[QUOTE="AlphaHumana"] [QUOTE="onemic"]Not really. The economy was 100% free market, which is basically just as bad as communism. mclazyj
Sounds like something a parasite would say! Given the opportunity I'd jump immediately at the chance to live in Rapture. Before it, well, you know, went to hell. Rapture as it was meant to be, of course, without all the creepy stuff. The potential for progress would be so amazing without all the dead-weight of the hoi polloi parasites the mushy-headed liberals force us to put up with on the surface - in many ways I love the way Andrew Ryan thinks, but I've also always been a big Ayn Rand fan too. Plus, Rapture was filled with rich people so everything is pretty and luxurious and I like pleasant surroundings.
The problem is that the society became what it was because of the free reign that was allowed. There was no holding anyone back without the handcuffs of society on, they self-destructed. It was an inevitable conclusion. Sooner or later, the economy or some other substance, in Rapture's case, Adam, would become the downfall because you would want more than you could have or afford.
It would have been a great place to visit before the eventual implosion of society, but I sure as hell would not of wanted to be there when all hell broke loose.
While that's certainly what happened in Rapture's case, I don't believe it's inevitable. There'd still have to be laws and such - even Rapture had law enforcement, though we really don't know its structure (just that one audio diary of the sheriff or whatever who thought Ryan was too harsh in executing smugglers.) Your freedoms should end when they conflict with somebody else's. That's how the US started out but got crippled by the "parasites", or folks that lean on the others because they either cannot or choose not to contribute productively to the advancement of society - and now we have our big bloated bureaucratic mess of a government.
Ryan and I are alike in our disapproval at how screwed up we became due to FDR's commie BS steps (which mark our decline from our true path - not to mention the idiotic credit practices that the ignorant embraced that put us into the depression in the first place.) he thought would bring us out of the great depression (think social programs that make the productive members of society prop up the "parasites.")
It's the idea that one can pursue whatever goal he wants and not have to worry about being hindered by others (Ryan's "parasites") as long as that person is willing to take responsibility and accept the consequences of their actions. Self-determination and personal responsibility taken to the extreme - it's a very appealing concept.
The manipulation and cultivation of Adam was clearly a terrible mistake, and I believe realistically it would have just thinned the herd of the weaker individuals kind of like hard-drugs do to folks in the real world these days. We have them, but only a small percentage of the world abuses them and is addicted/crippled by them - kind of like how not everybody in Rapture was a psycho splicer hopped up on Adam. Realistically I think after the first few people turned psycho-splicer from Adam-addicted people would have stopped using it voluntarily, kind of like how watching a couple episode of COPS or Intervention and seeing what drugs did to those people SHOULD be enough to make sure people never use crack or meth or whatever.
Get rid of the weak links and you make the chain stronger.
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