The Last Survey shows the apathy of capitalism
Listen to an audio version of this article by becoming a Patreon supporter.
The Last Survey (Nicholas O’Brien, 2020) is an hour-long work of interactive fiction about a meeting with a tech CEO. It takes place entirely within the confines of an office building, the manicured rooms of technocratic luxury, detached from the lives of people who can’t afford skyscraper views. As a geologist you’ve come to deliver the uncomfortable news that current mining practices are unsustainable, unethical; an open secret that nonetheless necessitated extensive research and preparation before the CEO, Victor, would hear anything of it.
I initially planned to start this piece with some backstory on the state of precious metals mining. Include a few citations to actual researchers who’ve determined the same thing as this fictitious one, likely had similar conversations as that portrayed in the game. My impulse was to appeal to some external authority neither of us had heard of, and that by doing so you’d take this essay and the subject more seriously.
But if you don’t already know about the deeply inhumane, environmentally destructive practices surrounding precious metals you are either deliberately ignorant or don’t care. We are awash in facts and figures, numbers upon numbers, graphs that are meant to communicate something to the effect of “this is fucked” in a way capitalism can digest. Evidently, this hasn’t changed anything.
About halfway through The Last Survey, the geologist recognizes this. They look down at their carefully organized notes and tables and know - knew even while making them - that Victor doesn’t care. The state of exploitation and depletion is self-evident and you’re only giving this talk as a formality. Problems come up, corporations “investigate,” people forget.
The Last Survey isn’t meant to teach people that they should care that their phone/laptop/car/the machine that scans their produce, make use of materials all but stolen from impoverished communities. We know this, we choose to ignore it. The Last Survey is about coming up against the forces that could change things and being met with disinterest and justifications.
Capitalism works through systems of fear meant to keep people from pushing at the edges. Fear from the capitalists that their profits will shrink; fear from the working class that they will be left homeless and starving; fear from those in-between that at any moment they could find themselves thrown lower down once again. We see these fears and use them to absolve ourselves of inaction.
The Last Survey could have been about anything and the conversation with Victor would have felt the same. In him is embodied all the inflexibility, empty sympathies, and sidestepping manifested by decades of political brainwashing. There can be no resolution to the geologist’s concerns because there is no way to arrive there without sacrificing profits. So the geologist must be wrong, somehow, even though everyone here knew already that the situation was dire.
Anytime a game like The Last Survey comes out people like to say it will make you think about things or brings up important issues, or otherwise make a show about the fact a video game has anything approaching intellectual depth. We perform a lot of theatrics that a game could actually say something, and then go on with their lives without actually interrogating those ideas any further. That we were exposed to them even briefly is enough to count as having thought about them, and wow isn’t it great that games can teach us things.
I’m being reductive and petty, but if your reaction to The Last Survey or games like it is to nod and agree the world is bad and then go back to your million-dollar murder sim you haven’t thought about any of this. The Last Survey isn’t about why we need to stop mining precious metals, it’s about how we justify knowing that fact and doing nothing about it. We look out our windows fully aware that our way of life is made possible through the exploitation of millions of people, and resolve to do nothing but feel a bit sad when we buy our next iPhone.
The Last Survey didn’t make me think, it made me feel - enraged, apathetic, helpless, motivated. You can’t quantify these or put them in a graph, they’re driven by reflexive emotion. It’s in the harsh edges of the sketchy animations, the quickening pace of the soundtrack. Faster, faster, there’s still time. I’m not here to teach someone why it’s bad to destroy the earth but to beat into their head that they can’t go on ignoring that. The research was just the way in the door, nobody’s pretending it matters.
But of course, that’s not how this conversation pans out. I clam up, recognize my insignificance as just one person. I have no power here and am appealing to morals that have been carefully culled through years of ruthless ladder climbing. In my playthrough, the geologist couldn’t convince Victor of anything. All their facts, the graphs, the presentation only half presented meant nothing in the face of capitalism’s hunger for growth. Perhaps in the other endings things are more hopeful, but it felt inauthentic to return trying to talk my way into a better resolution.
The Last Survey is a two (arguably one) man play about justifications and the failure of modern liberalism to try to both maintain capitalism and appear sympathetic to our concerns. It holds you in this limbo and dares you to justify your way out. It would be so easy, after all, just look at Victor. Our impulse to be view as righteous prevents us from seeing ourselves in him, but that impulse belies our complacency. It is not enough to know if we aren’t prepared to act. I do what I can, but I’m not kidding anyone.
The Last Survey was played using a copy provided by the developer. It is available on PC and Mac.
This essay was made possible through the support of my wonderful Patreon supporters. If you enjoyed this post it would mean a ton if you shared it with a friend and considered becoming a supporter yourself.