I thought about my own mother, working nights for meager wages doing data entry at a faceless corporate medical lab to support us as we lived paycheck to paycheck just struggling to pay the mortgage on the small Reseda house my grandmother had once lived in alone. ![]() The erosion of Conway’s individual identity is powerfully visualized as he is consumed by his manufactured obligations to the machinery of the capitalist system, first piece by piece and then entirely, and when he sails off with the other spectres who, like him, are now entirely defined by their obligations to the Hard Times Distillery, I couldn’t be angry anymore. And it makes me want to smash the whole fucking thing with a wrecking ball. I think he’s bought in to some of the worst parts of the American mythos. ![]() That’s his job, and there’s something noble, something sacred, about doing the job you’re given to do, even in a world that often offers little reward for good, honest work.” But now that I see that the endpoint to this mindset for Conway is a willingness, an eagerness even to have his own identity be wholly consumed by the machinery of the system, I don’t think there’s anything noble about it at all. My review of Act II for GameSpot three years ago began, “Conway delivers antiques. I’ve always appreciated the mindset with which Conway approached his work as a delivery driver for Lysette’s Antiques. Debt is not some righteous fucking burden. Reading Conway say these things–that he’s grateful for the fucking opportunity, that the shame of sudden death is that people haven’t settled up–tapped so effectively into a long-standing anger I holdthat I was caught off guard as the rage erupted inside me. That’s why it’s such a damned shame when people go sudden. Well, I should be grateful for the opportunity - if you want to die with any dignity you’ve got to settle up. What makes Kentucky Route Zero’s concerns with labor and debt so heartbreaking to me is the way in which Conway, finding himself later in life with a massive new financial burden and employment obligation, buys into his own exploitation by the system as part of something just and noble.ĬONWAY: I’ve got to repay my debt. But at least I’m keeping some part of it human, right? Even if it’s not the best part. POPPY: I mourn the Echo River Central Exchange, and I’ll carry a torch for the voice with a smile. This is part of why millennials are right to be angry and scared. ![]() This is part of the crisis we find ourselves in now. It acknowledges that entire livelihoods are being wiped out by corporations and advances in technology. SIGN: WE CLAIM THESE HELMETS IN THE NAMES OF THE FOLKS WHO WORE THEM AND WE PLACE THEM HERE IN THEIR MEMORY BUT ALSO AS A SPIT IN THE GREEDY GREEN EYE OF THAT POWER COMPANY WHO BOUGHT UP OUR OLD MINE AND TRADED OUR BROTHERS’ AND SISTERS’ SAFETY FOR A LITTLE MORE YIELD BUT ONLY YIELDED TWENTY-EIGHT GOOD MEN AND WOMEN DEAD WHEN THE WALLS COLLAPSED AND THE TUNNELS FLOODED WITH WATER It acknowledges that capitalism chews people up and spits them out. It seems especially relevant right now, as a demagogue appeals to the anger of those for whom neoliberalism has bottomed out, because it confronts the predatory nature of American capitalism. I grieve for this country and Kentucky Route Zero helps me do that. I’ve been waiting for it for over two years but perhaps it’s fitting that it came out the same week as the Republican National Convention, at a time when I have been feeling particularly afraid and America has seemed particularly adrift. Act IV of Kentucky Route Zerofinally, finally came out this week.
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