"No gods or kings, only man"

[Koganesaga]

If you could remove anyone who would abuse the power, like with communism, it would be the most ideal way to live in this world, however humanity isn't ready for such a thing, and it probably never will be as there are too many people who would seize power by the vestiges of it's life given the chance.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

In a small enough community, yes, it could work. Will it ever happen? Highly unlikely. If there ever is a city with no religion, I'm moving there... sick of living in jesusland...

 

[SilentVirus]

Nope.

It's human to make mistakes.
A city run by every human in it?

Are you crazy?

This. If there is a place where every human ran it, there would be so much disagreement that you will find yourself in a riot everyday of the week.

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[Vagabond_Samurai]

"Having just played through the first Bioshock and half of the second one, an interesting thought crossed my mind. Would Andrew Ryan's "utopia" work in real life? The idea of a society separate from outside politics and economy. A city with no religion. But most of all a community in which everyone can rise to their full potential without the restriction of ethical dilemmas.
Might sound good in theory, but how about in practice? share your thoughts!"

The restriction of ethical dilemmas? Remove ethics and people are free to go Super-Saiyan level asshole. It sounds repugnant in theory.

Human nature needs to evolve a bit more before we begin speaking about tackling the problems that assail the world. We're still too hunter-gatherer. How much money is spent by countries to get the next big spear? Maybe in a few thousand years or more we can speak of this concept with any regard toward reality and the place a person's mind occupies within it.

 

[Vagabond_Samurai]

In a small enough community, yes, it could work. Will it ever happen? Highly unlikely. If there ever is a city with no religion, I'm moving there... sick of living in jesusland...

I'll see you there.

 

[-BloodRush-]

If it didn't work in the game world I doubt it'd work in the real, more sane world.

i dont think this world is more sane. i think if anything like this is tried in real life, the shit that spawns out of it would be worse then big daddy.

damn i wanna play this game again...

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Take away the plasmids, then maybe. Ryan's Philosophy is that what you earn, is what you keep, and you choose what to do about it. Although you'd have to be able to have a good amount of good minded people. But Cabin Fever might set in if you go underwater.

 

[BlueInkAlchemist]

I was under the impression that BioShock is itself the deconstruction of an objectivist society.

 

[blindthrall]

ITT weak minded people ;p

In short, I believe it would work.

Andrew Ryan's dream failed not because of greed or evil, but because ADAM made it impossible to maintain any order and from that moment on he was dealing with crack addicts with powers of gods. That would screw up any system.

Ryan's dream would work, and it would work very efficiently but it would be a cruel and unforgiving system filled with misery. A world where everyone is responsible only for their own actions and can do whatever they want until it doesn?t affect others is a world where people would work. Why? They would work or they would starve. The only problem is that managers of that system would need power to deal with ones who failed and don't want to suffer the consequences and just die. Many would at first, later people would adapt. And those who would survive would certainly be worthy individuals.

I hate when people think that with no social any system would fail. If you are able to deal with idiots and weaklings it would work perfectly. Not that the economy would fail. It would be stronger than ever.

Where were you when I was looking for an example of social darwinism? I think most people would realize that this would be the end result long before it got that desperate, and instead of Fontaine you'd have a communist ideologue pointing to the fall of Rapture as the inevitable fall of any capitalist system. And communism isn't inherently doomed to failure, it can work in relatively small and isolated countries. Cuba is pretty stable, and Nicaragua would have been without the CIA fucking them up. Just don't try it in a country any bigger than say, Florida.

"Give me a smart rube over a dumb one any day."

 

[Tdc2182]

No, because people are stupid and without a little bit of religion and/or politics it would lead to chaos.

 

[ghstman]

Hobbes

Questions

Answers

Wow, thank you. That was a very good explanation.
Anyway, If I haven't made clear, I don't think Andrew Ryan's state could ever work the way he intended it to, and if it did, I probably wouldn't like it.

Glad to help!

No, I don't think Ryan's form of government would work either. By it's very nature it is paradoxical, which is kind of pointed out in one of the audio diaries in Bioshock 2 where Lamb and Ryan are debating. Ryan says something to the effect that no one has to buy into anyone else's belief system if they live in rapture. Lamb points out that they actually do: Ryan's philosophy. In order to be free from everyone else's influence, you have to buy into someone else's.

Also, you can never truly escape those influences that Ryan talks about in the real world. Take for example American law makers. Our constitution says in no uncertain language that congress shall make no law favoring one religion over the other. Church, however, is often the predominate source of what forms a lawmakers opinion. You see this come up a lot in conservative opinion, ie: the sanctity of marriage standpoint, sacredness of all life in regards to abortion, etc... You get the idea. Are they passing a law that directly favors one religion over another? No. They're trying to pass a law that prevents women from having an abortion. Are they fighting for that particular legislature because their viewpoint is influenced by their religious beliefs? Absolutely. For the record, I'm not trying to create a debate over politics, separation of church and state, or any of that. I'm just using it as an example.

I forget where this was supposed to be going, but in short, it could never work, because we can never really separate ourselves from those influences that we've already been exposed to and raised to believe in.

 

[Del-Toro]

Nope.

It's human to make mistakes.
A city run by every human in it?

Are you crazy?

And one that's isolated from the rest of the world and which is a hotbed of a substance that's both super addictive and which gives you powers. Rapture's downfall was supremely predictable, and the only why things could have turned out, is what I'm saying.

 

[CloakedOne]

I'm PRETTY Sure the point of the game is that it wouldn't work...