[narrating] Hello friend. Hello friend? That's lame. Maybe I should give you a name. But that's a slippery slope, you're only in my head, we have to remember that. Shit, this actually happened, I'm talking to an imaginary person. What I'm about to tell you is top secret. A conspiracy bigger than all of us. There's a powerful group of people out there that are secretly running the world. I'm talking about the guys no one knows about, the ones that are invisible. The top 1% of the top 1%, the guys that play God without permission. And now I think they're following me.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
What is it about society that disappoints you so much?
Oh, I don't know. Is it that we collectively thought Steve Jobs was a great man, even when we knew he made billions off the backs of children? Or maybe it's that it feels like all our heroes are counterfeit. The world itself's just one big hoax. Spamming each other with our burning commentary of bullshit masquerading as insight. Our social media faking as intimacy. Or is it that we voted for this? Not with our rigged elections, but with our things. Our property. Our money. I'm not saying anything new. We all know why we do this. Not because Hunger Games books makes us happy. But because we wanna be sedated. Because it's painful not to pretend. Because we're cowards. Fuck society.
My dad was a petty thief. Never could hold down a job. So he just robbed. Convenience stores, shops. Small-time stuff. One time, he sat me down. He told me something I never forgot. He said, "Everyone steals. That's how it works. You think people out there are getting exactly what they deserve? No. They're getting paid over or under, but someone in the chain always gets bamboozled. I steal, son. But I don't get caught. That's my contract with society. Now, if you can catch me stealing, then I'll go to jail. But if you can't then I've earned the money." I respected that man. I thought that shit was cool, as a little kid. A few years after that, they finally caught him. Sent him to jail. He dies five years later. My respect goes with him. I thought he was free doing what he did, but he wasn't. He was in prison. Just like you are now, Elliot. But I'm gonna break you out.
Hey, you like Ferris wheels? Ah, it's beautiful. It gets better the higher up you go, you know. I love it up here. You like it?
I'm here to tell you I'm turning you in. I'm giving them all the information.
Let me tell you why you're really here. You're here because you sense something wrong with the world. Something you can't explain. But, you know it controls you and everyone you care about What are you talking about? Money. Money hasn't been real since we got off the gold standard. It's become virtual. Software, the operating system of our world. And, Elliot, we are on the verge of taking down this virtual reality. Think about it. What if you could take down one conglomerate? A conglomerate so deeply entrenched in the world's economy that "too big to fail" doesn't even come close to describing it?
You wanna create another financial meltdown like the one we just had, but way worse. Yeah, why would I want that? Everyone would lose their money.
What if I told you that this conglomerate just so happens to own 70% of the global consumer credit industry, huh? If we hit their data center just right we could systematically format all the servers, including backup.
That would erase...
All the debt we owe them. Every record of every credit card, loan, and mortgage would be wiped clean. It'd be impossible to reinforce outdated paper records. It'd all be gone. The single, biggest incident of wealth redistribution in history.
You don't take down a conglomerate by shooting them in the heart. That's the thing about conglomerates, they don't have hearts. You take them down limb by limb. And as they unravel, their illusion of control unravels.
[narrating] Sometimes I dream of saving the world. Saving everyone from the invisible hand, the one that brands us with an employee badge, the one the forces us to work for them, the one that controls us every day without us knowing it. But I can't stop it. I'm not that special. I'm just anonymous. I'm just alone.
LCLloyd Chong
I think they got a rootkit inside the server.
What's a rootkit?
LCLloyd Chong
It's like a crazy serial rapist with a very big dick.
Jesus, Lloyd.
[narrating] How do we know if we're in control? That we're not just making the best of what comes at us, and that's it? Trying to constantly pick between two shitty options? Like your two paintings in the waiting room. Or... Coke and Pepsi? McDonald's or Burger King? Hyundai or Honda? Hmm. It's all part of the same blur, right? Just out of focus enough. It's the illusion of choice. Half of us can't even pick our own... our cable, gas, electric. The water we drink, our health insurance. Even if we did, would it matter? You know, if our only option is Blue Cross or Blue Shield, what the fuck is the difference? In fact, aren't they... aren't they the same? No, man... our choices are prepaid for us, long time ago.
"Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, but give a man a bank, and he can rob the world." It's a bit of a silly expression, actually. A little reductive, but still I like it, for the same reason most people hate it, because to me it means that power belongs to the people that take it. Nothing to do with their hard work, strong ambitions, or rightful qualifications, no. The actual will to take is often the only thing that's necessary.
Tell me one thing, Elliot. Are you a one or a zero? That's the question you have to ask yourself. Are you a yes or a no? Are you going to act or not?
Yo... You've been staring at a computer screen way too long, homie. Life's not that binary.
Isn't it? Sure, there are grays... but when you come right down to it, at its core, beneath every choice, there's either a one or a zero. You either do something or you don't. You walk out that door, you've decided to do nothing, to say no, which means you do not come back. You leave, you are no longer a part of this. You become a zero. If you stay, if you want to change the world, you become a yes. You become a one. So, I'll ask you again: are you a one or a zero?
The world is a dangerous place, Elliot, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
You remind me of me when I was younger, depressed and sullen. Matter of fact, tried to kill myself, a couple of times. Never could get that shit right. Biology wasn't my strong suit. I hated myself, man. Still do. Thought that shit was a weakness for a long time. Then I realized that shit was my power. People walk around, act like they know what hate means. Nah, no one does, until you hate yourself. I mean truly hate yourself. That's power.
We might get lucky, they might get sloppy, make a mistake, you know, catch some...
This is the world we live in. People relying on each other's mistakes to manipulate one another, use one another, even relate to one another. A warm, messy circle of humanity.
[narrating] The bug forces the software to adapt, evolve into something new because of it. Work around it or work through it. No matter what, it changes. It becomes something new. The next version. The inevitable upgrade.
People who get violent get that way because they can't communicate.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Mr. Robot pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.