apologies for the harsh p’s and slight music cuts in the first 8 min. the first half of the vid was made while i was traveling and i didnt have the same set up. my cloud service failed to transfer from my laptop to my desktop when i returned, so i had to port the background music and the voiceover together 😭😭 anyways let me know anything i missed or just general comments. Thanks for watching!
@@OzymandiasV2 Season 3 is one of my favourite seasons of television, it's genius on every possible level and while I agree that season 2 is the weakest i still think it's amazing, here's my ranking of the seasons 1. Season 3 2. Season 4 3. Season 1 4. Season 2 Also what do you think of the general plot so far
as an online person critical of the government and imperialism deffo some obv biases in my opinion lol but i think its a great show. Just havent found the time to watch 1 hour eps for entire seasons
@@OzymandiasV2 Yeah I get it, I had the time to binge the entire thing in a week cause I loved the story.characters and unique style too much however you're an up and coming youtuber so you have less time
And that's why it's a Liberal genre and not a Marxist one. It's the fantasy that you can somehow fight back against or save yourself from these massive social and economic systems all by yourself, which is impossible.
There in lies the problem of a cyberpunk hellscape, it perpetuates the problem. To get out of these kinds of dynamics, it requires the people to work together and end the existence of certain institutions and the dynamics that made them be. I mean a core tactic is divide and conquer, inspire apathy and hyper self focus on the lowest of low wants and needs, make you fight for the barest of scraps while making you believe you're winning a lot. No, the solution is to save each other and save the world, if we can't find our way back to that level cooperation and simplicity, then you're not even saving yourself, you've merely died in loss.
There lies the problem of the cyberpunk hellscape. A core dynamic in these systems is divide an conquer. Other dynamics include inspire apathy through badges of coolness or hedonism to cope, make you fight for scraps while making you believe you're winning a damn lot by feeding you worthless values such as: that is masculine, that is tough, that is hard - badge of honour nonsense, hyperindividualism where you're focused at the most minor of your immediate wants and needs at the expense of anything greater and worthwhile simply because they are the "other". No, it is about saving the world. Save the world thus saving yourself. If you try to save yourself, you're only supporting the system. All of these individual rebellions amounted to fuck all with the exception Adam Jensen who had some opportunity to set up a situation where people might hear of a bigger narrative - you will simply die, have someone write a convenient story on you to support the current worldview or simply go unheard of. Cooperation like older times, discipline in finding truth (not being lazy with thinking) and sacrificing for each other is how you get further away from this. East Asia is a living example of this, I'm so damn glad confuscianism is in-built in us, a code of ethics from within that inspires genuine feelings of care for each other and the greater good. Even corpo south korea has a modicum of that left in them. While the kindest stars and stripes person at best gives you stranger courtesy and believes that's deep care and kindness...
This game should be EVERYONE’s nightmare. Night City is so oppressively bleak that anyone able to crack a genuine smile is a Victor in their own right.
I take NC any day of the week, instead of the gulag world of 1984... At least in Cyberpunk i can still join with nomads and enjoy some degree of freedom, in 1984, there's nowhere to go, and even your mind is violated.
Oh the genre isn’t just a Marxist nightmare, it’s just a nightmarish concept as a whole. The anti-capitalist themes have the subtlety of a golf club to the skull, yes, but even with the consumerist themes/satire it still is a very bleak and horrific view of the future and humanity as a whole.
The issue is who is capable of seeing it actually. You gotta be a fair bit left to see it for what it is and what it means for the real world and your very own life.
This story hits me because of the moment you lose Jackie. He passes away staring into your eyes. The last thing he saw was your fear and sadness and still he smiled. I lived through a similar moment like this and I always stay in the car with the choom for atleast 10 minutes lol
wish they fleshed out the flashbacks with him at the beginning or made it a secret choice to save him but have a minimal role. wouldve been cool it jackie was also somehow glitched into the Relic
@@OzymandiasV2doesn't this desire of yours fit into the point of your video? You got attached to a fictional character and in the fictional world you would be satisfied with an artificial intelligence copy of that character to not have to deal with the true weight of their loss. This seems like the basis of Corporation existence and promise, that you can pay for relief - that they will round off the sharp edges of real life. They give you an option away from dealing with natural absolutes. I honestly think Jackie's full death at this point of the game holds the weight of where we all got hooked on the story. Especially my own personal attachment to Misty.
shitty cyberpunk I call it because you can't get a cyberarm and throw cars at cops. If you EVER got a cyberarm, it would be worse than you real arm and have a monthly subscription and built in ads.
@@6dragondaddy913 real life is even more cyberpunk than cyberpunk. Just wait till your subscription for your enhanced penis runs out or you miss a payment.
In many ways I see the universe of Cyberpunk as the world where the counter-corporate rebellion has already happened and the punks lost. Johnny is a clear indication of this. He was part of an operation that literrally NUKED a city. Reduced the HQ of a major player to ruble and burned half a corrupt city to ashes. And at best he delayed the process, at worst he was a part of helping that process along.
Its too far gone. The divide in power between the corporations and the consumer class they prey on is far too wide for a revolution to even be fleetingly possible. Theres literally nothing that can be done to reverse the fucking up of cyberpunk’s world
Cyberpunk hurts so much because it is the denial of a positive alternative future, and leaves the only path of imagination along totalitarian neo-liberalism. As Mark Fisher said "there is no alternative" means they steal your possibility to imagine a different future
Mike Pondsmith, the creator of Cyberpunk tried to warn us not to view Cyberpunk as an aesthetic. But as a warning of a real dark future in the 21st century. Which we now are living in with rise of Mega corporations and technology. Especially now we have become so dependent on.
i agree. a lot of people obsess over his diversity blurb i put but even then thats not even anti progressive but moreso the dangers of tribalism/alienation through inclusion
Cyberpunk seems closer to what could happen if Libertarianism achieved it's goal. No government regulation, no law enforcement, (unless it's paid for) as an individual, you have unlimited personal freedom provided if you can earn an income, but don't expect help if you get in trouble. You are solely responsible for your personal and financial security. If you fail, get into debt, get sick and can't afford the medical bills, lose your money, lose your home, well that's a skill issue on your part. Get better. There is no safety net.
Not really, both militech and arasaka got to the amount of power they currently hold via becoming nationalized, and having exclusive access to weapons manufacturing contracts for their respective countries. This gave them the ability to expand and use force against competitors, with no enforcement on them via the state. It’s closer to that of a national socialist’s idea of combining the state and private sectors in service to expanding power to those at it’s head Funny thing is that is exactly how corporations such as Mitsubishi, Lockheed Martin, and Johnson & Johnson came into power irl
Libertarianism, even at its extreme’s would allow competition between corporations and would largely precent the kinds of mega corporations depicted in cyberpunk dystopias. Cyberpunk is more like a socialist nightmare then a libertarian one with the intermingling of corporate and state power.
@@Christopher-eq1rn I don't think you know what nationalization means. The combination of the state and corporate power is fascism and the NSDAP literally invented privatization of state assets. The literal complete opposite of the meaning of nationalization.
@@certs743 you haven't read into cyberpunk lore evidently, but go off if it makes you feel better Oh and the nsdap didn't invent the concept, it was taken wholesale from mussolini's Italy and then twisted on a racial basis
@@Christopher-eq1rn This has nothing to do with Cyberpunk and a basic high school level understanding of political terms. And I see you insist on doubling down on proving you know nothing about what you are talking about. The merger of corporate and state power was the definition of fascism according to Giovanni Gentille who was Mussolini's ghost writer. You brought up national socialism and tried to claim nationalization and fascism were the same thing. That is just objectively wrong. The term privatization first appeared in nazi Germany. That is just a historical fact. Your complete misuse of the term nationalization is what is mostly at issue because your entire argument was based on an incorrect understanding of what the word means. I guess that is what happens when you get your political education from ancap Reddit posts.
at 4:16, when Johnny was young he was also a corpo soldier that defected, its likely that he saw things while deployed that radicalized him and made him hate the idea of corporations destroying families and the world for profits
I think it's really cool that Johnny, even before becoming a Punk, was still a fucking badass. Ranger school is not easy, and I can't imagine being a Ranger in a world where Cyberware was becoming commonplace.
@@JL32506 Rangers, from what I see, are the most terrifying type of special forces, because while Army is good in hold territory, and Marines are good in take territory, the Rangers are the ones who KILL NATIONS FROM THE INSIDE.
@@OzymandiasV2one thing to note, in philip k dicks original book blade runner is based on he unironically portrayed the replicants as pure evil and the corporations as just, he literally thinks that robots dont have souls and should be slaves and that we should obey authority, its very religious and human supremest book Its like starship troopers the original books was pro war pro nuclear war without any message but the movie changed it
Im glad you mentioned alienation and Bladerunner 2049. I see so few people talking about how Bladerunner 2049 depicts alienation. As a neurotic transwoman, I can really appreciate how the movie depicts him living a life completely alienated from himself and attempting to fill that void with his ai girlfriend and struggling for liberation. He leads a meaningless existence without any place for expression or self development or any of the things that give life purpose. I interpret the seen with the hologram girl as sort of a mockery of the one good thing he had in his former life, that it was just a commodity.
yeah exactly. thats his absolute rock bottom along with learning the truth that hes not the first Rep/Human offspring. Past that point he does his best to do the right thing and in turn becomes arguably just as important as Deckers daughter. Thank you for the comment and support! The alienation was something that wasnt in the original script but clicked into my head while editing
@@OzymandiasV2nah read the original book its played straight the robots are evil and should be slaves philip k dick was a religious nut, do androids dream of electric ship wasnt anti capitalists it was pro capitalist with no self awareness
@@OzymandiasV2also starship troopers the original book advocated for nuclear war and the author was a war nut who wanted to use nukes on the soviets the bugs were ment to be chinese him personally said this Of course the movie changed it
@@NeostormXLMAX Starship Troopers was a treatise on the role of a citizen within a nation, and the virtues necessary to fulfill a meaningful and moral life within that framework, and the objective nature of what constitutes a moral person. If you think it's about something else then you've not understood the book, you've cribbed someone else's narrative. The author was a left-leaning hippie, there's nothing of what you claim in either the book or Heinlein's broader writings. You shouldn't let others insert their thinking into your mouth. The movie was a parody of the book (the director never having even read it, not surprisingly) just as your comment on ST is.
thank you! i think with despite how much fearmongering and hate is tied with the trans identity that its acc a testament to technology/medical progress. Media like Altered Carbon shows that even in a world where actual bodies are basically made entirely customizable down to hormones, thought process, etc., there will still be people who want to reject it and embrace tradition. Glad i articulated it well 🙏
@@OzymandiasV2 The issue with Transhumanism in media is that, even when authors try to depict it as something good, it usually devolves by accident in to physically stronger "ubermensch" and eugenics. Usually to the detriment of the story, like almost all story's in the Gundam franchise, where the transhumans (Newtypes) are supposed to be the next stage of Human evolution. Adapted to live in space and capable of instantaneously understanding each other, through psychic communication. Which was supposed to lead to an end of all war. But this never really works out, as what ends up being more important about them is their improved spatial navigation, making them super soldiers/ pilots. Later story's in the franchise even acknowledge this. With even the "end of all war" angle being twisted in to the motivation of multiple antagonist of the franchise, with their believes usually being that newtypes should be the leaders of humanity or that newtypes should replace humanity, which would in their believe: end all wars. My favorite depiction of transhumanism, and the only actually good depiction i can think of, is "Armored core 6: Fires of Rubicon". Where there are two different kinds of Transhumanism depicted. One is the more standard cybernetically enhanced "augmented humans", produced through dangerous surgery, making them better wage sl*ves/ soldiers, seemingly un aging and giving them some form of brain damage. The other form of transhumanism is depicted in the games third and final ending. In the form of symbiosis between Human, coral and AC. What i really love about it, is that there might not even be anything physically different about the player character after the symbiosis. Completely avoiding the ubermensch stuff, instead making it about the mindset and the ability of humans to live with their environment without exploiting it.
@@LoneWolfInsane well said , AC6 is 100% a masterpiece story and well orchestrated , especially timely within the context of the dawn of the era of AI that we are living thru
We are experiencing an alarming amount of cyberpunk themes currently and have been for awhile. To start, Corporations have been recognized by law as an single individual since the 1970s and was cemented by the United Citizens act in 2010. We’ve been living in Night City for too long already.
revitalization because the dynamics are maturing. The seeds were int he 70s, we saw the happy high in the 90s and got complacent, now it's festering so now we're crying again. Should've controlled it from the seeding days and managed how it will grow, maintaining a clear direction of where it should lead. But ah, another masterful display of american cognition and governance, always so short-sighted. A bunch of reactions and little nation building like old cultures. Look at the chinese communist party, it had a damn plan to take it to where it is now and it followed it (interesting to follow what it's goals have been each era if you can put down the hate conditioning from US propaganda).
It’s ironic that people only play Cyberpunk 2077 to live vicariously through the game for the romance options, which is a dystopian theme within the genre and real life of refusing to face the pain of reality. And frankly, the romance options are poorly written.
yeah plus a lot of the romance options have a lot of trauma thats made worse by the seemingly inevitable death of V. Its kind of selfish in game to romance anyone but I see the Panam option as the best because its the “happiest” even with the Mr. Blue Eyes one
@@OzymandiasV2 Even Panam’s character is poorly written as she only exists as a sexual object for the player’s self insert of V, because V is barely a character as is which feeds into the player base’s delusions. Sure her character provides an ending to V, but it’s still extremely shallow.
This reminds me of (and sometimed overlaps with) people misunderstanding sigma male movies. Ignoring the themes, lessons, and morality concerns of the stories and just appreciating the cool aesthetics.
i really wish they explored that left-rebel side of johny silverhand a little more in the game, these monologues are some of the best part of the writing in the game.
yeah i also think the questline of getting the band back together couldve had more overt reactions from johnny. All of his friends (besides the one who turned into the journalist who gives you Killing in the name) basically turn into miserable rich people ruined by fame
@@OzymandiasV2 Slightly altered from the original: "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become what you hate." Could be a line from Silverhand about his old friends. Actually I'm not even sure if a line like that is in the game. haha.
I love that you included Robocop in this video, series like that and Judge Dredd are sometimes overlooked because of their "pulpier" fare like violence and drug use. Which is pretty silly in a genre where people are basically exterminated like vermin across the board and the expensive bits collected to resell. The violence and drug content make complete sense. I'd love to see a part two of this series, maybe touching series like Psycho-Pass and movies like Paprika, where mental health and even dreams are up for grabs. Maybe even your take on post- and post-post apocalyptic cyberpunk media like Blame!, Appleseed, and Love, Death, and Robots (heck, even Bebop and A Certain Scientific Railgun fit in here). I always love when series tackle the question of what can happen after society falls under these systems.
Havent gotten around to Psychopass but i love LDR and Cowboy Bebop! I actually had to look it up to see if its considered cyberpunk because I was thinking about putting it in the vid. But with all the varied eps I couldnt collect one big concrete theme on capitalism. I started BLAME! and never finished though
Robocop has a grain of truth in it, and it's not the corporate greed side of it, it's the corrupt and decaying government side. The Detroit of Robocop is in decay for the same reason that modern day Detroit is - government mismanagement.
Its interesting looking at genres like this as a disabled person. I have a pretty tenuous connection to any physical sense of self as it is. And the idea of transhumanism excites me. While the capitalist dystopia aspects of cyberpunk genuinely scare me. The technology, and the sheer control over your own body that becomes possible is so exciting. Like your essay. Have a sub!
thank you! i think theres a lot of reactionaries with tech like i mentioned in Altered Carbon or even ted k types but i think the technology can be great when used correctly
great video man I love cyberpunk another vid would be sick Just started reading Neuromancer and I’m curious to see how it explores these ideas also im not sure how anyone could play through 2077 and not think johnny is a leftist
Dude rockerboy is anything but leftist. Because main Johnny's agenda is "fuck the system" and in particularly fuck 'saka. He basically wants to destroy one certain corporation and thinks it will solve all the worlds problems. He's blinded by his anger and frustration. That is not a mindset of a reasonable Marxist. I would say Johnny Silverhand himself is a nightmare for a marxist.
Great video, but what I find myself wondering after watching it is why some people who consume this kind of media miss the point or even respond with a "hell yeah"
I've been GMing a Cyberpunk RED campaign for a while now, and recently i was talking with a player who was enjoying the current plotline, about how everything i do politically ingame (and everything in cyberpunk is more or less political) is lensed through a historical materialism angle. As in, the material conditions of individuals are the biggest influence in their actions and necessities.
Johnny is pretty clearly aligned to anti-corporocratic federalist anarchy: he never opposes decentralised democratic government, only corporations and the illusion of benevolent governments.
I really love Cyberpunk 2077’s way of showing you a story instead of telling you it, for example, they tell you Mercs, the biggest source of trouble for the corps in Silverhand’s time have been reigned in, even going as far as Rogue doing jobs for Corps, what does this tell you? That the Corps won, so who better to balance the field than V and Johnny, and this is your story to show
my media analysis vids seem to do well so chances are I might! ill have to play and watch more cyberpunk media or branch off haha. thank you for the comment 🙏
@@OzymandiasV2 there is an excellent three part cyberpunk documentary by Indigo Gaming that may provide some inspiration if you haven’t seen it! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
The Deus Ex sequels and prequels didn't bring anything new thematically, that the original Deus Ex didn't already have. Sadly, this rings true of Blade Runner 2049 and Cyberpunk 2077 (in respect to Neuromancer). At least they're all enjoyable, though.
I really enjoyed this a lot.. Thanks for putting it together. Am a big fan of cyberpunk in general and have pretty much watched/ played all things reference except deus ex, which I really need to just play. I'm probably gonna download it now because I own it, but it's sometimes hard getting into an older game that I didn't actually play when it first came out! But so many people have told me how good it is.. I need to bite the bullet! God knows.. I even use the 'I never asked for this' meme all the time xD
no problem at all! you dont NEED to play the old games to play the modern ones with Jensen. Even with the twist in Human Revolution its a great game. Especially because it gives you choices
Btw just wanted to say some tips for video making. I think you and your videos have lots of potential but I think they would improve a lot by focusing more on the delivery. When you’re recording your lines, dont do it all in one take. Cut them up into smaller chunks to preserve the energy in each line. Also clearing your voice by doing vocal warmups helps but I think most benefit would come from talking a bit slower and focusing on the punctuation. Im a singer and I work with audio tools quite a bit so I think these would help a lot. Thanks for making these vids they’re great❤
The Dialogue after “The ballad of Buck Rivers” contradicts your video. It literally isn’t about capitalism at all. It’s about the individual losing their humanity through the cyber ware itself. Not the capitalist selling them the cyber ware.
It should be noted capitalism is often used to mean free market; the cyberpunk corporations exist in what we would call crony capitalism, where there is no free market. A more accurate description of the economic and political system is corporatism. Its not different from good old fashion top down economic and political control, or to put it in another way, Marxism and Totalitarianism. IN the world of cyberpunk governments and corporations merge into one, with 1984 being an example of a dysfunctional political system and Blade Runner being an example of a dysfunctional corporate system and possibly Metropolis somewhere in between.
Exactly, but people have been taught to redirect their dissatisfaction with the current system onto "capitalism run wild" instead of overpowerful government which attracts and facilitates the worst influence peddling by corporations and non-profits. This didn't happen accidentally. It's deliberate, but most people are too blinded to see it. It's why people still listen to Bernie Sanders, one of the worst examples of the type.
agreed. i think cyberpunk 2077 stuck out because besides the sad relic ending you can basically do a bunch of last “fuck you”s to various people and corporations
Yeah. I'm very, very early in the development process of a sort of cyberpunk FPS, where the core story conceit is that the player is working for a far-left government, to provide military aid to a revolution in a cyberpunk society. I'm not sure how much of that will end up in the game, but I figured any military sci-fi is going to be political, so I want it to agree with my politics.
@@henryfleischer404 That's a cool concept, but I hope the main character doesn't mindlessly follow their governments orders and actually questions the underlying politics
Cyberpunk is one of my favorite genres ever, despite how dark, bleak, depressing and corporation controlled as it is. I truly enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution the first time I played it. Adam Jensen is a very interesting character; a corporate security lead who got killed by terrorists while was doing his job, but was brought to life by the very company's scientists. He doesn't want to die, but he doesn't chose to be become a cyborg. He being a cyborg with so many weapons can activate, allows him to defeat enemies and get the truth of the conspiracy. I also enjoy Cyberpunk 2077 as well, despite the horrible future society it depicts. It takes being a killer cyborg theme more the other way, where it's accepted to be a cyborg, and that fact that "ripper docs" exist at every district in Night City! Getting a cybernetic implant is sometimes a small medical procedure with some anesthetic and then wake up and go one's way. This being the case for player character V, and while it's supposed to be "cool" that V can do this, it's also a bit disturbing, but that is that point with him or her being a merc.
great write up and thank you for the comment. i think the concept of someone being brought back against their will (esp by a company) is a plot line used a lot in cyberpunk media
@@ZrodyApo i would say that mecha (particularly real robot) is even more woke. But most of them are basically just cyberpunk, with the punk aesthetic being replaced by other counter culture movements like techno, surfer.
I like Deus Ex: Human Revolution because it doesn't have that boring liberal agenda about mega-corporations that control everything, and the emphasis is shifted to the world government represented by the old aristocracies and cartels. In fact, in Deus Ex we literally play as a corporate man who defends the interests of a private company.
admittedly its been a while since i played but Adam seemed to be super grumpy about doing it with the “i never asked for this” and whatnot but yeah Deus Ex is a great series because it combines all the conspiracies into one universe regardless of politics
B-b-b-but the market is the mechanism that check’s Capitalism and holds it to account by way of competition and the ability for consumers to vote with their wallets! /s
Unless of course you have a government that can interfere in the market and then the businesses utilize the government for their benefit carving out their dominance through regulation and legislation wielding the power of the sole entity with the monopoly on violence to prevent competition, protect them from litigation and offer perks like tax breaks, subsidies and mandates or legal necessities.
When Johnny says ‘I’m not doing this because capitalism is a thorn in my side’ he’s saying capitalism is not JUST a thorn, but a giant machine consuming humanity instead, even if he is not explicitly a communist he is definitely a left wing anarchist of some type
daaaayamn i just played an unemployed corpo doing freelance while doing whatever to live. never had any anti corp leanings and told johny to stop crying in my ear most days. i had every intention of not only getting back into the corp world but reaching the top id say my vibe was "oblisse noblige"
@@OzymandiasV2if I remeber correctly me and my boss (against my will but that's the job) made a power play and lost. "The company" didn betray me we lost a power struggle. I coulda just as easily been hoed by my street gang or sacrificed by my nomad tribe. If everyone has to take a risk at least my risks hold a chance for those sweet sweet highrise apartments and industrial lofts 🤤🤤🤤
I love the Killing in the name of quest, especially Johnny 's cynical takes about leftist gibberish and his wholehearted understanding of the problems of alienation by corporation and state. I am totally on his side when he makes fun of the "big phallus toxic masculinity" theories but he enjoys the irony of leftist slogans being pronounced by the commodified fortune teller machine!! He is the most hilarious embodiment of Mark Fisher thought. One of the highest points of any games!! I would love if this kind of irony would be used to subvert woke ideas in the sequel, where american woke writers have been recruited 😂
When you realize capitalism (private ownership of commerce) isn't corporatism (public ownership of commerce with roots in Fascism through corporate alliance with the state/government) suddenly everything is clear.
Yeah people often conflate them as the same because the majority of people think "Evil CEO has lots of money, money must be the problem. Corporatism is very easily corrupted and used to exploit the poor which people often attribute to capitalism solely. I think of it like saying Communism is the same as Marxism which it isn't, hence why we have different names for it.
Corporatism is the inevitable end result of capitalism, unless you can provide a clear explaination otherwise. If you look at countries that embraced capitalism wholesale like the US and compare them to socialized European counties, you'll see what I mean.
@@MizcSmijd it seems you don't understand the difference between private and public ownership of commerce or the corporation's role in the socialisation method of Fascism. The idea that Western European countries are socialist because they have some social services such as national healthcare (which doesn't work btw) is utterly absurd. I live in one. I'm betting you're a young American to believe that claptrap.
@@MizcSmijd all countries in Europe are capitalist, capitalism is a economic system the only way what you said or at least what i think you mean would make any sense would be if "capitalism is when bad things happen"
@@tinygrove7623 All countries are a mix of capitalism, socialism, and some other stuff. Some countries have more capitalism, some have more socialism, some have more other stuff. It goes by degrees. Capitalism is better than feudalism, but capitalism leads back to a technologically driven feudalism. Anyone who attempts to "check" it and make it "real capitalism" instead of "crony capitalism" becomes corrupted by it. Capitalism has its benefits but it slowly destroys itself and its host, and reverts back to feudalism. They tried to check it with socialism about a century ago but that failed and that dream has died. Or, sure, capitalism is when bad things happen. Whatever.
"We fought for beauty. Not knowin' what was good or true, was only the beautiful that meant a damn thing to us." -Johnny Silverhand Cyberpunk 2077 "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." -Wilhelm Stekel, psychoanalyst (featured in Ghost in the Shell SAC ep 22)
@gcanaday1 ah im just joking then i thought you were joking also. Keanu Reeves does the mocap and character model for Johnny. The tabletop game the video game is based off of has a diff design prob
This video is a pretty good display of how sobering it can be living in a society with corporatism spiralling out of control, where the individual is just another rodent in the large hamster wheel that is such a dystopian future, questioning their own existence in the first place. This sub genre has managed to be possibly the most cautionary kind of tale about our days moving forward, and is also a good example of how fiction can at times comment on, and even mirror real life events.
I wonder if you have red a manga called _"Eden: It's An Endless World!"_ one of my favorites from the cyberpunk genre. It also explores alot of real world themes & complex issues like death, gang violence, prostituion, corruption, war, drug abuse, family, etc.
radicalization is bad, neither radical communism or capitalism benefit the people the way they should. there should be a balance, with aspects from both ideologies so things to get out of hand, and johnny is just fed up with how far things have gone, and he wants to balance the scales by detonating one side of it
The old punk movement had some pretty deep roots with anarchist thinking and in some groups still does. So it is not at all contradictory to see anti capitalist messages and cheap shots at Marxists in the same breath. Cyberpunk 2077 having come out of Poland is also a country that went through the capitalist "shock therapy" hellscape of the 90s.
Great content. There is another angel you could look at, Bohemian Values. Silverhand is really on the nose for a disenfranchised Bohemian romantic. ex-rocker, anti-establishment, concerned with poetry and beauty above truth. "Truth and good are values proven to cause division, whereas beauty is universal.” There a hot take in there.
@@OzymandiasV2 jokes aside, excellent analysis as always, as is the case with your videos. One more thing I wish was sort of discussed/elaborated upon was the “recent” commodification of the aesthetics of this genre. Although I can see why that would not be in this video as it’s simply about the leftist ideologies present within the genre. As always, loved it, keep up the great work brother.
It would be the worst society to live in… it’s just an extreme capitalism system that some are (USA) unfortunately unaware they are heading to or already living in
It isn't extreme capitalism, it is the worst combination of leftist policies and neoliberal economics which incentivized corporations to control the government for their benefit. When companies control the entity with the monopoly on force because it is beneficial for them to since the government can regulate and legislate away their competitors they will do so.
It's extreme corporatism. Capitalism is individual economic decision making - When that's not present, what you have is communism or a form of centralized autocracy.
“Capitalism refers to an economic system in which a society's means of production are held by PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND/OR ORGANIZATIONS, NOT the government, and where products, prices, and the distribution of goods are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”
@@OzymandiasV2 that’s cute. Now go look up the definition of corporatism. Edit - the key difference is already outlined in reference to the FREE MARKET. The consolidation of corporate entities is to directly undermine the free market by removing competition.
@@OzymandiasV2 corporatism is the inverse of fascism and both are the result of centralized government power and a connection between the state and big businesses, while fascism has businesses subservient to the state and it's desires, corporatism has the state subservient to big businesses, both still require a strong central government capable of interfering in the market which is a leftist economic belief, what you wind up with in corporatism is the worst amalgamation of leftist policies in regards to regulation and neoliberal economics which encourages businesses to invest in garnering political favor or down right control of politicians in order to regulate and legislate their dominance in the market. Fascism on the other hand winds up with a more socialist economy where businesses exist at the mercy of the state and fulfill the demands made to them by the state, the only commonality between these and laissez-faire capitalism is private property but they aren't even remotely close in their philosophyical origins, policies or distribution on the spectrum where corporatism and fascism are much father left wing than neoliberal or laissez-faire capitalism.
I think it's worth mentioning that games like World War Z kinda filled the gap that L4D left. Me and my friends still pay WWZ and don't want to switch it up.
Great video, its really interesting how all of the cyberpunk genre bundles 3 dichotomy, capitalism vs socialism, centralization vs decentralization and traditionalism vs trans humanism. this is why these games are not only popular among left wing politics but everyone who has some political bone to pick. libertarians (left or right) will point how society seems to be more and more centralized in hands of the few if it be a mix of corporate and state actors. conservatives will point to the lost of traditional morality to trans-humanist hedonist that dissolves social unity. These 3 dichotomy in cyberpunk genre really are the exaggerated problems of today ever increasing corpo/government control, the market ever intruding on everything and one, technological progression outpacing morality and ethics. The nomads in cyberpunk the game represents the synthesis of all these opposition being anti-corpo, freedom loving and valuing family and social unity. Whats really interesting though is what not included as problem in the cyberpunk genre. As expressed in the video intersectionality seems to be problem that does not exist as the material which make up these differences can be altered invalidating their important. here the liberal vision of the cosmopolitan citizen has won out. The decoupling of identity and essence has resulted in this. anyway these be my 2cents.
4:16 My landlord is renting the apartment from someone who owns it, and is charging me and a flatmate 1300 dollars a month, to rent a two bedroom apartment that's dilapidated, and the person he's renting from legally isnt allowed to rent it out for more than 400-500 tops. Tell me why i should be paying him, instead of the actual owner of the building. Tell me what service he provides me thats worth such a ridiculous profit margin for literally no effort.
i think theres most likely a supernatural/unseen element of reality but i dont thino the world will come to an end anytime soon due to that. If anything a nuclear apocalypse or the gradual depletion of our planet will happen first
I would really like an evolution of cyberpunk as a genre. The fact that marx existed in a lot of these universes, and a heavily armed and militant proletariat exist, but theres no organized communist insurrections shows a lack of imagination. Marxist revolutionaries grow in numbers, strength and capability in direct proportion to how bad things get for everyday people. Irl America still has treats and such and is the imperial core so we dont have strong revolutionaries, but a crime ridden hellhole like Night City, which is exactly what rural conservatives think all urban centers are now, would have full blown vanguards seizing Arasaka properties, sabotaging their production lines and blowing up MaxTac offices and going after their officials in their homes. You have a decent chance of getting killed on any given day in NC, its a war zone. War disrupts the consumerism lifestyle, people wouldnt just be chillin in that situation. A real cyberpunk dystopia would crumble under its own brutality and plunge into civil war and revolution in no time flat. I think OG cyberpunk has said most of what it can say (ie capitalist realism), and until it moves to Revolutionary Cyberpunk it can't do much as a genre
Make no mistake, we're almost there unless we channel our inner Jhonny Silverhand. And that comes from a guy that used to be and still is at times a pro order guy
apologies for the harsh p’s and slight music cuts in the first 8 min. the first half of the vid was made while i was traveling and i didnt have the same set up. my cloud service failed to transfer from my laptop to my desktop when i returned, so i had to port the background music and the voiceover together 😭😭 anyways let me know anything i missed or just general comments. Thanks for watching!
Have you seen Mr. Robot and if so what are your thoughts
im on season 3 but i like it so far. Ngl though wasnt a fan of S2. The twist was cool but felt like a lot of filler
@@OzymandiasV2 Season 3 is one of my favourite seasons of television, it's genius on every possible level and while I agree that season 2 is the weakest i still think it's amazing, here's my ranking of the seasons
1. Season 3
2. Season 4
3. Season 1
4. Season 2
Also what do you think of the general plot so far
as an online person critical of the government and imperialism deffo some obv biases in my opinion lol but i think its a great show. Just havent found the time to watch 1 hour eps for entire seasons
@@OzymandiasV2 Yeah I get it, I had the time to binge the entire thing in a week cause I loved the story.characters and unique style too much however you're an up and coming youtuber so you have less time
"Cyberpunk isn't about saving the world, it's about saving yourself." - Mike Pondsmith
Copied that from gibson i reckon
I always hated that
And that's why it's a Liberal genre and not a Marxist one. It's the fantasy that you can somehow fight back against or save yourself from these massive social and economic systems all by yourself, which is impossible.
There in lies the problem of a cyberpunk hellscape, it perpetuates the problem. To get out of these kinds of dynamics, it requires the people to work together and end the existence of certain institutions and the dynamics that made them be. I mean a core tactic is divide and conquer, inspire apathy and hyper self focus on the lowest of low wants and needs, make you fight for the barest of scraps while making you believe you're winning a lot. No, the solution is to save each other and save the world, if we can't find our way back to that level cooperation and simplicity, then you're not even saving yourself, you've merely died in loss.
There lies the problem of the cyberpunk hellscape. A core dynamic in these systems is divide an conquer. Other dynamics include inspire apathy through badges of coolness or hedonism to cope, make you fight for scraps while making you believe you're winning a damn lot by feeding you worthless values such as: that is masculine, that is tough, that is hard - badge of honour nonsense, hyperindividualism where you're focused at the most minor of your immediate wants and needs at the expense of anything greater and worthwhile simply because they are the "other". No, it is about saving the world. Save the world thus saving yourself. If you try to save yourself, you're only supporting the system. All of these individual rebellions amounted to fuck all with the exception Adam Jensen who had some opportunity to set up a situation where people might hear of a bigger narrative - you will simply die, have someone write a convenient story on you to support the current worldview or simply go unheard of. Cooperation like older times, discipline in finding truth (not being lazy with thinking) and sacrificing for each other is how you get further away from this. East Asia is a living example of this, I'm so damn glad confuscianism is in-built in us, a code of ethics from within that inspires genuine feelings of care for each other and the greater good. Even corpo south korea has a modicum of that left in them. While the kindest stars and stripes person at best gives you stranger courtesy and believes that's deep care and kindness...
This game should be EVERYONE’s nightmare. Night City is so oppressively bleak that anyone able to crack a genuine smile is a Victor in their own right.
Nice wordplay. Cheers.
I take NC any day of the week, instead of the gulag world of 1984...
At least in Cyberpunk i can still join with nomads and enjoy some degree of freedom, in 1984, there's nowhere to go, and even your mind is violated.
victor is so real i want to be friends with him irl
@@efxnews4776 Not to mention the cool futuristic tech you can do with. And in terms of aesthetics, cyberpunk genre is usually kind of cool and sexy.
@@swifto12usedtobetaken A ton of the characters were extremely well written... even the naïve and idealistic Johnny.
Oh the genre isn’t just a Marxist nightmare, it’s just a nightmarish concept as a whole. The anti-capitalist themes have the subtlety of a golf club to the skull, yes, but even with the consumerist themes/satire it still is a very bleak and horrific view of the future and humanity as a whole.
horrors beyond our comprehension indeed
@@OzymandiasV2 manmade horrors, in particular.
It's not worst than a 1984 type of dystopia...
@@efxnews4776 it’s equally as bad as an Orwellian dystopia, just in different ways.
The issue is who is capable of seeing it actually. You gotta be a fair bit left to see it for what it is and what it means for the real world and your very own life.
This story hits me because of the moment you lose Jackie. He passes away staring into your eyes. The last thing he saw was your fear and sadness and still he smiled. I lived through a similar moment like this and I always stay in the car with the choom for atleast 10 minutes lol
wish they fleshed out the flashbacks with him at the beginning or made it a secret choice to save him but have a minimal role. wouldve been cool it jackie was also somehow glitched into the Relic
also sorry for your loss
@@OzymandiasV2doesn't this desire of yours fit into the point of your video?
You got attached to a fictional character and in the fictional world you would be satisfied with an artificial intelligence copy of that character to not have to deal with the true weight of their loss.
This seems like the basis of Corporation existence and promise, that you can pay for relief - that they will round off the sharp edges of real life. They give you an option away from dealing with natural absolutes.
I honestly think Jackie's full death at this point of the game holds the weight of where we all got hooked on the story. Especially my own personal attachment to Misty.
wow. very good point
At least he is free.
Cyberpunk isn't even a genre anymore. It's just daily life.
Daily life is a mix of a future dystopian cyberpunk universe and 1920s America with none of the cool shit from either
always was buddy XD
@@Enjoyerofaks
Online gaming and UA-cam are pretty cool. The rest.... well.
shitty cyberpunk I call it because you can't get a cyberarm and throw cars at cops. If you EVER got a cyberarm, it would be worse than you real arm and have a monthly subscription and built in ads.
@@6dragondaddy913 real life is even more cyberpunk than cyberpunk. Just wait till your subscription for your enhanced penis runs out or you miss a payment.
In many ways I see the universe of Cyberpunk as the world where the counter-corporate rebellion has already happened and the punks lost. Johnny is a clear indication of this. He was part of an operation that literrally NUKED a city. Reduced the HQ of a major player to ruble and burned half a corrupt city to ashes. And at best he delayed the process, at worst he was a part of helping that process along.
many such cases unfortunately. probably led to arasaka getting even more powerful
Its too far gone. The divide in power between the corporations and the consumer class they prey on is far too wide for a revolution to even be fleetingly possible. Theres literally nothing that can be done to reverse the fucking up of cyberpunk’s world
How
Sad thing is AHQ bombing wasn't even punks vs corpos thing, it was corpo vs corpo tussle, and in the end of it the only loser is people
Cyberpunk hurts so much because it is the denial of a positive alternative future, and leaves the only path of imagination along totalitarian neo-liberalism. As Mark Fisher said "there is no alternative" means they steal your possibility to imagine a different future
Don't come to Blackrock offices this August
we’re making it out of Pacifica with this one
@@OzymandiasV2 START. THE. FIIIIIRE! 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥
@@cheeki5280can I join you?
We not fearing the Reaper this August.
Commenting to incase OC delivers this August.
Mike Pondsmith, the creator of Cyberpunk tried to warn us not to view Cyberpunk as an aesthetic. But as a warning of a real dark future in the 21st century. Which we now are living in with rise of Mega corporations and technology. Especially now we have become so dependent on.
i agree. a lot of people obsess over his diversity blurb i put but even then thats not even anti progressive but moreso the dangers of tribalism/alienation through inclusion
Dont worry solar punk has gotten popular, reminder that stuff like pokemon and ghibili films are solarpunk
"If i need your body, ill fk it" - Johnny silverhand
real and brave quote
Daddy chill
The **real** canon romance of the game ❤
Cyberpunk seems closer to what could happen if Libertarianism achieved it's goal. No government regulation, no law enforcement, (unless it's paid for) as an individual, you have unlimited personal freedom provided if you can earn an income, but don't expect help if you get in trouble. You are solely responsible for your personal and financial security. If you fail, get into debt, get sick and can't afford the medical bills, lose your money, lose your home, well that's a skill issue on your part. Get better. There is no safety net.
Not really, both militech and arasaka got to the amount of power they currently hold via becoming nationalized, and having exclusive access to weapons manufacturing contracts for their respective countries. This gave them the ability to expand and use force against competitors, with no enforcement on them via the state. It’s closer to that of a national socialist’s idea of combining the state and private sectors in service to expanding power to those at it’s head
Funny thing is that is exactly how corporations such as Mitsubishi, Lockheed Martin, and Johnson & Johnson came into power irl
Libertarianism, even at its extreme’s would allow competition between corporations and would largely precent the kinds of mega corporations depicted in cyberpunk dystopias. Cyberpunk is more like a socialist nightmare then a libertarian one with the intermingling of corporate and state power.
@@Christopher-eq1rn I don't think you know what nationalization means. The combination of the state and corporate power is fascism and the NSDAP literally invented privatization of state assets. The literal complete opposite of the meaning of nationalization.
@@certs743 you haven't read into cyberpunk lore evidently, but go off if it makes you feel better
Oh and the nsdap didn't invent the concept, it was taken wholesale from mussolini's Italy and then twisted on a racial basis
@@Christopher-eq1rn This has nothing to do with Cyberpunk and a basic high school level understanding of political terms.
And I see you insist on doubling down on proving you know nothing about what you are talking about.
The merger of corporate and state power was the definition of fascism according to Giovanni Gentille who was Mussolini's ghost writer.
You brought up national socialism and tried to claim nationalization and fascism were the same thing. That is just objectively wrong.
The term privatization first appeared in nazi Germany. That is just a historical fact.
Your complete misuse of the term nationalization is what is mostly at issue because your entire argument was based on an incorrect understanding of what the word means.
I guess that is what happens when you get your political education from ancap Reddit posts.
Deus Ex is more bleak and depressing rather than neon and depressing.
i agree. the yellow/orange washes a lot of things out 😂. Seems like the old deus ex’s may have been a bit more bluish/colorful
@@danjoredd Honestly, I agree 100%. Well put.
My favorite writer is Julius Evola and this is by far the most dystopian and disgusting future I have ever seen in every way.
Evola? Based
at 4:16, when Johnny was young he was also a corpo soldier that defected, its likely that he saw things while deployed that radicalized him and made him hate the idea of corporations destroying families and the world for profits
good addition thanks
He was a US Ranger in the Second SouthAm Wars, and part of the program that created the first cybernetic soldiers.
I think it's really cool that Johnny, even before becoming a Punk, was still a fucking badass. Ranger school is not easy, and I can't imagine being a Ranger in a world where Cyberware was becoming commonplace.
@@JL32506 Rangers, from what I see, are the most terrifying type of special forces, because while Army is good in hold territory, and Marines are good in take territory, the Rangers are the ones who KILL NATIONS FROM THE INSIDE.
The real point of cyberpunk is so i can kiss johnny silverhand
REAL!
@@OzymandiasV2one thing to note, in philip k dicks original book blade runner is based on he unironically portrayed the replicants as pure evil and the corporations as just, he literally thinks that robots dont have souls and should be slaves and that we should obey authority, its very religious and human supremest book
Its like starship troopers the original books was pro war pro nuclear war without any message but the movie changed it
Im glad you mentioned alienation and Bladerunner 2049. I see so few people talking about how Bladerunner 2049 depicts alienation. As a neurotic transwoman, I can really appreciate how the movie depicts him living a life completely alienated from himself and attempting to fill that void with his ai girlfriend and struggling for liberation. He leads a meaningless existence without any place for expression or self development or any of the things that give life purpose. I interpret the seen with the hologram girl as sort of a mockery of the one good thing he had in his former life, that it was just a commodity.
yeah exactly. thats his absolute rock bottom along with learning the truth that hes not the first Rep/Human offspring. Past that point he does his best to do the right thing and in turn becomes arguably just as important as Deckers daughter. Thank you for the comment and support! The alienation was something that wasnt in the original script but clicked into my head while editing
@@OzymandiasV2nah read the original book its played straight the robots are evil and should be slaves philip k dick was a religious nut, do androids dream of electric ship wasnt anti capitalists it was pro capitalist with no self awareness
@@OzymandiasV2also starship troopers the original book advocated for nuclear war and the author was a war nut who wanted to use nukes on the soviets the bugs were ment to be chinese him personally said this
Of course the movie changed it
@@NeostormXLMAX Starship Troopers was a treatise on the role of a citizen within a nation, and the virtues necessary to fulfill a meaningful and moral life within that framework, and the objective nature of what constitutes a moral person.
If you think it's about something else then you've not understood the book, you've cribbed someone else's narrative. The author was a left-leaning hippie, there's nothing of what you claim in either the book or Heinlein's broader writings.
You shouldn't let others insert their thinking into your mouth.
The movie was a parody of the book (the director never having even read it, not surprisingly) just as your comment on ST is.
“You best start believin in cyberpunk dystopias, you’re in one”
- Cyberpunk Captain Barbossa probably
good video, I forget sometimes how uncomfortable the idea of transhumanism is to really think about in depth but you did a good job explaining it
thank you! i think with despite how much fearmongering and hate is tied with the trans identity that its acc a testament to technology/medical progress. Media like Altered Carbon shows that even in a world where actual bodies are basically made entirely customizable down to hormones, thought process, etc., there will still be people who want to reject it and embrace tradition. Glad i articulated it well 🙏
@@OzymandiasV2 The issue with Transhumanism in media is that, even when authors try to depict it as something good, it usually devolves by accident in to physically stronger "ubermensch" and eugenics.
Usually to the detriment of the story, like almost all story's in the Gundam franchise, where the transhumans (Newtypes) are supposed to be the next stage of Human evolution. Adapted to live in space and capable of instantaneously understanding each other, through psychic communication. Which was supposed to lead to an end of all war. But this never really works out, as what ends up being more important about them is their improved spatial navigation, making them super soldiers/ pilots.
Later story's in the franchise even acknowledge this. With even the "end of all war" angle being twisted in to the motivation of multiple antagonist of the franchise, with their believes usually being that newtypes should be the leaders of humanity or that newtypes should replace humanity, which would in their believe: end all wars.
My favorite depiction of transhumanism, and the only actually good depiction i can think of, is "Armored core 6: Fires of Rubicon". Where there are two different kinds of Transhumanism depicted.
One is the more standard cybernetically enhanced "augmented humans", produced through dangerous surgery, making them better wage sl*ves/ soldiers, seemingly un aging and giving them some form of brain damage.
The other form of transhumanism is depicted in the games third and final ending. In the form of symbiosis between Human, coral and AC. What i really love about it, is that there might not even be anything physically different about the player character after the symbiosis. Completely avoiding the ubermensch stuff, instead making it about the mindset and the ability of humans to live with their environment without exploiting it.
@@LoneWolfInsane well said , AC6 is 100% a masterpiece story and well orchestrated , especially timely within the context of the dawn of the era of AI that we are living thru
We are experiencing an alarming amount of cyberpunk themes currently and have been for awhile.
To start, Corporations have been recognized by law as an single individual since the 1970s and was cemented by the United Citizens act in 2010. We’ve been living in Night City for too long already.
revitalization because the dynamics are maturing. The seeds were int he 70s, we saw the happy high in the 90s and got complacent, now it's festering so now we're crying again. Should've controlled it from the seeding days and managed how it will grow, maintaining a clear direction of where it should lead. But ah, another masterful display of american cognition and governance, always so short-sighted. A bunch of reactions and little nation building like old cultures. Look at the chinese communist party, it had a damn plan to take it to where it is now and it followed it (interesting to follow what it's goals have been each era if you can put down the hate conditioning from US propaganda).
It’s ironic that people only play Cyberpunk 2077 to live vicariously through the game for the romance options, which is a dystopian theme within the genre and real life of refusing to face the pain of reality. And frankly, the romance options are poorly written.
yeah plus a lot of the romance options have a lot of trauma thats made worse by the seemingly inevitable death of V. Its kind of selfish in game to romance anyone but I see the Panam option as the best because its the “happiest” even with the Mr. Blue Eyes one
@@OzymandiasV2 Even Panam’s character is poorly written as she only exists as a sexual object for the player’s self insert of V, because V is barely a character as is which feeds into the player base’s delusions. Sure her character provides an ending to V, but it’s still extremely shallow.
romance options were overrated as hell
@@JW65 And cringe.
@@Nevirate 💯
This reminds me of (and sometimed overlaps with) people misunderstanding sigma male movies. Ignoring the themes, lessons, and morality concerns of the stories and just appreciating the cool aesthetics.
lol check my most popular vid on this channel. think youll like it 🙏
@@OzymandiasV2 I've seen them all haha
Things can be cool as fuck and deep. But if you ignore the deep something will come out of it.
i really wish they explored that left-rebel side of johny silverhand a little more in the game, these monologues are some of the best part of the writing in the game.
yeah i also think the questline of getting the band back together couldve had more overt reactions from johnny. All of his friends (besides the one who turned into the journalist who gives you Killing in the name) basically turn into miserable rich people ruined by fame
@@OzymandiasV2 Slightly altered from the original: "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become what you hate." Could be a line from Silverhand about his old friends.
Actually I'm not even sure if a line like that is in the game. haha.
The intro goes so hard. Nice video and cheers from Brasil. 😊🇧🇷
Glad you like it! having viewers worldwide is a crazy thought. cheers back
I love that you included Robocop in this video, series like that and Judge Dredd are sometimes overlooked because of their "pulpier" fare like violence and drug use. Which is pretty silly in a genre where people are basically exterminated like vermin across the board and the expensive bits collected to resell. The violence and drug content make complete sense.
I'd love to see a part two of this series, maybe touching series like Psycho-Pass and movies like Paprika, where mental health and even dreams are up for grabs.
Maybe even your take on post- and post-post apocalyptic cyberpunk media like Blame!, Appleseed, and Love, Death, and Robots (heck, even Bebop and A Certain Scientific Railgun fit in here). I always love when series tackle the question of what can happen after society falls under these systems.
Havent gotten around to Psychopass but i love LDR and Cowboy Bebop! I actually had to look it up to see if its considered cyberpunk because I was thinking about putting it in the vid. But with all the varied eps I couldnt collect one big concrete theme on capitalism. I started BLAME! and never finished though
Robocop has a grain of truth in it, and it's not the corporate greed side of it, it's the corrupt and decaying government side. The Detroit of Robocop is in decay for the same reason that modern day Detroit is - government mismanagement.
you real af for this
somebody had to put on the “uhm akshually” glasses
Its interesting looking at genres like this as a disabled person. I have a pretty tenuous connection to any physical sense of self as it is. And the idea of transhumanism excites me. While the capitalist dystopia aspects of cyberpunk genuinely scare me. The technology, and the sheer control over your own body that becomes possible is so exciting. Like your essay. Have a sub!
thank you! i think theres a lot of reactionaries with tech like i mentioned in Altered Carbon or even ted k types but i think the technology can be great when used correctly
great video
man I love cyberpunk another vid would be sick
Just started reading Neuromancer and I’m curious to see how it explores these ideas
also im not sure how anyone could play through 2077 and not think johnny is a leftist
youd be surprised there was a popular video essay on here saying Johnny hates leftists and Cyberpunk is “anti corporatism”
Dude rockerboy is anything but leftist. Because main Johnny's agenda is "fuck the system" and in particularly fuck 'saka. He basically wants to destroy one certain corporation and thinks it will solve all the worlds problems. He's blinded by his anger and frustration. That is not a mindset of a reasonable Marxist. I would say Johnny Silverhand himself is a nightmare for a marxist.
@@OzymandiasV2tis a right wing world we live in.
Another banger as usual Ozy❤
regime W
"You always loose the coin flip" -Soma (videogame)
To think otherwise is just fairytales.
Great video, but what I find myself wondering after watching it is why some people who consume this kind of media miss the point or even respond with a "hell yeah"
bc entertainment and games are fun to experience
WDYM it's nightmare to a kind of people. It's literally a DYSTOPIA.
I've been GMing a Cyberpunk RED campaign for a while now, and recently i was talking with a player who was enjoying the current plotline, about how everything i do politically ingame (and everything in cyberpunk is more or less political) is lensed through a historical materialism angle. As in, the material conditions of individuals are the biggest influence in their actions and necessities.
nomad/street kid/corpo is basically a reflection of this same with the first episode of edgerunners
Johnny is pretty clearly aligned to anti-corporocratic federalist anarchy: he never opposes decentralised democratic government, only corporations and the illusion of benevolent governments.
Have you covered any of Mark Fisher's essays on Cyberpunk? Might be worth looking into as a follow-up to this project.
Well done! Thanks
i still have capitalist realism on my reading list so havent gotten around to Fisher but ive heard great things about him
@@OzymandiasV2 must-read, even if you don't fully support or accept his ideas. It's a seminal leftist work for the 21st century
It's really annoying how people look at cyberpunk and just see neon kanji while ignoring everything it's actually saying and expressing.
I really love Cyberpunk 2077’s way of showing you a story instead of telling you it, for example, they tell you Mercs, the biggest source of trouble for the corps in Silverhand’s time have been reigned in, even going as far as Rogue doing jobs for Corps, what does this tell you? That the Corps won, so who better to balance the field than V and Johnny, and this is your story to show
Really enjoyed your vid man! Excellent editing and concepts. Would love to get a part 2 that’s even more in depth. Go crazy.
my media analysis vids seem to do well so chances are I might! ill have to play and watch more cyberpunk media or branch off haha. thank you for the comment 🙏
@@OzymandiasV2 there is an excellent three part cyberpunk documentary by Indigo Gaming that may provide some inspiration if you haven’t seen it! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
The Deus Ex sequels and prequels didn't bring anything new thematically, that the original Deus Ex didn't already have. Sadly, this rings true of Blade Runner 2049 and Cyberpunk 2077 (in respect to Neuromancer).
At least they're all enjoyable, though.
sadly i havent played the original DE 1 and 2. Only the Jensen ones
I heard people complaining about Keanu's lackluster performance. Dunno about you, but the opening monologue gives me goosebumps.
I really enjoyed this a lot.. Thanks for putting it together. Am a big fan of cyberpunk in general and have pretty much watched/ played all things reference except deus ex, which I really need to just play. I'm probably gonna download it now because I own it, but it's sometimes hard getting into an older game that I didn't actually play when it first came out! But so many people have told me how good it is.. I need to bite the bullet! God knows.. I even use the 'I never asked for this' meme all the time xD
no problem at all! you dont NEED to play the old games to play the modern ones with Jensen. Even with the twist in Human Revolution its a great game. Especially because it gives you choices
Thanks for this Ozy
np glad to have worked on it!
Ona cyberpunk note, have you seen the anime 'Genocidal Organ' ( Gyakusatsu kikan) and/or are you familiar with the US Disposition Matrix?
havent heard of either are they good?
@@OzymandiasV2 They're quite thought provoking together. Interesting commentary on warfare and automation
Great movie! Loved It
Btw just wanted to say some tips for video making. I think you and your videos have lots of potential but I think they would improve a lot by focusing more on the delivery. When you’re recording your lines, dont do it all in one take. Cut them up into smaller chunks to preserve the energy in each line. Also clearing your voice by doing vocal warmups helps but I think most benefit would come from talking a bit slower and focusing on the punctuation. Im a singer and I work with audio tools quite a bit so I think these would help a lot. Thanks for making these vids they’re great❤
thank you so much definitely something im working on 🙏
I liked this a lot so i took a look at the rest of your upload catalog and in short, you earned my sub. Great content.
thank you! im doing a vid on sex tourism and passport bros that will hopefully be out next weekend!
That intro was amazing. Johnny + Dune Music, awesome.
Very well designed video summary and analysis yearn my sub. Surprise this doesn’t have more likes really enjoy which you have to say.
thank you so much. makes editing and scripting a lot more worth it. stick around and watch my other stuff i have a variety of content 🙏
The Dialogue after “The ballad of Buck Rivers” contradicts your video. It literally isn’t about capitalism at all. It’s about the individual losing their humanity through the cyber ware itself. Not the capitalist selling them the cyber ware.
It should be noted capitalism is often used to mean free market; the cyberpunk corporations exist in what we would call crony capitalism, where there is no free market. A more accurate description of the economic and political system is corporatism. Its not different from good old fashion top down economic and political control, or to put it in another way, Marxism and Totalitarianism. IN the world of cyberpunk governments and corporations merge into one, with 1984 being an example of a dysfunctional political system and Blade Runner being an example of a dysfunctional corporate system and possibly Metropolis somewhere in between.
Exactly, but people have been taught to redirect their dissatisfaction with the current system onto "capitalism run wild" instead of overpowerful government which attracts and facilitates the worst influence peddling by corporations and non-profits.
This didn't happen accidentally. It's deliberate, but most people are too blinded to see it. It's why people still listen to Bernie Sanders, one of the worst examples of the type.
The biggest thing i hate about the cyberpunk genre is the constant nihilism. it gets annoying.
agreed. i think cyberpunk 2077 stuck out because besides the sad relic ending you can basically do a bunch of last “fuck you”s to various people and corporations
Yeah. I'm very, very early in the development process of a sort of cyberpunk FPS, where the core story conceit is that the player is working for a far-left government, to provide military aid to a revolution in a cyberpunk society. I'm not sure how much of that will end up in the game, but I figured any military sci-fi is going to be political, so I want it to agree with my politics.
@@henryfleischer404that sounds interesting!
I mean the second a broken someone can put upgrades freely and become a fast strong armored tank there are only 2 types of people Eat or be Eaten...
@@henryfleischer404 That's a cool concept, but I hope the main character doesn't mindlessly follow their governments orders and actually questions the underlying politics
Cyberpunk is one of my favorite genres ever, despite how dark, bleak, depressing and corporation controlled as it is. I truly enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution the first time I played it.
Adam Jensen is a very interesting character; a corporate security lead who got killed by terrorists while was doing his job, but was brought to life by the very company's scientists.
He doesn't want to die, but he doesn't chose to be become a cyborg. He being a cyborg with so many weapons can activate, allows him to defeat enemies and get the truth of the conspiracy. I also enjoy Cyberpunk 2077 as well, despite the horrible future society it depicts. It takes being a killer cyborg theme more the other way, where it's accepted to be a cyborg, and that fact that "ripper docs" exist at every district in Night City! Getting a cybernetic implant is sometimes a small medical procedure with some anesthetic and then wake up and go one's way. This being the case for player character V, and while it's supposed to be "cool" that V can do this, it's also a bit disturbing, but that is that point with him or her being a merc.
great write up and thank you for the comment. i think the concept of someone being brought back against their will (esp by a company) is a plot line used a lot in cyberpunk media
Based title. I would definitely say Cyberpunk is very much a "woke" genre.
the urge to title it that just for the salty clicks still hasnt escaped me
@@OzymandiasV2 Haha
I will go further and say that Cyberpunk is the wokest genre ever
@ZyadApo might change this to the title lol
@@ZrodyApo i would say that mecha (particularly real robot) is even more woke. But most of them are basically just cyberpunk, with the punk aesthetic being replaced by other counter culture movements like techno, surfer.
I like Deus Ex: Human Revolution because it doesn't have that boring liberal agenda about mega-corporations that control everything, and the emphasis is shifted to the world government represented by the old aristocracies and cartels. In fact, in Deus Ex we literally play as a corporate man who defends the interests of a private company.
admittedly its been a while since i played but Adam seemed to be super grumpy about doing it with the “i never asked for this” and whatnot but yeah Deus Ex is a great series because it combines all the conspiracies into one universe regardless of politics
Beautiful video I love Cyberpunk 2077 and the intro was amazing
thank you im glad you liked it! the intro is deffo one of my peaks so far 😁
Meanwile China: what do you taking about ? It´s Paradise.
B-b-b-but the market is the mechanism that check’s Capitalism and holds it to account by way of competition and the ability for consumers to vote with their wallets!
/s
Unless of course you have a government that can interfere in the market and then the businesses utilize the government for their benefit carving out their dominance through regulation and legislation wielding the power of the sole entity with the monopoly on violence to prevent competition, protect them from litigation and offer perks like tax breaks, subsidies and mandates or legal necessities.
2:53 Holy fuck, chill out nostradamus!
When Johnny says ‘I’m not doing this because capitalism is a thorn in my side’ he’s saying capitalism is not JUST a thorn, but a giant machine consuming humanity instead, even if he is not explicitly a communist he is definitely a left wing anarchist of some type
i can agree with that interpretation too. i see so many people latch onto that one line when its not a disqualifier of him hating the entire system
Easier for them to imagine the end of the world rather than the end of capitalism. Anti communists cope and roll their eyes at that line.
8:55 "This describes a lot if you" by God the SHADE, man, the shade 😂
I hope our world never comes to the level of cyberpunk, but the way we are going forward it sure as hell seems like it
daaaayamn i just played an unemployed corpo doing freelance while doing whatever to live. never had any anti corp leanings and told johny to stop crying in my ear most days. i had every intention of not only getting back into the corp world but reaching the top
id say my vibe was "oblisse noblige"
you got betrayed in the intro and still wanted to come back 😭
@@OzymandiasV2if I remeber correctly me and my boss (against my will but that's the job) made a power play and lost. "The company" didn betray me we lost a power struggle. I coulda just as easily been hoed by my street gang or sacrificed by my nomad tribe. If everyone has to take a risk at least my risks hold a chance for those sweet sweet highrise apartments and industrial lofts 🤤🤤🤤
What's the music during Johnny's speech at the start?
You can tell that capitalism is powerful because you can even sell communism.
I love the Killing in the name of quest, especially Johnny 's cynical takes about leftist gibberish and his wholehearted understanding of the problems of alienation by corporation and state. I am totally on his side when he makes fun of the "big phallus toxic masculinity" theories but he enjoys the irony of leftist slogans being pronounced by the commodified fortune teller machine!! He is the most hilarious embodiment of Mark Fisher thought. One of the highest points of any games!! I would love if this kind of irony would be used to subvert woke ideas in the sequel, where american woke writers have been recruited 😂
If Chaz/Chop was a reality
When you realize capitalism (private ownership of commerce) isn't corporatism (public ownership of commerce with roots in Fascism through corporate alliance with the state/government) suddenly everything is clear.
Yeah people often conflate them as the same because the majority of people think "Evil CEO has lots of money, money must be the problem. Corporatism is very easily corrupted and used to exploit the poor which people often attribute to capitalism solely. I think of it like saying Communism is the same as Marxism which it isn't, hence why we have different names for it.
Corporatism is the inevitable end result of capitalism, unless you can provide a clear explaination otherwise. If you look at countries that embraced capitalism wholesale like the US and compare them to socialized European counties, you'll see what I mean.
@@MizcSmijd it seems you don't understand the difference between private and public ownership of commerce or the corporation's role in the socialisation method of Fascism.
The idea that Western European countries are socialist because they have some social services such as national healthcare (which doesn't work btw) is utterly absurd. I live in one.
I'm betting you're a young American to believe that claptrap.
@@MizcSmijd all countries in Europe are capitalist, capitalism is a economic system the only way what you said or at least what i think you mean would make any sense would be if "capitalism is when bad things happen"
@@tinygrove7623 All countries are a mix of capitalism, socialism, and some other stuff. Some countries have more capitalism, some have more socialism, some have more other stuff. It goes by degrees.
Capitalism is better than feudalism, but capitalism leads back to a technologically driven feudalism.
Anyone who attempts to "check" it and make it "real capitalism" instead of "crony capitalism" becomes corrupted by it. Capitalism has its benefits but it slowly destroys itself and its host, and reverts back to feudalism. They tried to check it with socialism about a century ago but that failed and that dream has died.
Or, sure, capitalism is when bad things happen. Whatever.
"We fought for beauty. Not knowin' what was good or true, was only the beautiful that meant a damn thing to us." -Johnny Silverhand Cyberpunk 2077
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." -Wilhelm Stekel, psychoanalyst (featured in Ghost in the Shell SAC ep 22)
Johnny silverhand is a more buff keanu reeves?
always has been
@@OzymandiasV2 didn't know, not a gamer
@gcanaday1 ah im just joking then i thought you were joking also. Keanu Reeves does the mocap and character model for Johnny. The tabletop game the video game is based off of has a diff design prob
This video is a pretty good display of how sobering it can be living in a society with corporatism spiralling out of control, where the individual is just another rodent in the large hamster wheel that is such a dystopian future, questioning their own existence in the first place.
This sub genre has managed to be possibly the most cautionary kind of tale about our days moving forward, and is also a good example of how fiction can at times comment on, and even mirror real life events.
good video, thank you mr.ozymandias
any time glad u enjoyed it!
I wonder if you have red a manga called _"Eden: It's An Endless World!"_ one of my favorites from the cyberpunk genre.
It also explores alot of real world themes & complex issues like death, gang violence, prostituion, corruption, war, drug abuse, family, etc.
radicalization is bad, neither radical communism or capitalism benefit the people the way they should.
there should be a balance, with aspects from both ideologies so things to get out of hand, and johnny is just fed up with how far things have gone, and he wants to balance the scales by detonating one side of it
nice vid ozy, i liked the intro
thank you so much ‼️🙏
The old punk movement had some pretty deep roots with anarchist thinking and in some groups still does. So it is not at all contradictory to see anti capitalist messages and cheap shots at Marxists in the same breath.
Cyberpunk 2077 having come out of Poland is also a country that went through the capitalist "shock therapy" hellscape of the 90s.
I'm literally Adam Jensen
he never asked for this.....
@@OzymandiasV2 maybe you should try getting a job
Great content. There is another angel you could look at, Bohemian Values. Silverhand is really on the nose for a disenfranchised Bohemian romantic. ex-rocker, anti-establishment, concerned with poetry and beauty above truth. "Truth and good are values proven to cause division, whereas beauty is universal.” There a hot take in there.
Goated
🫶 love yall
Amazing video comrade ❤
Glad you liked it!
Fax brother, spit your shit indeed. 👏🏼👏🏼
regimer stock up 🪲🌕
@@OzymandiasV2 jokes aside, excellent analysis as always, as is the case with your videos. One more thing I wish was sort of discussed/elaborated upon was the “recent” commodification of the aesthetics of this genre. Although I can see why that would not be in this video as it’s simply about the leftist ideologies present within the genre. As always, loved it, keep up the great work brother.
Johnny is against corpos and the system they operate he's a war vet, angry rockerboy. I fw Johnny. 😂
exactly. people ignore that hes legit cyberPUNK. he doesnt have to overtly state his ideology if hes still anti gov anti cap etc
Ok I gotta tip my hat, Im the exact opposit of a leftist or marxist but this video was unironically very insightfull
Yeah I just want to create a cool cyborg badass
many such cases
It would be the worst society to live in… it’s just an extreme capitalism system that some are (USA) unfortunately unaware they are heading to or already living in
It isn't extreme capitalism, it is the worst combination of leftist policies and neoliberal economics which incentivized corporations to control the government for their benefit. When companies control the entity with the monopoly on force because it is beneficial for them to since the government can regulate and legislate away their competitors they will do so.
It's extreme corporatism. Capitalism is individual economic decision making - When that's not present, what you have is communism or a form of centralized autocracy.
Anyone who attacks capitalism without drawing the distinction between it and corporatism doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
“Capitalism refers to an economic system in which a society's means of production are held by PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND/OR ORGANIZATIONS, NOT the government, and where products, prices, and the distribution of goods are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”
@@OzymandiasV2 that’s cute. Now go look up the definition of corporatism.
Edit - the key difference is already outlined in reference to the FREE MARKET. The consolidation of corporate entities is to directly undermine the free market by removing competition.
@Und34d_R Why don't you look up the SCOTUS Citizens United decision and the definitions of oligarchy and kleptocracy then
@@OzymandiasV2 corporatism is the inverse of fascism and both are the result of centralized government power and a connection between the state and big businesses, while fascism has businesses subservient to the state and it's desires, corporatism has the state subservient to big businesses, both still require a strong central government capable of interfering in the market which is a leftist economic belief, what you wind up with in corporatism is the worst amalgamation of leftist policies in regards to regulation and neoliberal economics which encourages businesses to invest in garnering political favor or down right control of politicians in order to regulate and legislate their dominance in the market. Fascism on the other hand winds up with a more socialist economy where businesses exist at the mercy of the state and fulfill the demands made to them by the state, the only commonality between these and laissez-faire capitalism is private property but they aren't even remotely close in their philosophyical origins, policies or distribution on the spectrum where corporatism and fascism are much father left wing than neoliberal or laissez-faire capitalism.
I think it's worth mentioning that games like World War Z kinda filled the gap that L4D left. Me and my friends still pay WWZ and don't want to switch it up.
Great video, its really interesting how all of the cyberpunk genre bundles 3 dichotomy, capitalism vs socialism, centralization vs decentralization and traditionalism vs trans humanism. this is why these games are not only popular among left wing politics but everyone who has some political bone to pick. libertarians (left or right) will point how society seems to be more and more centralized in hands of the few if it be a mix of corporate and state actors. conservatives will point to the lost of traditional morality to trans-humanist hedonist that dissolves social unity. These 3 dichotomy in cyberpunk genre really are the exaggerated problems of today ever increasing corpo/government control, the market ever intruding on everything and one, technological progression outpacing morality and ethics.
The nomads in cyberpunk the game represents the synthesis of all these opposition being anti-corpo, freedom loving and valuing family and social unity.
Whats really interesting though is what not included as problem in the cyberpunk genre. As expressed in the video intersectionality seems to be problem that does not exist as the material which make up these differences can be altered invalidating their important. here the liberal vision of the cosmopolitan citizen has won out. The decoupling of identity and essence has resulted in this.
anyway these be my 2cents.
4:16 My landlord is renting the apartment from someone who owns it, and is charging me and a flatmate 1300 dollars a month, to rent a two bedroom apartment that's dilapidated, and the person he's renting from legally isnt allowed to rent it out for more than 400-500 tops.
Tell me why i should be paying him, instead of the actual owner of the building.
Tell me what service he provides me thats worth such a ridiculous profit margin for literally no effort.
New sub! Great fn content my man!
Thank you so much for the sub! Going to do a vid on sex tourism and passport bros next!
is it worrying that i get goosebumps from jhonnies speech?
so unbelievably based
thank you! 🫶
Holy shit! Talk about lack of media literacy lol
for me or people who think cp doesnt have leftist/progressive ideas as its base?
@@OzymandiasV2 careful with using "c.p" as an acronym. youtube doesn't like that.
"officer k has no friends but his ai girlfriend, like a lot of you" ZING!
in the US the CORPOS are buying houses and the house prices GOES to the MOON!
what filter did you use for bladerunner? it felt like a game than a movie.
You’re so right‼️‼️‼️
a regime classic!
serious question
do you believe we live in a spiritual world
and also do you think the world will come to an end
i think theres most likely a supernatural/unseen element of reality but i dont thino the world will come to an end anytime soon due to that. If anything a nuclear apocalypse or the gradual depletion of our planet will happen first
I would really like an evolution of cyberpunk as a genre. The fact that marx existed in a lot of these universes, and a heavily armed and militant proletariat exist, but theres no organized communist insurrections shows a lack of imagination. Marxist revolutionaries grow in numbers, strength and capability in direct proportion to how bad things get for everyday people. Irl America still has treats and such and is the imperial core so we dont have strong revolutionaries, but a crime ridden hellhole like Night City, which is exactly what rural conservatives think all urban centers are now, would have full blown vanguards seizing Arasaka properties, sabotaging their production lines and blowing up MaxTac offices and going after their officials in their homes. You have a decent chance of getting killed on any given day in NC, its a war zone. War disrupts the consumerism lifestyle, people wouldnt just be chillin in that situation. A real cyberpunk dystopia would crumble under its own brutality and plunge into civil war and revolution in no time flat.
I think OG cyberpunk has said most of what it can say (ie capitalist realism), and until it moves to Revolutionary Cyberpunk it can't do much as a genre
"Blowing up MaxTac officers"
Lmao loser.
Make no mistake, we're almost there unless we channel our inner Jhonny Silverhand.
And that comes from a guy that used to be and still is at times a pro order guy
Blame would’ve been a another great example.
i havent finished it unfortunately but had a phase where i read it. would prob be a bit complicated to explain the plot
Honestly very frustrating to see your ideas about Corporatism and Consumerism stuffed under the umbrella term of Capitalism
Ah yes, remember when soviet citizens were chasing the latest brand™ during 80's-90's
PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE do a part 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASEEEEEeeeee