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So instead of playing Bioshock, I watched playthroughs on YouTube.
* I'd read that parts of the game were a polemic against Objectivism, but I hadn't realized that one of the villains was actually going to be Ayn Rand. She's a guy, but immediately recognizable.
* Why do we have narratives in which Nazi scientists discover some kind of amazing scientific/magical thing that will change the world? All other objections aside, my understanding of the situation is that they were not exactly together enough to do that.
I guess it's part of this Sauron-like mythology they've acquired, which I think is based on the anxiety that there exists the possibility of somehow simply "turning towards evil" in some single massive gesture, freeing oneself of the necessity of feelings of guilt and responsibility, and in doing so acquiring a sort of power unavailable to those who do not make this choice. (I wonder if this is a fear that existed before Freud?)
In this case they at least didn't make the discovery themselves - Mengele just brutalizes a little girl in a way that somehow primes her to become a brilliant scientist.
( Major spoilers for Bioshock and some-Metal-Gear-game-or-other. )
* I'd read that parts of the game were a polemic against Objectivism, but I hadn't realized that one of the villains was actually going to be Ayn Rand. She's a guy, but immediately recognizable.
* Why do we have narratives in which Nazi scientists discover some kind of amazing scientific/magical thing that will change the world? All other objections aside, my understanding of the situation is that they were not exactly together enough to do that.
I guess it's part of this Sauron-like mythology they've acquired, which I think is based on the anxiety that there exists the possibility of somehow simply "turning towards evil" in some single massive gesture, freeing oneself of the necessity of feelings of guilt and responsibility, and in doing so acquiring a sort of power unavailable to those who do not make this choice. (I wonder if this is a fear that existed before Freud?)
In this case they at least didn't make the discovery themselves - Mengele just brutalizes a little girl in a way that somehow primes her to become a brilliant scientist.
( Major spoilers for Bioshock and some-Metal-Gear-game-or-other. )
