I'm not much of a gamer anymore but one of my favorite game series is Half Life and especially the

sequel to the original. In HL² the player is confronted with a dystopian world in the near future. A
world conquered by a conglomerate from another dimension, adequately called "The Combine" by
the suppressed but officially christened the "Universal Union". They have settled their reign on Earth
and seek to assimilate the human race into their ranks by non-stop propagating that the differences
between them and us are easily set aside by just giving up our humanity. Transhumanism being our
solace, we will be no longer plagued by the supposed evil that is "instinct". It requires to be
collectively expunged, therefore it's every citizen his/her duty to urge everyone to conform to this
new world.

<img src="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.kilgour1/Half-Life2-Screenshot1.jpeg" alt=""

width="501" height="375" />

( HL² is located in and around City 17 )

The "Universal Union" is a multi-racial empire with the "Advisors" on top of the hierarchy, an
oligarchy of those who embody the ideal of leaving behind their animal body and who have fused
with technology. All the other races constitute the armies of the empire, as they too have fallen prey
to the jaws of Combine indoctrination and occupation. The empire encompasses worlds that "can't
even be described by the human vocabulary", as one of their henchmen puts it. Maybe
transhumanity can grasp it, but surely the uninitiated humans are left to wonder in ignorance.

Already the Combine have taken care of all the crisis of the 21sth century ; for example the ecological
issue that troubled the minds of young and old alike. Here, nature blooms again, only a handful of
enclosed metropolises remain. They are fortresses and prisons at the same time for the townsmen, a
sort of apartheid from nature installed by the Combine that renders man lifeless, the organic bond
has been broken.

Demography, a modern issue from the 19th century onwards, starting with Malthus, is no longer a
concern. Population has dropped worldwide to only a sustainable number of hundreds of millions,
but no billions. Most of them live in the already mentioned cities, wearing Maoist-like suits that
express their uniformity. Only a few of them, namely the resistance, have entrenched themselves in
the mountains, the forests and the coasts. They are rediscovering instinct by living amongst the
elements, but fight a futile skirmish with the empire that occasionally sends armed forces to hunt
them down, one by one.

<img src="http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/3qekwxh18g0ry/y4ur95/halflife2citadel.jpg" alt=""

width="451" height="851" />

( The Citadel )
In the very centre of every city there's a Citadel, a building that's the base of operations of the
political, social, economical and cultural elite. It represents the presence of the empire around which
everyone and everything revolves, a church as it were for the new doctrine. But the curious thing
about the complex of Citadels is that they radiate a "suppression field" that makes humanity infertile.
Only if man accepts the doctrine without remorse, the suppression field will be turned off and they
can copulate once more to breed again.

Or so is the promise, but it is only to lure them into a world where reproduction through genitals will
be a thing of the past anyway.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1E43vXAipo&amp;hl=nl_NL&amp;fs=1&amp;]

(Slavoj Zizek, philosopher and cultural critic on "Children of Men")

The concept of a sterile world is also present in another dystopian picture of the future, the movie
"Children of Men". It's 2027 and mankind has become collectively infertile, nobody knows how and
why, but everyone continues with their trivial concerns and a hedonistic mindset to lead them.

It's a multicultural postmodern future, where everyone has their own lifestyle and perspective on
things. Mainly because of that it has become a relativistic society where it doesn't matter who one is
or wants to become, because it has become all devoid of importance. In contrast with the nihilistic
majority of the population, only an insignificant number of idealists in the countryside and Muslim
immigrants in the ghetto's still have an urge to fight and die for an ideal that transcends the
pleasures of the flesh.

In “Half Life” there is also “a stranger” that still fights and dies for a truth he still believes in. An alien
race, the Vortigaunts, that has a holistic philosophy on life and call it the “Vortessence”, the fabric of
the universe that connects all and is present in everything, it resembles the concept of Tao. They
seek to harmonize it by destroying the Combine that have imbalanced it. They aren’t dislocated
individuals nor an alienated species. They also have a hive mind, a collective consciousness, that
ensures social cohesion.

Both in "Children of Men" and "Half Life" infertility here is not biological but ideological. It
symbolizes for me the post-ideological phase of modernity with its adherents who Nietzsche called
"The Last Humans", apathetic creatures without passion or commitment. This human, unable to
dream, tired of life, takes no risks, doesn't bring forth anything novel, but only looks for leisure: "We
have invented good luck - say the last humans and blink." Contemporary man finds it difficult to
even imagine a public cause or a universal goal to die for. It has become impossible to even imagine
an alternative. Thus mankind is orientated towards the Citadel, the very core of their infertility but
their only point of reference in their postmodern lives. Instinct in “Half Life” is a code here for the
life-impulse in us that is faith, that gives us purpose, that is the enemy of a post-mortem world that
only aims for the reproduction of itself.

<img src="http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews45/children%20of%20men%20blu-
ray/large/large%20children%20of%20men%20blu-ray4x.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="279" />

( "The Uprising" in Children of Men )

The few that struggle against are taken care of quickly when they take up arms.

The insurrection in "Children of Men" by the end of the movie is referred to as "The Uprising". It only
leads to bloodshed in the streets, no new grounds taken, a fruitless attempt.

Interestingly, the insurrection in HL² is also referred to as "The Uprising". First it's just small scale
guerrilla-fights in the streets, chaos and anarchy that can easily be dealt with by the Combine that
just regroup in the Citadel, ready to give the final blow. The spokesperson for the Combine on Earth,
Dr. Breen, even calls it with a serene voice a "senseless struggle" by "rabble in the streets".

But then something happens that didn't happen in "Children of Men" : the elite turn against
themselves. Dr. Judith Mossman, who seemingly betrayed the resistance, has infiltrated and frees
the main character Gordon Freeman from his captivity. With this support he has no problem to
finish off Breen and his superiors, and with them he destroys the Citadel. This sets of a chain
reaction which destroys all the other Citadels on Earth. Thus suppression field is down, so humanity
can relive and reinvent itself. In the episodes after HL² the Combine elite now has troubles fighting
the revolutionaries, who now hit them with coordinated attacks and close the rift gate that connects
them with their homeworld.

Despite the gruesome end in “Children of Men”, the first child in 19 years is born in this
neighborhood where the rebellion takes place. A new hope for a world that may have a future after
all.

<img
src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NlymWEfzE3Q/Sl9zCEl6VLI/AAAAAAAAAis/FO2Xq6HaIEI/s400/Murd
er+of+Don+Giuseppe+Carafa.jpg" alt="" />

( The revolt of Masaniello, 1647)

What this means is that any revolution from below, without some support from above, is bound to
end up bloody and fruitless. If it lacks organization, it fails. All the sectors of society need to be
involved. No single revolution in the past by the mass has been successful in the long run. Ask
Masaniello.
But to have a revolution, one needs perspective, an ideology. Facts alone won’t do the job.

Before one takes a roadmap, one needs to know where to go. With relativism we can end up
everywhere as tourists, but not as conquerors.