Ayn Rand in Rapture

               Most people do not think of video games as works of art, which in my opinion most aren't. There is one game that defies this common belief. Bioshock is a very complex game that has an incredible storyline with actual learning possibilities, specifically in philosophy. 

                The story takes place in 1960, out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean a great city has been built deep under the Ocean. Andrew Ryan, (even his own name is made up of Ayn Rand), a Russian just as Rand, had grown up in the time of the Bolshevik revolution when the Soviet Union was forming. He had been heavily oppressed just as Ayn Rand's family and decided to take more extreme measures. He created his own philosophy that is identical to Rand's Objectivism and spread the word. He took his money and made more money, leaving Russia for America. He taught his ideas to many people eventually gaining enough supporters to reveal his plan. He kept it a great secret and only told his followers. They were to build a city in the middle of the ocean where "the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small." This city was called Rapture as in to be free from oppression. Pure capitalism was embraced and religion was non-existent. "No Gods or Kings Just Man." His one fear was the world figuring out about his city. The "parasites", the people who wish to take away his dream were to never discover his creation. He had thousands of the brightest minds in the world all come together to live in absolute freedom with unquestioned secularism.

               "I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well." 
- Andrew Ryan

             This quote is Objectivism in a nutshell. It has specific examples but it is also metaphorical. The sweat on your brow is anything you do, all you own, and any goals you might have. He is saying that in anywhere else in the world you are not entirely owning those things. In some way or another you are sharing. Ryan believes that you live for yourself just as Rand does, not for any government or religion. You are the ruler of your own life.