Rapture and Republicans Part Two

In my last entry I talked about Rapture, the Objectivist dystopia unintentionally created by Andrew Ryan.  True, he didn't mean for it to be a dystopia, initially, but it ended up that way, due to Ryan's paranoia, and a multitude of other factors.  One of which was that Ryan intended it to be a utopia.

A utopia filled with like-minded people who would, with hard work, determination, and the sweat of their brows, make Rapture work.  Well, that was Ryan's vision of Rapture.  The vision of the people he brought to populate his city was vastly different.  Many of them felt they were above the meanial work that would keep the city running.  They were doctors, thinkers, artist, poets, captains of industry, and one was a criminal.  The society that was created, and was influenced by Ryan's recorded propaganda, was based on selfishness, self-interested, and self centeredness.  "What calamity has ever been caused by the words 'think of yourself''?" one recording asked.  None, unless you consider psychopaths and serial killers to be 'calamities'.

Oh, there were very few who grew food, but they were more interested in how much profit they could wring from the enterprise.  There were poor people in Rapture, but they were outnumbered by the upper classes, and were probably brought down for the sole reason of working for their "betters".  No charity was allowed, because Andrew Ryan considered altruism to be the root of all evil.  So we've got a city filled with selfish, self-centered people who believe they are the upper crust, high class, and above doing the work of a menial.  Therefor, the society was very top-heavy, and it lacked the support system of 'lower class' people that did the actual work. A society based on selfishness, top-heavy, with very little in the way of a support system, and throw in an addictive substance with no manner of oversight or regulation.  No wonder it collapsed.

Once again, I am finding unsettling parallels in the real world.  Politicians intent upon doing away with the Social Safety Net of Social Security, Medicare, and Welfare.  They tell their constituents that these programs are nothing but a drain on the National Budget.  Never mind using some of Ryan's words to say that nobody should be made to pay for the welfare of others.  Though they DO have charities to fall back upon, saying that charities would fill in where the social programs had been.  Then they turn around and do everything to make sure that the rich and powerful are able to keep their money, and corporations are able to keep more of their profits.  As if they wish to make a top-heavy society...  Or make the poor into easily exploitable slaves, what with the call for the deregulation of all industries, and the abolition of minimum wage.

The criminal in Rapture was happy that the society collapsed, and had a plan to kill his rival, Andrew Ryan, so he could rule over the ruins.  The problem with the politicians, should American society collapse, it will take THEM with it.

Rapture and Republicans

Now BioShock is a very interesting game.  Sure it has wonderful graphics, great gameplay, and a unique combat system, but its the writing that adds so much to it.  In BioShock we see an objectivist dystopia created by a man named Andrew Ryan.  Oh, he didn't intend for it to be a dystopia.  He intended to be a truly free city.  Free of Government, and Government intervention in the private property of individuals.  He also believed, strongly, in the right of an individual to make a profit from said property.  That being said, Andrew Ryan was the largest property holder, and employer, in his city of Rapture, therefor Ryan was the main one profiting from the city.

There was no real government in Rapture, except the whims of Andrew Ryan, and Ryan preferred it that way.  There was no one to speak up for the poor, and nobody cared, because Ryan's Rapture was based on self-interest alone and altruism (the belief in a greater good) was considered a great evil of the surface world.  Rapture, you see, was built miles below the surface of the ocean, hidden, so Ryan could preserve his so-called utopia from the governments of the world.

And in Andrew Ryan's city, Free Enterprise is the only economic philosophy allowed.  Everything is for sale, from the air that one breaths to a walk in the woods.  Nothing, absolutely nothing is offered for free.  And in Free Enterprise, because enterprise is allowed to regulate itself, there is nothing protecting the people from predatory business practices.  Also there is no safety regulations, no checking of goods and services for anything that could harm the customers, no medicine is checked for side effects, and none of the regulations that keep people relatively safe did not exist.

In Rapture, a scientist discovered that a sea slug's bite had cured a man's hands that had been crippled.  Research proved that this sea slug created a substance that modified a person's genetic code to make all of a person's cells into stem cells.  This it had great curative properties, and the potential for a great many other things.  Thus Adam, the genetic altering substance secreted by the sea slug, was born.  Adam caused a new business of selling of custom genetic modifications, called Plasmids, to be created.  People could gain fantastic powers such as the ability to shoot lightening from one's hand, light fires with a snap of one's fingers, or even lift and move objects with one's mind.  Adam revolutionized plastic surgery making it possible to simply sculpt flesh like clay, and even gave a botanist the idea for a formula to resurrect dead plant tissue.

However, the side effects of Adam were not discovered, until it was too late.  Adam as it turned out was addictive, caused insanity, and induced deformities.  By the time these side effects were discovered, the hard way, Rapture had become a city filled with insane deformed Adam addicts with fantastic powers, who turned against each other to extract the Adam from each other, and from wherever they could get it.

And in the real world, we have Politicians, especially Republicans, calling for the striking down of regulations that protect the people, especially the poor, from things that could cause them harm.

"Oh, but we're good Christian people," the Republicans would say, "we have the divine moral compass that the atheists refuse to have."  However, I've seen "Good Christians" overcome by greed.  I've seen "Good Christians" say that altruism is evil, when living for the Greater Good is what was taught by Jesus Christ.

The lesson, here, is that any philosophy, especially economic philosophy, will look good on paper.  However, when you add people, that's when things get complicated, because people are a mixed bag of self-centeredness, and a belief in community.

The second lesson is that anything taken to extremes will always fail.

I'll cover that, in my next entry.

To Congress: Grow the *BLEEP* up!

Ladies and gentlemen of Congress, it has come time for you to grow up.  Quit acting like a couple of spatting gangs of kindergarteners and come to a deal.  Quit hiding behind your sacred cows, and make the hard decisions.  You are playing with the lives of the very people who elected you in good faith to represent them, and you are not doing a thing for them.

Grow up.

I know you hate to touch your beloved Military, but what kind of message are we sending to the world, when we are spending more than the ENTIRE WORLD on our military?  Also, taxes.   You are being lead around by the nose by a man who wants you all to lose your jobs, and to kill the United States of America, and replace it with the Fifty Feuding Fiefdoms.  Many of your constituents wish the same, but if this is to be a cohesive country, then we need a Central Government, not fifty little countries.  And to do that we need to raise the tax rate.  It’s been at one of the lowest rates in fifty years.  A lot of you look back on the Fifties with rose-colored glasses, as a golden age of Conservatism, but you choose not to remember that during the 1950’s the tax rate was considerably higher, and it was the very beginnings of our current debit-based economy.  Taxes need to be higher, spending on things like military and subsidies need to be lower, and we need to eliminate foreign aid to countries that hate the US.

Also, you need to stop planning on eliminating the programs that people depend upon.  What are you all trying to do?  Kill off a whole class of people?  True the elderly and disabled do not contribute to your campaign funds, but they do vote, and they do spend the money they receive to do their small part to help the economy.  It doesn’t help them if you cut off their income.  Nobody will help them, because their families can’t afford to do so, thanks to this horrible economy.  So they will starve.  Charities aren’t getting the funding, because it is mainly the middle and lower classes who contribute to local charities, and their local churches.  Celebrities contribute to the big-name charities, that do grand far-reaching studies, or to the charities in their own neighborhoods.  Funding is short, everywhere, and by cutting Social Security and Medicare, you are doing nothing less than killing off the elderly and disabled.

You have allowed your rancor over party politics, and your eagerness to allow yourselves to be divided along ideological lines to keep from uniting to find a solution that takes the best ideas from both sides, and discards the worst.  However, it seems that you are all being driven to keep the worst ideas at the cost of the best, just for the sake of being true to the lunatic fringe of your various ideological extremes.

You have forgotten that you are supposed to be Americans, FIRST and FOREMOST.  You are supposed to be American, first, then Party Member, Religion Member, Race Member, and Gender Member.  Instead you have it all reversed.  Party Member, Religion Member, Race Member, Gender Member all before being an AMERICAN.

Grow up, and get your priorities straight.  Then, maybe, both sides can make the grown-up decisions that you need to, instead of bickering like schoolchildren over choice treats.

Hyphen-Nation

America has become a hyphen nation. A nation of people who identify themselves as something hyphen American. "African-American"; "Conservative-American"; "Liberal-American"; and many others. People love to let others know where they stand, and with whom they stand. However, they seem to identify more with the label ahead of the hyphen, rather than what comes after.

Many people tend to identify with their group, their label rather than identify with being an American, a citizen of the United States. This is something that keeps us, as a people, divided against one another. There are even people who think that those who are not a member of their little pre-hyphen clique are "not real Americans". Because they don't think the same as they do, and believe in the same solutions, and goals, their opinions, and suggestions have no merit, or place in their idea of American culture. There are people who would go so far as to attempt to rewrite history as to make their little clique the founders, and heroes of America, rather than show the people as they actually were, from their own words from their writings, and their own actions, as evidenced by history.

Why have we become so enamored with the idea of the Us vs. Them mentality? True, it's nice to belong, and have like-minded people around us, but We The People should only have one side, when it comes to political matters. And that side is the side of The United States of America, not a person's political party, political ideology, race, religion, orientation, gender, or ancestry. When it comes to the direction our country is going, we should concentrate on what Unites us, not what Divides us. United, we should be standing. But since we are so Divided, we have fallen, and fallen hard.

No matter what our political ideology, political party, race, religion, orientation, gender, or ancestry, we are ALL Americans. It just seems that there are a lot of people who have forgotten this.

Election day. The day where the course of the country is going to be about the same, because we are simply repeating the same mistake that has plagued America once George Washington left office. We are doing the same thing, over and over, because we keep looking to the ruling elite to guide us. I don't mean Democrats, or Republicans, my dears, I mean politicians. And it doesn't matter if they they paint themselves blue or red, politicians of both parties see themselves as the rulers of this country.

The problem lies in the political party system, and the numerous OTHER labels that have been slapped on the American people to keep us divided, and against each other.

Republican

Democrat

Conservative

Liberal

White

Black

Hispanic

Latino

(blank)-American

Christian

Mormon

Catholic

Muslim

The list goes on and on and on.

The problem with all these labels is the simple fact that many people will identify with the label before they identify themselves as American. And this has been encouraged by people who look for political power, and prestige. These people want us divided against each other, and to keep us ignorant of other points of view.

And we, the people, allow this.

We allow ourselves to be divided, because we prefer to gather in like-minded groups. We, as human beings, tend to prefer to hear our own ideas quoted back to us, and want agreeable friends. The problem with that, is that we do not learn, do not see other points of view, and become insulated against the outside. The label-makers see this, and then do their best to vilify the "other" side, and make them look evil in the eyes of their followers.

We have allowed this to happen because we can be very lazy. Doing our own research is hard work. We tend to think in stereotypes, because it's easy. And it's very easy for the leaders of each individual group to paint the "other" as the bad guy, because they know our fears, they know our beliefs, because they have guided them, and molded them. Because people don't like to think for themselves.

We need to reject labels. We need to do our own research. We have the resources, we have the ability. We need to go beyond our comfortable routines, in order to get to the facts, or else this travesty will continue. We need to stop considering ourselves Groups first, and Americans second.

Exceptionalism

It's interesting how a simple thing as a costume change will cause a firestorm of controversy.

This past year Wonder Woman went through a costume change. I didn't think much of it, really. It's just another in a long line of costume changes for super heroes. Though the jacket they put her in did look like it would provide some meager protection from scrapes, and would provide something that a lot of the typical super hero costumes didn't, namely pockets. Got to carry around that key to the bus locker where they put their street clothes somewhere... And down the cleavage isn't always the most comfortable place.

However, people hated it, because it changed her iconic look. Yeah conservative leggings and a leather jacket is SO much worse than knee-high boots, scanty star-spangled briefs, and a shoulder and cleavage exposing bustier.

There are people, however, who are so indoctrinated by the divide and conquer politics of today that they absolutely HAVE to inject the "evil liberal agenda" into EVERYTHING that doesn't agree with them, or they hate.

Somebody said that the evil liberal man-children who are running DC, nowadays, are so offended by the idea of American Exceptionalism, and wish to kow-tow to the PC-infested world, that they intentionally removed the American symbols from Wonder Woman's costume. "They're "revamping" Wonder Woman's look, because any HINT of American exceptionalism or patriotism makes them ill."

When I read that I had to facepalm.

American Exceptionalism seems to be a blanket label by a lot of people who think that America is better than everybody else, and everybody else should be more like America. Sure it can be seen as patriotic, but there are people in the United States who take this idea and run with it as far as they can go. This idea goes hand-in-hand with intolerance and bigotry, in a lot of these cases. They tend to think that "America is better than you, and should do what it wants." The problem with this is that Americans are seen as bullies, boors, and arrogant jerks, because of this thought process, even by other Americans.

The idea of "we're better than you, so we do what we want" lends itself to a world of abuse. And it is abused by the divide and conquer politicians on both sides.
Both sides think they know what's best, both sides want you to side with them, and will use patriotism to get you to do so. And both sides will use mud-slinging, and name-calling to get you to stop thinking for yourself, and just follow along. Both sides want you angry, and not using your head, and both will play to your prejudices by depicting the other side via stereotypes.

The problem with the "us vs them" mentality, however, is that eventually there isn't a "them" to be against.

Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is an important issue. The Internet is the last vestige free speech that exists in America, and around the world. And the media companies wish to quash it, in their endless quest to control what we see, and read. The eventual result being the ability to control what we think.

The Internet, and the blogs, and various websites that exist on the Internet are some of the last ways a person can express their personal opinion without being edited by media companies, and their co-conspirators the Politicians. The person who controls the forum can edit it, but for the most part will not, because they are often willing to provide a place for people to air their opinions, and grievances.

For someone who is handicapped, like myself, the Internet is a lifeline to the world at large. Having it controlled is not something I want. I want to be able to find everything from the ridiculous to the sublime, and everything in between. I don't want to be limited to reading only the content that was able to pay the media companies the most money.

The media companies already control the airwaves. We do not need to allow them even more control of what we see, hear, and read.

The newspapers don't care about supporting free speech, nor do the television stations, or the radio stations. They only will publish, or air what will bring in the most profits, and won't paint themselves in a bad light.

A prime example is the entry before this one. I sent it to my local paper's letters to the editor page. It has, yet, to see the light of day. They don't want to make themselves look bad, even though I was aiming my blows at the big so-called news channels. Propaganda channels, more like, but they wrap themselves in so-called credibility, and use that as a way to sway the people.

Net neutrality is the last vestige of free speech. The last way for the people of the world to make themselves heard, somehow. The last way for dissenting opinions to find their way to sympathetic ears, and not-so-sympathetic ears. Without Net Neutrality, there is no way for the ordinary people, with nothing more than a computer, and something to say to make themselves heard.

I may not like what some people have to say, but they deserve the opportunity to be heard. Net Neutrality is a way to allow people that slowly vanishing right.