Diary.03: The History of the Fall of Rapture and Class Struggle

Rapture, an Art Deco metropolis submerged beneath the unforgiving depths of the North Atlantic. Illuminating the dark ocean through glass capable of withstanding immense water pressure with its neon signs, and echoing with the frantic melodies of jazz, this city was the ultimate capitalist utopia built upon the intense vision of a single man: Andrew Ryan. It was a sanctuary for “exceptional individuals” who had fled the socialist oppression of the Soviet Union and the New Deal-style welfare statism of the United States during the Cold War era of the 1950s. It was meant to be a utopia that perfectly embodied Ayn Rand’s “Objectivism” and “Rational Egoism.”

However, this closed ecosystem, which eliminated the “Parasite” of the state and relied solely on the competitive principles of a completely free market, transformed into a stage for blood-soaked civil war and madness. This essay aims to unravel the historical trajectory that inevitably led this underwater city to its collapse, as well as the underlying depths of the “class struggle” that lay at its core. Based on the audio diaries left in the game space, the environmental storytelling presented through corpses, and the circumstantial evidence indicating the bankruptcy of its ideology, this text will strictly distinguish between explicit “facts” and inferred “analyses.” In doing so, it will exhaustively describe the process by which a society self-destructs due to its own contradictions, employing a logical and literary tone.

1. The Curse of Objectivism and the Inevitable Birth of the Working Class

The founding philosophy of Rapture was underpinned by the economic and social metaphor of “The Great Chain.” This ideology, which posited that free market competition and the selfish pursuit of individuals would ultimately elevate society as a whole, thoroughly rejected government intervention in the market and social security systems for the poor as “the vice of parasitizing the labor of others.” However, a fatal structural pitfall existed within the premise of absolute meritocracy and free competition.

1.1 Factual Context: The Maldistribution of Wealth and the “Iron Chain”

In-game audio logs indicate that after the foundational construction of Rapture was completed, the city’s expansion came to a halt. Countless workers who had been engaged in building the massive skyscrapers and infrastructure fell into massive unemployment the moment the city was finished, leaving them with nowhere to go. The harsh reality they faced is recorded in the audio diary “Meeting Fontaine” by Peach Wilkins, a representative of the working class who later descended into becoming a smuggler. “We all thought we’d come down here and be part of Ryan’s Great Chain. But Ryan’s chain is made of gold, and ours was a giant iron ball chained to our ankles.” Furthermore, he denounces the status quo where Andrew Ryan indulges in the pleasures of the privileged class in the luxurious spaces of Fort Frolic, while the working class is forced into an exploited existence, merely “gutting fish” in the abysmal conditions of the lowest levels.

1.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: The Dead End for Losers in a Closed Space

Analytically speaking, the class struggle in Rapture was already guaranteed by the structural flaws of Objectivist philosophy long before the madness brought about by the genetic modification substance known as ADAM began to spread. In the capitalist societies of the surface world, economic losers still have the option to migrate to other cities or rely on minimal state-provided relief measures (safety nets). However, in a closed ecosystem and finite space thousands of meters beneath the sea, if the economic winners (capitalists) monopolize the wealth, the losers (workers) literally have nowhere to escape.

The facade that everyone was a “chosen, exceptional individual” merely concealed the cruel reality that, conversely, “no matter how much of a genius one might be, losing the competition could reduce them to bottom-tier labor as a plumber or fish gutter just to earn tomorrow’s bread.” Andrew Ryan’s “Objectivism” functioned to justify the psychology of the successful and validate their arrogance, but it intentionally eliminated the safety valves needed to absorb the physical starvation and despair of those inevitably forced to form the lowest stratum of society.

2. The Rampancy of Smuggling and the Creation of “Inevitable Sin”

Despite championing a completely free market, Andrew Ryan, in order to preserve the purity of the city of Rapture, harbored an extreme fear of contact with the surface world and strictly prohibited the importation of goods from the outside. However, human desire could not be contained within an ideological framework.

2.1 Factual Context: The Criminalization of Ordinary Citizens

The demand for cultural luxuries from the surface (such as Bibles, specific brands of cigarettes, and music) never vanished, inevitably forming a black market of smuggling. According to the audio diary “Smuggling Ring” by Sullivan, the chief of police, those involved in smuggling were not “bloodthirsty outlaws,” but rather ordinary citizens like “poets, artists, and tennis players.” In response, Andrew Ryan declared in audio diaries such as “Death Penalty in Rapture” or “Smuggling is a Crime” that “any action against smugglers is justified” and that “hanging a few necks is a small price to pay to protect the ideals of Rapture from the Parasites of the surface,” thereby introducing the death penalty for smugglers.

2.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: The Self-Contradiction of the Free Market

The existence of this smuggling and the extreme suppression of it can be inferred as the first decisive moment when Andrew Ryan’s ideology was defeated by the reality of human psychology. The act of violently suppressing the pure “demand” of the citizens (the law of supply and demand) with what amounted to state power (police force), while simultaneously advocating for a free market, was nothing less than a self-contradiction that destroyed the very foundation of The Great Chain.

Analytically, at this stage, Andrew Ryan’s psychology had transformed from a “philosophical creator embodying an ideal” into a “tyrant desperate to maintain his own myth.” He attempted to handle the tears in his flawless system not as structural defects, but as the “moral degradation of the citizens.” This perfectly mirrors the structure of the reign of terror in totalitarian states like the Soviet Union during the 1950s Cold War, where systemic flaws were concealed through the purging of “traitors.” By sending ordinary citizens to the gallows, Andrew Ryan himself turned the cracks between the classes into a definitive rupture.

3. Subjugation in the Name of Charity: The Rise of Frank Fontaine and Behaviorist Control

The ultimate egoist, Frank Fontaine, capitalized on the void left where the free market abandoned the poor and Andrew Ryan’s police force oppressed them. He astutely perceived the inherent class disparities within Rapture and weaponized them to expand his own power.

3.1 Factual Context: Conscription Disguised as Welfare

According to the audio diary “Rapture Changing” by Bill McDonagh, a friend of Andrew Ryan and a member of the Central Council, Frank Fontaine established “Fontaine’s Home for the Poor.” While ostensibly running a charity, he was actually operating it as a “recruiting center” to corral the destitute into becoming his own soldiers (Splicers). Bill McDonagh was deeply concerned by this situation and warned that Frank Fontaine was organizing an army of Splicers funded by the profits from ADAM. However, Andrew Ryan clung to his free-market ideology and refused to intervene. Believing that market principles would solve everything, Andrew Ryan dismissed businessmen seeking relief by telling them to “Offer a better product,” and stated, “If our ideology is not tested, what is the point?“

3.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: Mind Control and Pavlov’s Dogs

In Objectivism, “Altruism” is considered a vice. However, upon analysis, the charity provided by Frank Fontaine was not Altruism, but rather an extremely cold-blooded “Conditioning” based on the Behaviorism that had culminated in the 1950s. By providing the poor with free housing, food, and above all, the highly addictive genetically modifying substance ADAM, he completely seized the power of life and death over them.

The destitute had their repressed class ressentiment (resentment toward the strong) replaced by a fanatical loyalty to Frank Fontaine, a “pseudo-savior.” While Andrew Ryan blindly trusted the “Invisible Hand” of the market and maintained a stance of non-interference from on high, Frank Fontaine applied “mind control” to the masses, exploiting the biochemical dependency of ADAM and the physical starvation of poverty, thereby converting the energy of the class struggle into a resource for his private army. This was the embodiment of the fear of brainwashing during the Cold War era.

4. The Death of Ideology and the Usurpation of Power: The Seizure of Fontaine Futuristics

The conflict between Andrew Ryan’s security forces and Frank Fontaine over smuggling eventually escalated into an armed clash. This event was a decisive turning point in Rapture’s class struggle, and simultaneously the moment Andrew Ryan delivered the death blow to his own philosophy.

4.1 Factual Context: The Ultimate Taboo of Nationalization

Under the command of Sullivan and Bill McDonagh, a massive shootout occurred between the security forces and Frank Fontaine’s smuggling ring. According to Bill McDonagh’s audio diary “Guns Blazing,” instead of being arrested, Frank Fontaine resisted by firing wildly “like John Wayne” and was killed (or so the official records of the time stated). However, the real problem arose afterward. Following Frank Fontaine’s death, Andrew Ryan completely seized (nationalized) his company, “Fontaine Futuristics,” claiming it was “for the good of the city” and that he would “break it up eventually.” In response to this act, Bill McDonagh warned that “unless someone stops Ryan fast, this is going to be a war,” and resigned from the Central Council in fierce protest.

4.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: The Irreversible Descent into Dictatorship

Andrew Ryan’s seizure of a private enterprise is a historical fact that signifies the absolute death of Objectivist philosophy. The man who had fled the surface world citing the “absolute protection of individual property rights” and the “rejection of government intervention and the concept of public interest” had confiscated his political rival’s property using the very logic of the Parasite: the “public interest.”

Analytically, Bill McDonagh’s resignation was not merely political opposition, but an expression of profound despair over the end of the myth of Rapture. From the perspective of class struggle, this was the most blatant usurpation of power: the established privileged class (Andrew Ryan) eliminating an emerging capitalist (Frank Fontaine) by force and forcibly monopolizing his wealth and cutting-edge technology (the ADAM industry). There is no doubt that this betrayal ignited the smoldering discontent among the lower classes and became the decisive factor in cementing the perception that “Andrew Ryan is nothing more than a greedy dictator.”

5. The Tragedy of New Year’s Eve 1958: The Kashmir Restaurant Bombing and the Outbreak of Civil War

The extreme tension between the classes finally reached its boiling point on New Year’s Eve 1958, with a gruesome act of terrorism at the “Kashmir Restaurant,” a social hub for Rapture’s highest upper class. This incident marked the official outbreak of the blood-soaked “Rapture Civil War.”

5.1 Factual Context: A Blood-Stained Masquerade

On December 31, 1958, a lavish masquerade ball was being held at the Kashmir Restaurant to celebrate the new year of 1959. This was an exclusive social venue where Rapture’s wealthy elite enjoyed elegant dining. Andrew Ryan was scheduled to attend with his mistress, Diane McClintock, but he was absent, citing business in Hephaestus. Diane McClintock’s audio diary “New Year’s Eve Alone” records her drinking by herself and self-deprecatingly calling herself “the biggest fool in Rapture” for falling in love with Andrew Ryan. Immediately after, alongside a tremendous explosion, the shouts of rioters (Splicers) echoed: “Viva Atlas!” and “Death to Ryan!” Diane McClintock murmured, “What’s happening… I’m bleeding…”, and she herself suffered severe facial injuries from a brutal assault. The rioters had planted a bomb on the “statue of Atlas” located in the center of the restaurant, stormed in armed with guns and Plasmids, and indiscriminately slaughtered the privileged guests.

5.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: The Symbolic Release of Ressentiment

The bombing of the Kashmir Restaurant encapsulates a profound class-based and symbolic significance that transcends mere terrorism. Synthesizing the facts and circumstances leads to the following psychological and ideological analysis.

First is the choice of space. The Kashmir Restaurant was a symbol of the prosperity and indolence of the upper class. Into this closed space, where those with money and power sipped champagne amidst luxurious Art Deco decorations, the lower class—whose brains had been eroded by ADAM and who had been forced into hard labor in sewers and fish factories—violently intruded. This is a physical manifestation of class struggle, equivalent to the Storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution or the Storming of the Winter Palace in the Russian Revolution.

Second is the symbolic act of bombing the “statue of Atlas.” In Ayn Rand’s magnum opus, “Atlas Shrugged,” Atlas is a metaphor for the exceptional individuals (capitalists and creators) who support the world (the economy). By blowing up this idol of capitalism that Andrew Ryan held sacred, the rioters clearly demonstrated their intent to shatter and reject Andrew Ryan’s philosophy itself. Furthermore, the fact that the mysterious figure elevated as the new leader of the lower class after Frank Fontaine’s death called himself “Atlas” suggests that this rebellion was based on highly sophisticated psychological manipulation and irony.

6. The Darkness of Apollo Square: From Citizens to Rioters, and the Consumed Proletariat

Once the civil war broke out, Rapture’s class structure completely collapsed, plunging into an era of pure struggle for survival and rule by violence. The most tragic scenes of this unfolded in “Apollo Square,” the residential district of the working class, which became a de facto ghetto (internment camp) for the rebel forces led by Atlas.

6.1 Factual Context: The Normalization of Death and the Reign of Terror

After being injured at the Kashmir Restaurant and subsequently abandoned by Andrew Ryan due to her facial scars, Diane McClintock headed alone to the slum-ridden Apollo Square, meticulously recording the atrocities unfolding there. Her audio diary “What’s Happening Here?” documents the fact that Andrew Ryan’s security forces mercilessly burned to death an unarmed woman trying to escape over a fence. Moreover, spray-painted graffiti reading “Atlas Lives” covered the square, and an abnormal situation was progressing where citizens would walk past corpses lying in the street, ignoring them as if they were merely part of the scenery. Furthermore, Diane McClintock finally met the rebel leader Atlas himself (“Meeting Atlas”). Atlas reportedly told her, “I am no liberator. Liberators do not exist. These people will liberate themselves.” Diane McClintock was deeply moved by these words and resolved to throw herself into Atlas’s forces to seek revenge against Andrew Ryan. In the audio diary “Today’s Raid,” it is recorded that she participated in an operation to ambush a Big Daddy and brutally harvest ADAM from a Little Sister, expressing excitement that she “can’t wait to tell Atlas,” even after losing comrades.

6.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: Propaganda and the Death of Empathy

The horrific conditions in Apollo Square present the psychological regression of the masses in extreme situations and the cruel consequences of the power structure.

Analytically, the indiscriminate executions by Andrew Ryan’s security forces (such as burning a woman to death) go far beyond the level of maintaining order or deterrence; they are the panic reactions of a dictatorial regime that has already lost its capacity to govern. By redefining the rebels not as “humans” but as “Parasites,” Andrew Ryan completely stripped them of their humanity, psychologically justifying his own atrocities.

On the other hand, Atlas’s words, “These people will liberate themselves,” sound like the lines of a noble revolutionary respecting the self-determination of the proletariat (working class). However, synthesizing the underlying context reveals that this was extremely malicious propaganda (mass manipulation). Atlas was not granting the citizens true freedom; he was merely stoking their hatred for Andrew Ryan and treating the madness induced by ADAM withdrawal as a disposable “suicide-bomber-like weapon.” Diane McClintock’s transformation from an upper-class lady into a crazed terrorist proves the terrifying effectiveness of this mind control.

The sight of citizens indifferent to corpses rolling in the streets indicates that human “empathy” had been completely paralyzed by extreme stress, dependence on ADAM, and a constant environment of violence. Here, the class struggle as an ideology had died out, and only the “animalistic instinct to survive” prowled in the darkness.

7. The “Denial of Mistakes” and the Descent into Madness: Andrew Ryan’s Cognitive Dissonance

As the civil war bogged down and he witnessed his utopia sinking into a sea of rubble and blood, Andrew Ryan’s psychological transformation became vividly apparent in environmental records and his own statements. He refused to face reality, descending into a delusional despot.

7.1 Factual Context: The Denial of Free Will and Mind Control

In Andrew Ryan’s audio diary “Mistakes,” he repeatedly questions himself. “Did I make a mistake? A man led by doubt cannot build a city. Is it possible to rule under absolute certainty? I know that my beliefs have elevated me.” However, while confronted with the reality that his city was collapsing, he ultimately concluded, “Atlas is trying to destroy me and my city. To question is to surrender. I will not question,” thereby abandoning all self-criticism. As an even more decisive fact, in the final stages of the civil war, Andrew Ryan committed the atrocity of dispersing mind-controlling “Pheromones” through Rapture’s air circulation system in order to completely strip the Splicers of their free will and force absolute obedience to himself.

7.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: The Reversal into Dystopia

As an inference based on the facts, Andrew Ryan had fallen into severe cognitive dissonance (psychological stress caused by the intense contradiction between his beliefs and objective reality) at this point. The “great Objectivism” he harbored had, in reality, produced countless corpses and madmen. To resolve this massive contradiction, rather than admitting the “flaws in his own theory,” he escaped into an extreme dualism, blaming it on “external invasion (Atlas) and the Parasite called doubt.”

The use of mind-controlling pheromones meant that he had buried the most sacred premise of Objectivism—“individual choice and free will”—with his own hands. The creator who once preached, “A man chooses, a slave obeys,” transformed all citizens into chemical slaves in order to maintain his power. Beginning with Eugenics-like self-affirmation, it ultimately devolved into the worst form of Behaviorism, hacking the neural pathways of the masses. This perfectly demonstrates the process by which extreme individualism ironically reverses into the most thoroughgoing totalitarian dystopia.

8. The Gallery of Corpses: The Limits of the Individual and the Triumph of Structural Violence

The collapse of Rapture and the class struggle mercilessly swallowed up not only nameless workers but also the “exceptional individuals” who had once believed in Andrew Ryan’s ideals and sought to embody them. The display of corpses known as the “Trophy Wall,” adorned outside Andrew Ryan’s office leading to Rapture Central Control in Hephaestus, symbolizes the ultimate conclusion of this struggle.

8.1 Factual Context: The Gruesome Fate of Patriots

On this wall, the bodies of those who attempted to assassinate Andrew Ryan, who had become a tyrant, are hung as a warning. Among them are Anya Andersdotter and Bill McDonagh. Anya Andersdotter was a female shoe designer in Rapture and a single mother. She originally believed deeply in Andrew Ryan and the ideals of Rapture, but as the city collapsed due to the civil war, she grew disillusioned watching Andrew Ryan abandon the ideals of The Great Chain to cling to mere power, and she became a self-taught assassin. Her audio diaries, “Going to Heat Loss” and “The Assassin,” record her obsession with taking down Andrew Ryan, even sacrificing her own body to extract information, but ultimately she was captured and hung on the wall. Furthermore, Bill McDonagh, Andrew Ryan’s first sympathizer who rose from a sewer plumber to the Central Council on sheer merit, also met a tragic end. In his audio diary “Stopping Ryan,” he speaks of his heartbreaking resolve: “I never killed a man. Let alone a friend. But as long as Mr. Ryan breathes, this war won’t end. I love Mr. Ryan. But I love Rapture. If I have to kill one to save the other, so be it.” However, he too failed in his assassination attempt and became part of the wall.

8.2 Analysis and Ideological Background: The Absolute Death of Humanity and Myth

The analysis derived from the microscopic evidence of the manner of Anya Andersdotter’s and Bill McDonagh’s deaths is the desperate asymmetry between individual goodwill or will and a runaway ideological structure. Anya Andersdotter transformed from a “designer” into an “assassin.” This illustrates the tragedy of a citizen who had achieved self-actualization within the capitalist labor structure being forced to exercise violence with her own hands due to the environmental collapse of the city. Her existence proves that when an ideology runs rampant, the most capable citizens become the greatest threat to the regime. On the other hand, Bill McDonagh’s decision is a “clash between love and public duty” akin to an ancient Greek tragedy. Despite his working-class origins, he was a man who understood and embodied Andrew Ryan’s true ideal of “working not for profit, but for pride” better than anyone else. However, when Andrew Ryan himself, the creator of that ideal, turned into a power-hungry monster, Bill McDonagh chose “Rapture as a concept (the hope for freedom)” over “Andrew Ryan as a human friend.” The fact that Andrew Ryan hung their corpses on the wall demonstrates his complete regression into a medieval despot. It is proof of Andrew Ryan’s psychological defeat, as he could no longer maintain order through modern law or market principles, but only through the visual display of fear and death. The madness of displaying even his best friend’s corpse as a “trophy” for self-justification announced that the soul of Rapture had completely perished.

9. The Tombstone of Capitalism Sinking to the Seabed and the Wandering of Slaves

The class struggle that unfolded in the maddening Art Deco city of Rapture can never be fully explained by the simple binary opposition of wealthy capitalists and poor workers depicted in classical Marxism. It is the history of the failure of a massive social experiment that forcibly attempted to apply the cold, mathematical philosophies of “Objectivism” and “Rational Egoism” to the uncontrollable, messy variable known as “human nature.”

Andrew Ryan dreamed of a paradise for exceptional individuals, liberated from the Parasite of the state. However, in order to physically maintain the massive urban infrastructure capable of withstanding the extreme pressure of the deep sea, an “invisible mass” destined to support the bottom of that infrastructure and have their labor exploited in abysmal conditions was absolutely necessary. The advent of the genetic modification technology known as ADAM visualized this physical difference between classes as “biochemical monsterization (mutation into Splicers),” dramatically accelerating the speed of society’s collapse. Yet, even if ADAM had not existed, the despair of the workers, who had no outlet for their grievances, would inevitably have sparked riots and civil war in another form.

The emergence of Frank Fontaine (Atlas) brilliantly exploited the fatal weakness of this system. Against Andrew Ryan, who was intoxicated by the illusion of a sublime ideology, he challenged with a Behaviorist approach that thoroughly manipulated humanity’s most vulgar and fundamental desires: appetite, drug addiction, and envy of others. The masses were not granted freedom by Atlas; they were merely bound by a different kind of chain—namely, dependence on ADAM and fanatical class hatred. It is the ultimate irony in the history of class struggle that the man who called himself a liberator actually despised the masses more than anyone else and viewed them only as expendable ammunition.

Ultimately, unable to bear watching “The Great Chain” he had forged strangle his own neck, Andrew Ryan cast aside the principles of the free market and escaped into the worst kind of reign of terror: a violent death penalty system, the authoritarian seizure of corporations, and mind-controlling pheromones. The corpse of his best friend, Bill McDonagh, hung on the cold metal walls of Hephaestus, silently and cruelly tells the tale that the original brilliance of Objectivism (individual dignity and proud labor) was brutally murdered by the hands of its very founder.

The explosion that echoed through the Kashmir Restaurant on New Year’s Eve 1958 was the starting gun announcing the end of a myth. The countless drops of blood subsequently spilled on the cold cobblestones of Apollo Square led to no one’s salvation; they are merely carved as an eternal epitaph at the bottom of the dark, cold Atlantic, proving human arrogance and the defeat of ideology. The class struggle in Rapture did not end with the victory of the working class, but reached its conclusion as the completion of the most gruesome dystopia: grotesque slaves, stripped of all humanity and reason, wandering eternally through the ruins of a former utopia. The underwater city continues to sink quietly into the abyss of the sea, which crushes ideology itself.