If 2020 hasn’t taught you how to spell bourgeois/bourgeoisie on the first try due to sheer repetition, you should really try it out. You’ll probably discover that it’s a very useful word when describing basically everything wrong with America.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is shown through the eyes of Cloud, a pro-capitalist mercenary formerly employed by Shinra, who has just been hired by an anti-capitalist freedom fighter group fighting to save the planet from the Shinra Power Company. Cloud is stuck in a mode Mark Fisher calls capitalist realism. He is trapped in an …
Social stratification exists within Midgar on two dramatically different tiers. The lower class lives on the ground under eight large plates blotting out the sun. Instead of sunlight, the underclass lives under artificial lamps that mimic the sun for the slums where they often lament they have never seen the sky. The air in the …
What about the politics of Midgar itself and its characterization? The first question to ask is whether Midgar has a government. This is a particularly tricky question because, as I remember, the word government was used in the script exactly once and even when the word was used, it wasn’t entirely clear if the character …
One way of looking at both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake is as video games that attempt to answer the question; What if Oil was Magic? The game frames this magical essence, known as “mako,” as the actual lifeblood of a living planet. In doing so it creates a larger metaphor for …
In 1997, I was a politically unaware child… That was also the year the revolutionary Final Fantasy VII was released. It was at least 2000 when I first played it, so I just thought it was cool and edgy as a lot of the deeper themes went straight over my head. Back then, the original …
This is Part One of a fascinating and important interview. Look for Part Two to dive deeper into these serious problems. To fight for real solutions, we must be armed for knowledge.
Bernie Sanders struggles to explain how to pay for his programs. He only does so because we haven’t learned how money actually works.
