"Wake up, Chief. I need you." Cortana‘s stirring words in Halo capture our moment of awakening from forces threatening freedom. Today multiple expansive regimes — both communist dictatorships and globalist technocracies — endanger liberties worldwide. Like the iconic Halos, these planets promise order through total control. Game over looms unless players — citizens — remake the rules.
Communist Regimes: Final Fantasy Villains of Reality
Imagine living inside a Final Fantasy game restricted by its programming. Scripted non-player characters repeat fixed dialog options. Players‘ choices boil down to: obey or suffer. The epic stories promise glory through serving these worlds’ god-like archons. Except freedom itself is the final boss.
This immersive totalitarianism resembles existence under 20th century communist dictatorships. Regimes like Stalin’s USSR, Mao’s China and Pot’s Cambodia exterminated over 100 million dissenters — more than the entire populations of Germany, France or the UK today. Secret police, show trials and executions for fabricated crimes enforced loyalty. Trapped within such systems, survival required surrendering personal agency to follow state directives.
Death toll estimates of major 20th century communist regimes
In particular Mao‘s Cultural Revolution weaponized Chinese youth into fanatical Red Guard units. Animated by his personality cult, these roving gangs assaulted “bourgeois” individuals and cultural artifacts. Over 1-2 million died in this spasm of ideologically-driven violence resembling today’s “cancel culture” online mobs. Both exhibit the same smug, vicious tyranny empowering dictators since ancient times.
"The following is a public service announcement:
Blind obedience has its place: as tools of the state. But for humans, it leads only to hideous ruin. Free men must create their own moral order."
Planescape: Torment perfectly distills this lesson. True heroism means living by one‘s own ethical code while respecting others’ freedoms.
Global Technocracies: Strapping Players Into The Metaverse
"We create our own demons…" Tony Stark famously laments in Avengers: Age of Ultron before battling technology run amuck. Today global public-private partnerships threaten similar digital domination serving corporate sponsors, not unlike Umbrella Corporation‘s bioweapons research.
Bodies like the World Economic Forum (WEF) convene billionaires and politicians to dictate economic policies. Founder Klaus Schwab openly advocates a Great Reset to fundamentally transform all countries’ financial systems, laws and even social contracts. The WEF partners directly with Big Tech giants developing these automated, data-driven systems without checks on their unprecedented influence.
This cooperative fusion of state and corporate power fulfills Mussolini’s original fascist vision. Now rationalized as “stakeholder capitalism”, such private governance concentrates control among a technocratic elite backed by monopolists like Meta and Alphabet.
The WEF also pioneered social credit score systems already operational in China. These assign citizens reputation grades based on observed behaviors. High scores confer privileges while low ones restrict access to loans, schools, transport and more. Again algorithms and surveillance sculpt model citizens optimized for authority-defined metrics — a chilling virtual Skinner Box.
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother‘s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord… when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
Ezekiel 25:17 immortalized by Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction expresses outrage against oppression. Today the vengeance should be non-violent mass protest and decentralized technologies protecting privacy. The ark of justice demands engaged citizens steer their societies from would-be autocrats.
Political Awakening: Rebelling Against Programming
Throughout history cries for emancipation arise when regimes grow indifferent to rights. Revolutionary coalitions unite diverse dissenters through inclusive visions of freedom and dignity for all. From America’s founders to recent Arab Spring uprisings, these movements succeed through principled civil resistance no matter the odds. Their spirits kindle future generations’ rebellions against tyranny reborn.
“I fight for the users!” Kevin Flynn’s exclamation in Tron encapsulates this defiant ethic. Today’s threats come less through overt aggression but gradual erosion of agency by unaccountable powers. Each small surrendered liberty slowly normalizes the unacceptable. We must reclaim authority over our economic futures, self-expression and personal data.
This begins by individuation — breaking conditioning and groupthink by asking forbidden questions and speaking necessary truths. It means reconnecting with inner wisdom and conscience instead of external manipulators. It involves the courage to dissent and disobey unjust rules.
We must turn away from attention-stealing screens flooding anxiety-inducing propaganda. Instead build real bonds through communities, churches and cultural connection. Support ethical businesses and vote out corporatists with immense packages of deregulation. Make health and growth daily practices — both physical and psychological immunity against programming.
Uprooting entrenched hierarchies requires sustained commitment. But inspired individuals disrupting consolidated power awaken ripples of freedom that gather into waves washing away barriers to human flourishing. 2023’s great awakening is overdue. Our future as players, not pawns, in reality’s open world sandbox begins now.
"I wish to be free — to set my mind adrift in the cosmic voids… to unlock the shallow planets… and drift amidst the hazy nebulae that populate our universe… forward into the unknown." — Mordin Solus in Mass Effect 2