"Bioshock Infinite" is a serious contender for my favorite video game of all time, right behind the "Civilization" series. Not only is it breathtakingly beautiful, but if forces you to a level of thought you never thought you'd exercise in a first-person shooter. Also, well, just look at it!
That's a screenshot from the game. The entire game looks like that. In case the photo didn't scream it at you, the setting of the game, the flying city of Columbia, is a not-so-subtle metaphor for America, both the good...
...and the bad.
Oh. Oh. They're racist. They're the villains, led by Zachary Hale Comstock, "The Prophet," a racist and zealot. Not too far into the game, in case you were thinking the city looked nice, you're disillusioned pretty fast when you get asked by a gang of racists to stone a couple to death, and then almost have your eyes gouged out, all within 20-seconds.
If Columbia and its extremely racist, prejudiced and radically conservative leaders are a metaphor for traditional America, then Booker DeWitt, the protagonist, is the average American. He's not a racist, not too religious and motivated by such basic human motives as hunger and money. He travels to Columbia, not as a revolutionary or a zealot but as a man seeking to pay off his debts. Most Columbians aren't that extreme, either. They're generally not bad people; in fact, because Columbia is a free (albeit violent) society, some are active supporters of equality and an end to the violence.
The point is that most Columbians aren't evil, but eventually you, Booker DeWitt, become forced by circumstance to think so, which is why you aid the Vox Populi, a left-wing reaction to the conservative Columbia. They rise up to fight the oppressive government of Columbia while singing songs and speaking slogans reminiscent of the Vietnam War and American counter-culture.
Normally these would be the good side, except their true motives are eventually uncovered. Because you don't fit the narrative of their leader, the anarchist Daisy Fitzroy, you become a political target, as does everyone else in the city of Columbia, which is destroyed. You end up fighting both sides; to the Vox Populi, you're a racist, and to Columbia you're a leftist threat that poses too many questions.
You fight for whichever side is trying to kill you less. Can you blame Booker for supporting racist Columbia when the Vox are trying to kill innocent children? Can you blame him for supporting the terrorizing Vox when Columbia is working starving families to death at slave wages, if any? At first, you genuinely believe that one side or another is the better one; but in the end, the city itself is destroyed in the violence, and you're fighting everyone at once.
So why do I bring this up? Because Booker DeWitt explains how American politics look to the average American. With politics more polarized than ever, the average American has a choice between extremes. In 2016, your basic choices include the religious conservatism of Ted Cruz, the aggressive nationalism of Donald Trump, the democratic socialism of Bernie Sanders or the divisive activism of Hillary Clinton.
Can you really blame someone for supporting a socialist when the opposition is advocating for the deportation of their father? Can you really blame someone for supporting a nationalist when the opponent's supporters are calling you a racist or "unauthentic" because you don't fit their political narrative? Can you really blame someone for supporting a fundamentalist when the opposition believes you're an obstacle to be changed because of your faith? Can you really blame someone for supporting a potential felon when the opposition's supporters want to restrict your right to marry, calling you wicked and evil?
We are dangerously close to a society where people see fellow Americans as enemies to be avoided rather than comrades and fellow countrymen. Republicans see democratic extremists as the Vox Populi. Democrats see republican extremists as Columbia. This election is being witnessed by a population closer to Booker DeWitt than to Daisy Fitzroy or Zachary Comstock. It is the election year of Booker DeWitt.
This is important because the game is a historical metaphor. It wasn't made in 2016, and it wasn't meant to describe the modern day. "Bioshock Infinite" was meant to point out the flaws that we often overlook in our society and in our leaders. The wounds we're facing today are issues America has revived and faced over and over again, tearing it apart time after time, including one literal split and civil war. Columbia was a beautiful city, but because it couldn't face its problems, it was destroyed. Hopefully, American politicians, polarized as they are, won't become so consumed with defeating their enemies that they destroy the ideas they were trying to protect.
