Bioshock Follows Ayn Rand's Capitalist Dream to its Frightening End
Free-market theory collides with a terrifying reality.
After Jack opens a gift on his late night commercial flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1960, the plane swiftly crashes. Jack is left adrift as the sole survivor. You can now swim past the burning remnants of the plane towards a large, pointed structure protruding from the water. There’s a spotlight at the top of the structure, pointing into the nighttime sky. This crash was not an accident. Upon reaching the structure, you climb the stairs to a large doorway, survey the fiery wreckage on the water one last time, and go through a door. Lights turn on to show a red banner that reads “No Gods or Kings. Only Man.” This is the philosophy of Andrew Ryan, founder of the underwater city, Rapture, in 2007’s legendary video game, Bioshock. Well known for its innovative gameplay and hair-raising setting, the game is a criticism of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, one of the foundational texts for contemporary Capitalism and Libertarianism.
I was around 12 years old when I first tried Bioshock. I was so scared, I couldn’t get past the opening 5 minutes of actual gameplay once arriving in Rapture. I returned to it around 14 or 15 and saw its intellectual brilliance. Returning to it now, the critiques it levels against Ayn Rand’s theories on governance and purpose in society feel more apt than ever before. The game puts to the test selfishness as a virtue and selflessness as a flaw. Bioshock takes Ayn Rand’s Objectivism and simply follows it to its natural conclusion.
As the player takes a small submarine called a Bathysyphere down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the moment when the city of Rapture appears on the ocean floor is one of gaming’s most iconic moments introducing a setting. On the way down, you are contacted by a seemingly altruistic guide, “Atlas.” The game is that direct with its references to Rand’s work. Additionally you’re listening to the below recording of Andrew Ryan state the free-market principles behind Rapture’s founding.
“I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? ‘No!’ says the man in Washington, ‘It belongs to the poor.’‘No!’ says the man in the Vatican, ‘It belongs to God.’ ‘No!’ says the man in Moscow, ‘It belongs to everyone.’
I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture.
A city where the artist would not fear the censor.
Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality.
Where the great would not be constrained by the small!
And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.“
Seeking to escape all manner of the surface world’s “limitations,” Ryan constructs Rapture in the aftermath of World War Two with the intention of creating a utopia where there are no laws. The rules and restrictions are only those set by the free market, or the “Great Chain” as he refers to it. The moment you begin making your way through Rapture, there are references to the Cold War era, as Ryan wonders whether the player is a “CIA hawk or KGB wolf.” He views the United States and USSR as no different from each other- entities that seek to control. Ryan’s, and Rand’s, Objectivist creed is shouted at you from PA systems and written on signage with lines like “A man creates. A Parasite takes.” This is a riff on Ayn Rand’s concept that there are only makers and takers, producers and moochers. So how does this play out in Rapture? In short, not well.
Soon after Rapture’s founding, a cast of characters arrived and put these laissez-faire concepts to the tests. As you encounter them throughout the game, the deeply problematic nature of a society without rules becomes apparent. Entrepreneurial con-man Frank Fontaine consolidates much of the city’s industry and creates vast wealth inequality. Scientist Yi Suchong performs horrific experiments and demonstrates why grounded morality is actually pretty important for scientific advancement. Sander Cohen is an artist whose “art” is inflicted upon people, rather than shared with them. Dr. Steinman is a surgeon who takes his practice to unfathomably grotesque extents. It is important to note all of this happens before the discovery of the highly addictive, genetically mutating substance derived from sea slugs, “ADAM.” Discovered and invented by the trio of Frank Fontaine, Yi Suchong, and Brigid Tennenbaum, ADAM is eventually used to create many different “plasmids,” abilities such as increased athleticism, shooting lightning from your hand or telekinesis people can gain through an injection. While these plasmids are a core feature of Bioshock’s fantastically innovative gameplay, the implications of ADAM in Rapture’s society are dire.
The widespread use of ADAM by Rapture’s civilian population accelerates the decline beyond what anybody could have imagined. Unfortunately, the consumption of ADAM to power the use of plasmids has side effects that include intense hallucinations, psychosis, and deep paranoia that lead to all out, violent civil unrest as everyone seeks to get ahead in Rapture. As you progress through the game, the player picks up audio logs from different characters at different points in time. One log is a message Andrew Ryan leaves for an associate concerned by the impact of plasmids on the population as theft, assault, and civil war are becoming the new societal norm. Additionally, this is where the structural deterioration of Rapture begins. The challenges of maintaining a city at the bottom of the ocean can no longer be met given the new, horrifying circumstances. Ryan’s message to his associate is to simply “create a better product” and the market will adjust.
Here is where the deeply problematic parts of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism are clearly apparent. It is simply impossible for “the market” to regulate something like a highly addictive substance without some sort of tangible, governing structure. As addiction to the genetically mutating ADAM runs rampant, Atlas organizes what’s left of Rapture’s non-psychotic working classes in an attempt to seize control from Andrew Ryan on New Year’s Eve, 1958. This is where the real civil war begins. Ryan responds by creating a surveillance state (complete with security camers and turrets the player encounters), stripping people of freedoms, and staging public executions in Apollo Square of “thieves” or anybody else deemed to be troublemaking. It is in this period where society truly begins to collapse. People use plasmids even more, out of fear, furthering the psychotic paranoia of those afflicted by the use of ADAM. What was meant to be a utopia has turned into a horrible dystopia. It is nearly two years after this that you, the player, arrive to find that much of Rapture’s population has died off in the ensuing struggle. What was once an underwater marvel is now a tomb for anybody unfortunate enough to be stuck there. As you play through the game, Rapture is so far gone it’s difficult to fathom how such an objectively dangerous substance could go so unregulated for so long.
This is the reality modern proponents of Objectivism, starting most significantly with Ronald Reagan, simply do not want to confront. Framing the ideals of total market freedom as essential to personal liberty is an easy way to convince the masses to open the floodgates on a form of Capitalism that will simply trample all in its way. While what Bioshock games out might seem like an extreme scenario, even the recent developments on screw worm demonstrate how the concept of every person for themselves can end up dragging us all down. When Objectivism is actually put to the test in governance, it is difficult to see it ending any other way than a wealthy, entrenched few holding incredible power over the many. Bioshock’s Frank Fontaine demonstrates how easily a society rooted in Objectivism can be twisted by one, bad faith actor. As the aforementioned signifcant problems squeeze society more and more, it is only a matter of political science that eventually, the masses lose faith in the ability of institutions to do anything about it. People beginning to take matters into their own hands in varying forms becomes increasingly likely. The implications of this in the modern day are something for us to consider.