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Is Bioshock a well-thought rebuttal of Ayn Rand?
It’s something I see brought up a lot. People always point to the plot of Bioshock as a individualist, capitalist society directly leading to mental illness, drug addiction, and poverty.
Personally, I don’t even like Ayn Rand; my opinions on objectivism are lukewarm at best, and I think most of her “classics” are only classics because they’re old. But Bioshock is just one giant strawman of everything she’s ever said.
I dunno how critical I’d be of it. An indvidualist, anarchist, society might lead to mental illness, drug addiction, and poverty, perhaps more than a statist society. Or it might not. It certainly would permit all of the above.
I think that Bioshock’s writers saw an opportunity to craft a compelling narrative, taking advantage of conflicts existent in deeply held beliefs. To the extent that any story is about conflict between values, acted out by characters, this is a good initiative.
