Fallout 3 and the Power of Memory

Enclave propaganda found within Fallout 3 uses nationalistic imagery that is appealing to some, but repulsive to others (source: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Enclave).

Part of the Establishing Timelines topic

The Fallout franchise features one of my favorite dystopian worlds. It takes place in an alternate timeline where a global conflict over dwindling resources escalated into a nuclear war that wiped out civilization. In the aftermath, the only a fraction of humanity survived, with the rest either dying or becoming mutants. Within the Fallout games, players control one of the descendants of the families who took shelter inside the giant underground vaults during the bombing. They are forced to confront the world that their ancestors destroyed and encounter many dangers along the way. Various communities of survivors have formed new societies, which the player can interact with to gain material rewards and personal reputation.

The world of Fallout is presented in two forms, the first being the ghostly echoes of a prewar society with a cheery 1950s aesthetic, and the second being depressing shanty towns constructed around the ruins of the prewar era. The former sharply juxtaposes with the latter, presenting an optimistic old-world futurism against the backdrop of reality. What we see in Fallout is a brilliant convergence of two types of science fiction, the progressive utopianism of the 1950s-60s and the more pessimistic dystopianism of the late 1970s-80s. Under a post-WWII Keynesian welfare state, the United States saw an explosion of scientific achievements and steady increases in the quality of living for the vast majority of its population. The rise of neoliberalism and dismantling of the welfare state in the late 1970s onwards saw a reversal of the social gains made by the American people, leading to a decline in living standards that continues to this day. The differing circumstances of these two periods colored the media that was produced at the time.

The Fallout series speaks to the power of memory. When trudging through the ruins of the old world, players will encounter colorful prewar advertisements for exciting new products, find ruined luxury items, and listen to upbeat prewar music on their radio. These specters of the past represent different things to different people. To some, the 1950s aesthetic of America's "golden age" shows what the US has lost through modernity. To others, the futuristic technology symbolizes a path not taken due to the abandonment of Keynesian policies. More radical viewers will see the hubris of American society present in their surroundings, as well as an unsustainable system that inevitably led to its own destruction.

As an undergraduate, I wrote an entire paper on the music of Fallout 3. Some of the most memorable experiences of the players came from listening to the few stations that still operated in the postapocalyptic US. The most prominent station is run by an independent operator named "Three Dog" who updates his channel with the latest news and plays old 1950s songs in-between announcements. The second major station is run by the Enclave, the decayed remains of the fascistic US government. On the Enclave channel, a man named "Eden" claims to be the legal president of the US. "President" Eden makes bold promises to rebuild the country and shares hackneyed stories of his childhood. When President Eden is not directly addressing the residents of the Wasteland, patriotic American music is played in the background.

Both stations use music interspersed with uplifting stories in order to distract everyday people from the horrors of their environment. Three Dog is very popular and represents sort of liberal idealism that survived into the postwar era. Just like the simplistic good/bad karma morality system within the game, Three Dog lacks any coherent ideology. He merely encourages people to fight the "good fight" by engaging in acts of kindness. President Eden stresses loyalty to the Enclave, espousing the typical nationalistic rhetoric that one would expect from a reactionary political position. The stories and pronouncements given by the mysterious president seem so irrelevant that many characters in-game suspect that the Enclave station is simply a prewar broadcast played on a loop.

Nonetheless, President Eden still has his supporters. Several characters listen to his broadcasts regularly and naively hope that the Enclave will restore America to its former glory. Outside of the in-game universe, numerous YouTubers and online commentators have tried to make the case that the Enclave were "actually the good guys" of Fallout 3. Until the second act of the game, the Enclave remains in the shadows. When the protagonist manages to help an independent team of scientists jumpstart a massive water purification project, the Enclave invades the scientists' headquarters and demands that they surrender the project to the US government. The scientists refuse and sabotage their base of operations in order to stop the Enclave from taking over. The rest of the game revolves around pushing the Enclave out and completing the water purification system.

A point that has been circulated online is that the Enclave simply wanted to use the water purifier to strengthen their position and bring order to the Wasteland. It would have been better for the Wasteland, it is argued, if the independent scientists had surrendered control to the Enclave and assisted them in their efforts to foster unity. In this vein, there are also criticisms of Bethesda's writing style when it comes to the Enclave. Some insist that the Enclave is not well-established as a clear villain, while others see the organization as being extremely two-dimensional in its villainy. The sheer dissonance of these two views, both of which are made by pro-Enclave commentators, seems to me like more of a result of an atypical presentation of the Enclave rather than an incomplete one. The evilness of the Enclave is conveyed through symbolism, environmental storytelling, and an ideological position that rests outside of the simplistic good/bad karma system.

The devastating nuclear war that destroyed the world in the Fallout series was a result of the corruption inherent within the US state. In the real world, the US has sowed devastation across numerous countries in the Global South while citizens of the Western countries have enjoyed conditions of relative luxury. The Enclave, in all of its oppressive structure and nationalistic belief in American exceptionalism, represents an attempt to preserve the old order. One's perception of the Enclave is colored by how they perceive the past. If one is a Western chauvinist, the Enclave will seem to fundamentally act as a force for good. For anyone who has suffered under American oppression or has become morally opposed to American hegemony, the patriotic aesthetic of the Enclave is enough to mark the organization as a malevolent actor. Under the latter view, the facade of the cheery 1950s-style culture from the prewar era comes crashing down.