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Helm and Rent-Seeking Security Theater

Security Theater, as defined in Wikipedia, is the practice of implementing security measures that are considered to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to achieve it. This is a running theme in how The Ark handles most issues; the Rapture conflict is presented to civilians as a hard-fought war when in reality humanity is on its last dregs. In the Sin Editor event, Label and the Commander both each the consensus that the Ark is almost always on deaths doors as her sole job is editing records to obfuscate this fact. In contrast to Label's secrecy (a topic for another post), I wish to focus on the warship in the room: Aegis Squad and their prideful captain, Helm.

Helm's advice story follows attempts to keep the Admire afloat (metaphorically). The Admire is an incredibly advanced warship designed solely by Elysion to flex their technological prowess, as it boasts weapons capable of killing tyrant-class raptures. The Central Government forced Elysion to sell the Admire as to limit the military capability of private corporations, as they already create all the Nikkes. This comes into issue when accounting for The Ark being deep underground, as Helm points out herself there currently is no need for an Ark Navy. The justification used by Aegis Squad and the Central Government as a whole is simple: 'One day we will reclaim the surface, and when that day comes this will help us continue the war and fully take back Earth'. But there's a specific line used by Helm when fundraising that draws specific attention:

There is no way the Admire is capable of preserving peace, yet its existence still spurs people to donate in the concept of a world where it might be helpful. This is very intentional from Helm, as she seems keenly aware of what truths can be bent and what lies can be implied; it also becomes very evident that this is eating her alive.

The advice story continues with the Counters working on a very flashy advertisement simulating what the Admire would look like if it were on the sea. Helm refuses all donations, stating that the ad was fake and ending the party early. This culminates on a terror attack on the Admire, being swiftly dealt with by Helm's prowess as a captain. Happy ending, roll credits.

It makes sense that Helm wishes to see the Admire to its full potential, but why the Central Government? If they know that Ark is always on the brink of collapse, why invest so much money into the biggest cash sink possible? We can see it clearly after the climax of the advice story with the terror attack on the Admire:

The donors all *felt* safe from the Aegis response so they donated money to the Central Government to keep it functional. At fear of stating the obvious, this is a transactional exchange: The government keeps providing the feeling of safety, and in exchange the wealthy donors spend money that otherwise would accumulate and choke the economy in the long run. Where this is worth analysts comes from the fact that functionally this costs nothing to the government as the whole venture is kept alive by donations, and in turn they provide no service but the feeling of safety as opposed to actual safety. At the time of these events, any donor is paying for the idea that maybe this massive ship will somehow be brought to the surface and will probably help them win the war, and the Central Government gets all the acclaim as if that fact is both guaranteed and has already occurred.

This isn't meant to paint Helm in a bad light. I'm harsh here only to the Central Government, as unlike them Helm has shown a genuine belief the war will reclaim the surface as opposed to just pumping false life into a dying humanity through capital. She sees the systems and acknowledges them, but in the current state playing the game the system provides is the only way to make real change. She is much like The Commander in this regard, so it makes sense how they were drawn so close to one another.