What’s wrong with today’s youth? Baby Boomers like to ask this question. I found the answer in the Japanese anime series “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.”
David Martinez, the street kid protagonist of the anime, is trying to survive in a dystopian, late twenty-first-century world. The economic policies of the setting (similar to those currently advocated by MAGA conservatives) succeed in tearing asunder all societal safety nets.
In addition, acquiring AI transhuman body-modification technology is an obsession for many. This provides an edge in a dog-eat-dog world.
Night City, where the story unfolds, reveals a hopeless social order ruled through corporate corruption (corpo rats), crime (gangster-infested streets) and cybernetic implants. David tries to live up to his mother’s dream of receiving an education that might lead him to a corner office in a corporation.
Unfortunately, because he belongs among the disenfranchised, he does not fit in at school with his economically privileged classmates. Soon, he is bullied by those who are financially able to upgrade with body implants to provide superior fighting skills.
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