Deus Ex Human Revolution. Ideological analysis.

Hello, this is Anarchosonic. On the agenda is the game Deus Ex: Human revolution. I played it last time when I was a little younger and a little healthier. And now I remembered, I decided to replay it, refresh my memory, look from the height of my current experience, no matter how pretentious it may sound. And you know, the game hasn’t aged much in terms of graphics – it didn’t hurt me (and what other game will run at 60fps for me??). But the plot and semantic component have not only not aged well, they are still relevant and, unfortunately, will probably be relevant for a long time.

If anything, I won’t retell the entire plot with all its twists and turns, additional quests, etc. d. and the like. There is an excellent video on YouTube in which the author examines the last two parts of deus ex, the one I’m already talking about, and deus ex: mankind divided. The author of that video did a great job of finding hidden meanings, biblical references, and even talked about how the game plays out the segregation of people and apartheid. But the topic of the economics of the world deus ex, and accordingly the reasons for everything that happens, is not normally touched upon, except for the fact that “it’s all inherent in people”, “will we be able to step over our nature” and that’s all. That’s actually why I’m here. In general, I will now outline the picture of the world in general terms and begin my leftist propaganda, and if you are interested in immersing yourself more in the world, I advise you to watch that two-hour video, read the chronicle of events on the deus ex wiki, or, even better, play this game yourself.

That’s it, the foreplay is over. We play as Adam Jensen, a former special forces soldier and police officer who works as the chief of security at the Sarif Industries corporation, which develops cyber implants – household and military. Naturally, the military earns many times more. At the beginning of the game, a terrorist attack occurs at his work, during which five scientists are kidnapped, including Jensen’s ex, Megan Reed. Jensen himself is knocked out and left to die, but the boss decides that it is too early to fire such an employee – and saves him by replacing a bunch of organs with implants. “RoboCop Jensen” essentially no longer has a dilemma with choosing a job. And, of course, “he never asked for this”.

And then that’s it, there is a plot in which there is a main quest, side quests, some kind of variability. By the way, while I was going through this part now I caught some kind of nostalgic vibe, it very much reminded me in spirit of Vampires the Masquerade: Bloodlines, although human revolution came out later, the plot is not similar, the style is different, the setting is different, but the atmosphere seems to be the same, it was especially noticeable when I was doing quests at the Hensha location. But this is not what I would like to talk about in detail.

What about? About cyberpunk and others like it. This is one of the favorite leftist topics (at least it should be). I kept thinking about how to choose a game or anime so that it wouldn’t be too awkward to talk about cyberpunk. (No, cyberpunk 2077 won’t suit me, and for some reason I don’t have a soul for it). And now the game ideal for this topic has been replayed. But I don’t want to resort to the hackneyed “high tech – low life”. And in this game it’s not even entirely necessary, because this “high tech” is not yet completely ubiquitous, although augmentations are already in use among part of the population. Yes, there are semi-automatic robots, yes, there are implants that help in life, but this is still a curiosity, accessible only to corporations, the military, certain rich people, and, of course, bandits.

Most people in the plot of this part are the same as we are now – they see impending progress, feel that tension in society is growing, but have not yet decided whether they need this progress or whether it will only cause trouble. I have a position on this issue and I will voice it to you now. In short, progress is good, it speeds up industry, simplifies the production of better quality goods, and increases the quantity of these better quality products. It would seem cool, more people will improve their lives.

But that’s not how it works. You and I live in a capitalist society, one might even say that we are moving with great strides towards imperialism. This means that most people have no rights and cannot take advantage of the benefits, although in the world of the game (and even now) it is possible to provide everyone with decent housing, clothing, food, equipment, and if necessary, implants, but this does not happen for a rather banal reason – it is not profitable for those who own the means to produce these goods. In the world of the game, these are corporations such as Versalim, Tai Yun Medical, Darrow Industries, Sarif Industries and others like them.

But it’s self-evident. Another thing is that it is profitable for them to “get people hooked” on implants, because for the majority these implants do not take root, the human body rejects them as a foreign object and people have to go on neuropozine. This is a drug that temporarily relieves this syndrome, but of course not for long. Plus, the human body develops tolerance to it (like alcohol or opiates) and the effect time is shortened. As a result, in the worst case, a person can catch implanted madness (like it is shown in the same anime Cyberpunk 2077) and be shot by one of the numerous police squads.

And who will use this https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/betmac-casino/ dependence?? Of course the same corporations. For example, for the Panchaea project, Darrow Industries hired only augmented employees, and even installed implants at its own expense. This was explained by the fact that Panchaea is an exemplary project that is being built using superhuman strength. On the other hand, by agreeing to these conditions you become completely the property of the corporation. Firstly, augmentations cost money and upon dismissal you will be required to pay for the implant (which are not cheap), and you will not be able to roll back the change – they will not reattach your arm (for example) to you. Plus, you constantly need money for neuropozine, which, according to the law of supply and demand, multiplied by the monopoly on its production, costs more and more. You don’t have to look far for an example – look at the cost of insulin in the USA.

But this is Darrow, and Thai Yum Medical, on the contrary, vacancies have opened, there is no obligation, but since both Augs and ordinary ones come, the choice usually falls on Augs, because they are ready to work for the same money, but more efficiently. And everything turns out the same, but the implants are at your own expense, and at this stage you can goof off and take money from the wrong people, for example from collectors. This is a gang whose members are mainly engaged in issuing loans at high interest rates and collection activities, plus literally dismantling augs into pieces in the gateways. These declassed elements are generally at the lowest level, even if one of them wants to quit, it can only be done with a piece of shapeless meat with completely ripped out pieces of iron – the good stuff won’t go to waste, really.

So here it is. If there are large corporations and there are new technologies, then it goes without saying that there will be underground scientific centers that illegally conduct research on living abducted people without taking into account any moral standards. And such a laboratory will, of course, be guarded by an unprincipled PMC, in this case Beltower (no, this is not the “Belarusian Tower”). As a result of such developments, bio-silicon processors were obtained, or, more simply, these are people with a bunch of electronics implanted in them, with part of the brain replaced by a silicon analogue. What is typical for such a “processor” to work is that people must be alive and conscious, which causes these people incredible pain. But this is an effective way to transmit data at a distance, including for operational negotiations. Just as corporations like it.

Let’s return to the main conflict of the game and to the choice to which the game leads at the end. There, in the end, Hugh Darrow, the creator of augmentation technology relevant to the events of the game, decided that his brainchild was evil and he needed to scare people in order to discourage them from implants. And the plan is as reliable as a Swiss watch, as they say. He gathered representatives of government and business at his Panchaea project and turned on an emitter that causes aggressive hallucinations in all Augs. Like this should show that augmentation is bad and dangerous and people should stop development in this area and generally ban everything. Of course, of course, this is how it works – if there is something dangerous to people’s lives, then corporations and states immediately stop their research and development. Sarcasm-sarcasm.

As a result, the main character faces a choice. Tell the public how things really are, about the dangers of implants, the Illuminati, and convey the words of Hugh Darrow, then they will supposedly stop making implants and stop development in this direction (yeah, yeah, that would be the case). Another option is to listen to an official from the European Union, talk about traditional values, that changing oneself violates the Creator’s plan, pin a mass insanity on the Versalife company (which monopolistically sells neuropozyne), and the Illuminati in the government will quietly push through laws to strictly regulate Augs and companies for the development and production of implants (as if they wouldn’t have pushed through such a law there anyway).

The third option is to listen to your boss, the CEO of the corporation named after himself – Sarif. He proposes to blame the madness on the European Union parliamentarians, supposedly they have reached such terrorist actions. And then, they say, people will be cool to the cool stories of officials about strict regulation in the field of development and installation of implants, which will launch the golden age of augmentation, it will become more accessible and cheaper. But this is only according to Sarif. It seems to me that officials will also find ways to regulate, and even so they would not greatly interfere with the work of corporations, if only because they could not physically, given the current time of play, fragmentation and weakness of states. And the very statement about greater availability and reduced cost is just a very far-fetched assumption, bordering on lies.

And there is a fourth option in which Jensen blows up the panchaea along with all the guests, workers, officials, representatives of big business and himself. It seems that in this case humanity will not know anything, will live in ignorance and will draw its own conclusions. And as I understand, having briefly glanced at the plot of Mankind Divided, the fourth choice is the closest to the canon. In general, if you didn’t have to kill a bunch of innocent people, then the fourth choice and the most correct one, why there was no choice to turn off the signal and simply call rescuers without taking part in propaganda is not clear.

In general, there is too much emphasis on media propaganda here. I do not deny that this is an important part of the regime, which can form a certain opinion among the broad masses. But here they imagine that the words of some leftist dick (even with the support of a media holding) will form a mainstream vector for years to come. The same is unrealistic, even if the ShirNarMassy fall for this (which is far from a fact), then interest groups in the ruling class will not go anywhere. For example, there is a group that is betting on the development and implantation of technologies that, after Adam’s statement, they will simply fold their hands and close their factories? I doubt it, just as I doubt that the group that wants to take over all technology will retire when Jensen talks about the insidious Illuminati. Most will simply twist their heads, like “yes, yes, the Illuminati, reptilians, UFOs, we know”. I would be one of those people, for example.

In general, the frequent theme in culture about a reputational victory over a villain is outdated, if it ever worked. I’m talking about films/games when the antagonist, for example, unknowingly tells his evil plans to a camera that broadcasts image and sound to a large audience, preferably in a time square, of course. This scheme does not work with large corporations, government officials and others involved. And all because we are now in that stage of capitalism when public opinion, although important, does not play a decisive role. Remember how in France people were raging about raising the retirement age recently, what percentage of the population took to the streets then, what part of the country was outraged by this impudence. And what? Nothing – the law has been passed, Macron is in place, big business is happy, wait for the next elections to try to choose another president, and pray that he is at least a little better.

In the world of the game the situation is even worse, because there corporations are on the way to taking over full power from the state. Let me remind you that the USA has collapsed, there are civil wars in Australia and, in principle, conflicts between everyone and everyone are escalating. The state at least pretends that this is some kind of supra-class structure (although we know that this is not so), and fulfills its function of violence, at least formally justified by laws. The corporation, using its apparatus of violence, will be guided only by the concepts of benefit for the corporation, discarding the already leaky democracy.

For example, let’s simulate the most exaggerated situation: an employee of a corporation violated some corporate rules, let’s say he was in a bad mood in the morning due to the delay of his meager salary and publicly doubted the divine choice of the main shareholder of the company, and was also rude to the private security company who arrived on the scene. For this he is taken to a pre-trial detention center, and… whoever comes to see him? well, let’s say the son of the head of a corporation beats up this employee, and the security guards film it and post it in the public domain.

According to the laws of the genre, at this moment the head should resign in disgrace (this also usually happens in films), but in fact the head will remain and the son will be rewarded, and the employee will sit for a long time and think about his behavior. Why are movie methods not realistic?? This is because there is no popular association that could respond to the violence of the corporation with a movement of the broad masses. And without such power, each individual dissatisfied person can be twisted by the ram’s horn, and no widespread dissemination of information by itself will solve the problem.

It’s interesting that in such a hypothetical situation, when financial-industrial capital openly carries out a terrorist dictatorship, the formation of an armed people who take away private property in favor of public property will also be considered “barbaric” and that “the cattle have come out of their stall to infringe on the poor Atlanteans”? This is, if anything, a purely hypothetical question, which you can answer in the comments. It’s really interesting to what extent liberal beliefs work?

I think that there will be a conclusion here, I don’t know how much I was able to talk about the game itself, but I spoke a little. I repeat once again – top game, gun. Especially its atmosphere. I advise you to play it thoughtfully, read all the notes, all the emails and especially talk to all the passers-by, this adds more context to the plot and the sentiments of different segments of the population are clear.

In general, like and subscribe, I try not to bother you with notifications, as you may have noticed by the release date of the previous material. The most important thing is to unite. To trade unions, interest groups, literary clubs, residents’ chats – any horizontal connection is an additional link in the chain mail of our common labor safety.

Aaand that’s all for me, love, goodness, bye.

I’m getting worse and worse looking for positive things, I only found this. Let me know in the comments if you know something better)