamous lines, “a man chooses, a slave obeys.”
How BioShock Uses Objectivism
Aside from the fact that Andrew Ryan’s name is deliberately reminiscent of Ayn Rand’s, he also espouses a lot of the ideas that the writer explored in her work. Ryan’s dedication to elevating the individual and his rejection of religion and traditional hierarchies allowed Rapture to exist. His attempt to create a free-thinking society of creators and exceptional people away from the seemingly restrictive and unbalanced surface world reek of Randian ideology. Like Galt inAtlas Shrugged, Ryan was a genius engineer and business tycoon who considered the idea of using his success to help others disgusting and antithetical to his ideals. Just like the book’s mysterious character, he also sought to create his version of autopia away from government control with Rapture.
With more echoes of Rand’s work, Atlas is a character inBioShockwho rises up to confront Ryan and who becomes a mythic bastion for others similar to Galt in the book. While Rand uses Atlas Shrugged to show how creative and rational individuals could create a society on their own terms and cause the downfall of the one they left behind,BioShockshows how even if those individuals achieved this dream the consequences could be just as destructive.Frank Fontaine/Atlasalso successfully manipulates the player, utilizing the chilling phrase “would you kindly” to dictate their actions, showing how even the player’s own free will was just an illusion.
WhileBioShockexamines and often critiques Rand’s ideologies, it doesn’t necessarily outright condemn them. There is a gray area, with arguably multiple villains of the story — the main one isn’t necessarily a person, but power itself. Power is an intoxicating and corruptive force, and while some may argue that Ryan started off with fairly good intentions, he couldn’t escape its pull andRapture collapsed under its own weight as a result.
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The Relevance Of Randian Ideology Today
Science fiction has always been an incredibly prescient genre. It’s usually a precursor to scientific fact, proving that if humans can imagine it, it can eventually be made real. It is also a way for people to examine issues in their own societies, usually through allegory or metaphor, and project them onto fantastical of futuristic settings. Rapture may be fictional, but its decaying Art Deco structures and polluted idealism are not as far away from players' own societies as they might like to believe. There will always be people who take advantage, who seek to control others, and who are unwilling to help even when they have the means to do so.
BioShockshows that society(and people) aren’t so easily corralled, and that if someone tries to create an ideal for the minority at the exclusion of the majority, it doesn’t work out too well for either group. As many people are learning in today’s world, thinking only of themselves will lead to disastrous consequences. While the impulse to operate purely as an individual — to think of oneself only, and not be answerable to anything that limits or controls — may appeal to some, it leads to dangerous ways of thinking and fractured societies categorized by close-mindedness. Ideological absolutes are not only restrictive, but they often result in violence and segregation. In many of today’s societies, this feels all too relevant.
BioShock: The Collectionis available right now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
