Of modern culture, power fantasies & Far cry 3

This article is based on my interpretation of the story in Far cry 3. If you haven't played the game yet, stop reading. Massive spoilers ahead.

A serene blue lake. Quiet & peaceful, water flowing around smoothly. The sunbeams pour through the windy trees. I was on a mission, just passing through. But I stopped the car & stared at the scenery for a while, trying to soak it all in. A pack of deers were roaming around peacefully. Pretty as a picture. Suddenly, the deers started running. Looking at the opposite direction, I knew why. A Tiger has come across this place. Before I could do anything, the Tiger pounced on a fleeing deer & killed it. I returned to my car & kept moving toward my destination. “Nature of the predator”----I thought while driving.

Suddenly a thought jumped on me---”what's the difference between those animals & the protagonist of Far cry 3 or in a larger scale, our society? Was there any?” Then I realized, we're very much alike. Sure, those animals live in a jungle that we don't cause we won't fit in there. But instead we've created our very own jungle. The urban jungle. Where everyday the brute & the cunning preys on the weak & the timid. Just as an animal's primary concern is to survive in the jungle amidst fierce competition for food from other species, we humans in the urban jungle is also focused on being one step ahead than the others around us. Society rewards us for it just as the merciless jungle rewards the fiercest.

Mankind's greatest gift is to be able to think & act as one species, not just as individuals. That's why many scientists spend their lives trying to find a cure for a disease that they aren't personally affected with. Freedom fighters across the human history give their lives so that the succeeding generations can be free. The ability to co-operate with each other has enabled us not only to survive but to thrive across millenniums.

When this gets taken away from humans, all that remains is a highly intelligent animal. An animal that excels in taking care of itself, always being one step ahead of others around him & conquering what it wants.

Our modern culture is excessively focused on competition, not co-operation. The co-operative psyche is tried to root out from the children at a very early age or condition themselves in an environment for a long time where competing & getting ahead others is rewarded. Competition is in the very backbone of our education system. Our culture is extremely focused on the accomplishments & celebration of an individual, not of a community. Young generations almost everywhere feels a terrible pressure of the culture to succeed, to worship what everyone else does.

Along with those is a massive hunger to idolize. In our pop culture, idols are everywhere. We got music idols, sports idols, fashion idols & our very own reality shows to make seasonal idols everywhere. 'Being Special' is the key. Following the latest trends & fads is the order of the day. Society loves to make winners out of everything & worship them frivolously.

The nature of competition is to get ahead of others. And when we do that, the academic world rewards us in a form of achievement. That achievement can be a degree, a job, a promotion or essentially a more dominant place in society. The cost or the expense is not shown. Just as killing in Far cry 3, with each kill the player is rewarded with points that further his progression in the skill tree. Whenever a kill is successful, the flash of the XP gained gets the attention. Indicating the possibility of acquiring that uber-powerful ability or to perform a cool multi-takedown ability. Just as in society, each stepping-over is met with the affirmation of higher progression in the imaginary ladder of success.

The protagonist of Far cry 3, Jason Brody is just another 25 year old from California. Of all the animals he hunts & the people he kills in the game, the biggest prey of them all is he himself. Born, raised & nourished in the culture of instant gratification, Jason believes that some day, something inexplicable will happen & it'll eventually lead him to become the king of the hill. The narcissistic pop culture of selfies & flashy toys made him a believer that his moment of glory lies just a bit further in the near future.

After his friends get kidnapped, Jason slowly becomes obsessed with the mystical 'warrior power' of the jungle. He totally buys the concept that he is indeed a savior fell from the sky to ride the tribal people to glory. Everything that happened in Rook island is just his elaborate fantasy. The power fantasy of a rich adult of California who is a victim of a poisonous dream of an unstoppable action man, who kills bad guys by the truckload & blows stuff up. Who gets to ride all the coolest action set pieces of Hollywood, comes back from impossible odds, gets extreme admiration from a large number of people & finally gets the girl. A cliche ridden, stereotypical 80's action flick.

At a point in the game, he states to his girlfriend that for the first time in his life he feels in control. When the time arrives that he & his friends can leave the island, he chooses to stay & fight alongside the Rakiyats. But his stance didn't come from his care or reverence for the tribal people but from his desire for revenge & to prove his worth as a fierce warrior to the tribals, especially Citra. His reluctance to return to the world further illustrates how deep he has sunk into his power fantasy. In the real world, he is just a nobody with a deep desire to be a somebody. But among the natives of Rook island, he is the fiercest warrior of them all, one who will ride all of them to glory. He is so close to the ever-promised land of the self-gratifying pop culture & there is no way he's letting all that slip past him. That's why killing feels like winning to him.

Further into the game, he is totally confident of his new found 'warrior' skills. He is indestructible & can come back from the dead multiple times. His enemies go even more fantastical & diabolical heights to kill him but in the end, he ends them all. When he finally kills Vaas, the mighty warrior & Hoyt, 'the demon himself', his supremacy is fulfilled. He has conquered it all.

But when you eventually reach the end of a dream, you just have to wake up. Real trouble arises when we master the game of success & finally reach the top of the ladder. Because we eventually turn into what we put ourselves through. And at the top of the pile, what we essentially become is just self-serving fools. Eventually we throw away all our gains or painfully suffocate from the burden of our own excess.

After achieving everything he wanted, Jason's never ending dream of glory finally bites the dust. In both endings of the game, he is left as a defeated man. If he chooses to stop the fantasy, he is left ashamed for all of his actions on the island & if he decides to push through, he dies a horrible death. Karmic justice catches up with him in the end.

The story of Far cry 3 runs much deeper than what's visible on the surface. It takes on the falsities of our pop culture, American imperialism & our disconnection with our actions in Videogames. The irony is that there's a Jason Brody in almost all of us. Submerged in a culture of 'winner-takes-all' & a victim of a false sense of self-worth, the hardest part will be hitting the ground.