This is my last essay for Fantasy
and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World,
and I have to say how much I've enjoyed Professor Rabkin's
unit. I think the texts chosen really offered a good cross section of
both genres (and nearly all at no cost to access), and the short essay format really forced me to write
leaner, meaner analysis. The increase in availability of such free
and high quality education is something I'm really excited by as
someone who's made a lifelong commitment to study, and I appreciate
the efforts of all involved in making this course.
Little Brother and the Technologically Informed Electorate
Little Brother is a response to
the threat of constant government
surveillance augured
George
Orwell's 1984. In 1984 surveillance technology
was used as a tool by the government led by the dictatorial “Big
Brother” to control the citizenry:
“There was of
course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given
moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in
on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that
they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug
in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live,
from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound
you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement
scrutinized.” (Orwell 1949)
Little Brother makes a
counter-argument to this; that technology can empower citizens with
the ability defend their liberty from tyranny. This argument is
closely woven with the theme of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson argued that a well
informed electorate was the most important component of democracy
(Blair 1997); and in Little Brother it's the citizens informed
by technology who are ultimately able defend democracy. In Little
Brother technology is not just a means of oppression, but a
weapon and a shield in the hands of the well informed electorate:
“My technology was working for me, serving me, protecting me. It
wasn't spying on me. This is why I loved technology: if you used it
right, it could give you power and privacy.”
While the constant surveillance from a
tyrannical government is still a major threat to private citizens,
technology itself can empower citizens to organize the resistance,
and subvert the surveillance. Winning freedom is a function of an
electorate specifically informed in the technologies used against
them; and Little Brother introduces specific tools for inform
readers in such subversion. 1984 is a dire warning about a
government controlling its citizens with technology, and Little
Brother is a delineation for defending freedom, and democracy
under similar circumstances.
References
Blair, P. 1997.
The Evolving Role of Government in Science and Technology.
http://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/EngineeringEvolving/TheEvolvingRoleofGovernmentinScienceandTechnology.aspx
(accessed April 9, 2013).
Orwell, G. 1949.
1984. London: Penguin Books.
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