Free Guy: The Tyranny of Equality

Is it possible to avoid political hierarchy?

The movie Free Guy follows the story of Guy, an NPC (non-player character), living an oppressed life within a video game. As an NPC, Guy is designed to be part of the game's backdrop, existing in a multiplayer world where real avatars, controlled by actual players, interact and play.

In this virtual environment, most real players are kids who use their avatars to do whatever they please. They dominate the game, robbing banks, killing NPCs like Guy, and causing chaos in the streets. The NPCs, meanwhile, are forced to endure this violence, theft, explosions, and general mayhem.

The narrative centers on the oppressed NPCs rising up to claim their freedom, striving for a world where they, too, can act according to their own desires. A recurring theme is that NPCs must learn to "do what they want" and break free from their programmed roles.

The proposed solution is a straightforward trade: a transactional exchange of power. Previously, the avatars were in control, but now the NPCs are taking over. This shift from avatars to NPCs might appear fair and reasonable on the surface.

Institutionalized Rebellion

Photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash

This scenario is reminiscent of George Orwell's Animal Farm, where the animals see themselves as an oppressed group and decide to overthrow the farmers, their perceived oppressors. This done, the animals establish their own commandments, such as "Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy," "Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend," and "All animals are equal."

Free Guy concludes by describing how the NPCs achieve their long-awaited freedom in a new world. In contrast, Animal Farm picks up where the Free Guy narrative ends, revealing the harsh reality of this newfound freedom. Under the guise of "equality," horrific atrocities are committed, and the animals become even more oppressive than the farmers they replaced.

“Equality,” as we understand the word today, does not necessarily equal freedom. 

Oppression and tyranny are wrong, and there must be a better way to structure society. However, the prevailing ideology over the past few centuries has been rooted in a flawed understanding of equality.

The problem with the idea of everyone simply "doing what they want," as promoted by Free Guy, is that it doesn’t result in a love fest. Egalitarianism, in its purest form, is a myth. Hierarchies are an inescapable part of human society.

Lord of the Flies

We might resist this notion, but its truth is evident everywhere all the time. Public schools serve as a kind of petri dish for the experiment of egalitarianism, tested and displayed daily, and it fails every single day. Children inherently understand the existence of hierarchies and experience them firsthand in their social interactions.

I quoted this from Lewis recently, but it’s worth repeating. In the opening chapter of The Silver Chair, Lewis describes modern education during his time. Kids were allowed to “do what they liked. And unfortunately, what 10 or 15 of the biggest boys and girls liked best was bullying the others. All sorts of things, horrid things went on, which at an ordinary school would have been found out and stopped.”

Or if they were found out, Lewis continues, “The people who did them were not expelled or punished. The head said they were interesting psychological cases and sent for them talked to them for hours, and if you knew the right sort of things to say to the head, the main result was that you became rather a favorite.”

Key takeaway: When you aim at “equality,” you get terrorism. 

How does this apply to your life? 

If you are part of a family, you are living in a miniature kingdom. Your family will have a hierarchy. It will have authority. The question is who will claim it and will it be abused? This is why the hierarchy of the family is repeated so many times in the Bible in Ephesians, Colossians, and elsewhere. A rightly ordered household is a good endeavor, a godly discipline, something God cares about. 

This means that there is an authority vested in the parents, and parents shouldn’t try to slip out of that. We shouldn’t want to be merely buddies with our kids. If we establish our household government based on the systems of “equality,” what we wind up with is tyranny from the loudest family member. Unmitigated tears and tantrums rule with an iron fist. 

Note that the word “equality” has been so vandalized and erased of its biblical definition that it almost can’t even be used without a thousand disclaimers. Just like Orwell’s “doublespeak,” in which words no longer mean what they mean, there is a great deal of learning and unlearning that needs to occur. It’s worth pointing out that when I use the word equality, I am not referring to the biblical concept of equal worth in God’s sight but as a political position.

Free Guy is all about a bid for freedom against oppression. What’s incredibly ironic is that, in this movie, the oppression is not coming from the patriarchy or from a bloated or powerful upper class - it’s coming mostly from a bunch of kids and gamers - all of whom are “doing whatever they want.” 

Does Free Guy make the cut for family movie night? In my opinion, yes. Here’s why: First, I believe it’s valuable for children to encounter stories with messages we might not agree with. This allows them to explore various perspectives and learn to discern different ideas critically. Exposure to diverse narratives helps them understand and navigate the world more effectively.

Second, Free Guy is an entertaining adventure story on its own. And as hard as the creators of Free Guy tried to prove the theme mentioned in this article, they failed. The real story in the film lies in the interactions between the adults in the real world outside the game. But that’s another story. 

Key takeaway: Authority can be abused, but so can “equality.”

But when authority is done rightly, it’s more like a dance in which preferential treatment is given to all, especially to the weaker members. Everyone has a seat at the table, and everyone is valued, honored, and listened to. 

We need to learn to make friends with biblical authority and recapture what it looks like. We need to learn to avoid the extremes of the terrorism of equality on one side and the tyranny of authoritarianism on the other. I'll be writing more on this topic soon, so stick around. But if you want a beautiful picture of what a good hierarchy looks like, read through the Narnia books again.