Flash Mobs and Torture...

Before I explain how this relates to the book... Let me just give a quick definition.

Flash Mobs:

Flash Mobs are a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place to perform unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless acts for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment and/or satire.

For example: I could start a flash mob right now. Who wants to go downtown and start a food fight?
That's how pointless flash mobs are. In fact a few years ago a large-scale pillowfight ran in Toronto. Flash mobs don't form together to prove a point... They form to have fun or make fun of current events.

So how does this relate to the book?
Trudy Doo hosts the concert for Don't trust anyone over 25! This would be considered a flash mob. Most of the time (if the mob is not rioting), they will be given a warning to stop. However, in LB, the flash mob is broken by pepper spray, beatings and threats (which sounds pretty cool to use against hermit hipsters).

Now to the "fun" part... Torture:

Torture, is any act that includes physical/mental  pain or suffering in order to recieve information or a confession. Throughout history, torture has been used (example throwing a "witch" in the lake), espeically when they didn't know it was a bad thing. Torture is not only down right low, for some it's sadistic...ew.

Luckly, the Geneva Convention and Amnesty international forbids the use of torture. It doesn't mean the world stops doing it.

So finally, how does this relate to the book?
When Marcus is sent to Alcatraz he and his friends undergo a strange mental torture. Even though they are fed, clothed and kept in good shelter, they feel threated and feel their rights have been taken from them. Daryl, (after they find him) obviously had some sort of physical/emotional torture inflicted upon him. I mean, do you think he ripped off his paper gown, crawled into the corner and sported the fetal position for fun? Yeah, I didn't think so either...


Overall, the themes of Flash Mobs and Torture are used in the novel Little Brother.

Cryptos and Espionage (Kari V.)

The use of crypto has been around for centuries. People have always used cryptography as a way of keeping something secret or unknown to their “enemy”. This relates to the idea of power, and taking control of a situation. You can see continuous examples in the book Little Brother and in the real world of how cryptography and espionage are used to gain or remove power from an opposing party.

In World War II, the Polish Cipher Bureau, who solved the German cipher and gave decryption methods to the French and British Forces, gave the Allied forces the position of power. Having the ability to communicate privately gives you an edge over the competition but once there is a leak in that communication (a successful use of espionage) the position of power can be reversed. Another example of this can be seen in the sculpture called “Kryptos” outside the CIA headquarters, which is covered in encrypted messages. The fact that the encrypted message of the artwork is unknown to anyone but the artist, gives him power over many people. For over twenty years cryptanalysts having being working tirelessly to crack this code and would probably give anything to learn those last few words that remain unsolved. The creator, Jim Sanborn himself said “The whole thing is about the power of secrecy”.

This becomes clear in the book Little Brother as throughout the book Marcus and his Xnetter friends are always searching for a way to communicate without being heard, in order to gain power over the Department of Homeland Security. By encrypting everything, Marcus believed that he could control who was thought of as potentially “guilty” and also what the DHS could do about it, giving him the power. The DHS would then use espionage to gain this knowledge and flip the situation upside down to take back the control, creating an ongoing battle for power over San Francisco. However, power is not in cryptography and it is not in espionage. The power is in the secret and the knowledge that comes with it.

For Further Reading:
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_kryptos
http://elonka.com/kryptos/

And if you ever think you have solved the remaining 97 letters on the "Kryptos" statue submit it to Jim Sanborn via : http://kryptosclue.com/clue/clue.html :)

Here is a nice cryptogram for you to solve:

GKF IEO TEPZQ RMQ PKTR FHFQRI TQZQF PQRRQBT EF DHA TKFVEBF'T

TRKROQ ?

Cryptography and Espionage (Emily Challice)

Espionage is generally defined as “the use of spies by a government to discover the military and political secrets of othernations” (1), but this is not the case in “Little Brother”. After the terrorist attack in San Francisco, the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) began to spy on the inhabitants of San Francisco. This type of espionage was the government taking away its people’s freedom of speech, as they were tracked everywhere and overall life was made to be much more difficult than need be. Many people,especially the young saw this as wrong, and decided to do something about it; this is where cryptography comes in.

The word "Cryptography" comes from the Greek words kryptos, meaning hidden or secret and graphin, meaning writing. So cryptography literally means "hidden writing", which essential is what it what it is. Cryptography can be defined as the "science or study of the techniques of secret writing, especially code and cipher system methods, and the like." (2). cryptography is used throughout "Little Brother" and is what allows Xnetters to communicate without being caught by the DHS .

Both espionage and cryptography have existed for thousands of years. one of the earliest recorded ciphers was called the Caesar Cipher (3) , named after Julius Caesar. Caesar used this cipher to communicate with his generals without chancing giving their military plans to the always spying enemies. The Caesar Cipher is a substitution cipher, meaning each letter of the alphabet is replaced with another, often in a shift of 3. For example "Cryptography would be "Fubswrjudskb". In order to read the message the recipient would need to know the key.

A perfect example of the importance of cryptography and espionage happened in World War II. Anytime the Allies intercepted German messages they were encrypted with what was called the Enigma Machine (4). Allied espionage became virtual useless until an Enigma Machine was taken from a German Submarine. Even then the cryptography still had to be decoded, and at this time code breaking was not very advanced. Once the Allies broke the code, the war changed, Some would say that without the information gained from the Enigma Machine, the Allies would have lost.

In "Little Brother",cryptography is open for public use, like it is nowadays. The use of cryptography becomes San Francisco’s only passage to freedom of speech. The only problem with this is that it is the Government that has control over the vast majority of code breakers and code breaking machines. Is it aviolation of rights for the Government to use these resources to put away criminals? The issue arose decades ago and is still ever present. The public should have the right for privacy, but what if in order to catch a terrorist, a few people have to be spied on? This had but Government in a difficult position in the real world, aswell as in "Little Brother".

Espionage and Cryptography has led to many successes, but it still has its downfalls. It all comes down to what a Government sees as more important; violating their people's freedom of speech and privacy by decrypting or disallowing cryptography to maybe catch a terrorist, or keeping rights intact .

1 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/espionage

2 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cryptography

3 http://www.cs.trincoll.edu/~crypto/historical/caesar.html

4 http://www.2worldwar2.com/enigma.htm

Freedom verses Protection (Maria Ansari)

What does it mean to protect? What does it mean to have freedom? A formal definition of protection is “the act of protecting, or the state of being protected; preservation from loss, injury, or annoyance; defence; shelter; as, the weak need protection” [1]. On the other hand, freedom is defined as being “the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination” [2]. The diction of both words is potentially opposing of one another. However, freedom and protection have one thing in common: having a political philosophy relating to a way of living.

Protection, essentially, focuses on a more conformist perspective, as it speaks of “preservation” or sheltering the “weak”. It is implied that the “weak” are those who are, in traditional and collective perception, vulnerable to danger thus being seen as one relying on another with more power.

Freedom speaks of individualism: the idea of having the ability to make your own choices with the presumption of one having the ability to rely on their own selves. In reality, a society must contain a compromising balance between these two notions in order to maintain some amount of stability within daily living. In the book, Little Brother, the negative resultants of disturbing the balance in amount of freedom and protection in a society is exemplified greatly.

The story focuses on the extremism in both, desire of freedom from the “Little Brother” and the measures taken to protect the “Little Brother” by the “Big Brother”. A force controlled by the majority power, or “Big Brother”, is known as the “Little Bother” [3]. In the story’s case, the Little Brother is the citizens San Francisco and the Big Brother are the government officials and Department of Homeland Security.

[4]

The increase in protection through more security devices being placed around the city of San Francisco was initially done after the city was attacked by terrorists to prevent such a thing from ever occurring again. Its excessive amount, even with the fact of catching petty criminals, was mostly successful in creating more tension within the citizens loosing the privacy and adding to paranoia and fear of being terrorism. This accordingly caused the rebellion of youths, as they were not going to stand around as their freedom gets taken away. Lack of freedom led to anger and riots because its suppression by overprotection resulted in loss of individual privacy. The originally well-intentioned idea only added to the negative and more destructive environment of the city.

[7]

Cartoon by Carlos Latuff, featuring Khaled Said and Hosni Mubarak
Political Reform in Egypt: Rebellion in society against the leader of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak

Freedom, promotes individualism with growth of new ideas, building independence and responsibility through self-experience, and discovery of one’s own identity, which adds to future differentiation in diversity for future leaders; nonetheless, too much freedom, also, can lead to destruction and chaos. If people were able to do whatever they desire, it will ultimately lead to several unethical behaviour and ignorant actions. The “WHATEVER” attitude will spread and inhabit the minds of many all over country for people are ultimately influenced by what goes on around them. It may as well be virtual anarchy. An example of this is Somalia’s stateless society in the 1990’s, which produced the dramatic increase of Somali pirates. In the past few decades the have been millions of “Somalis needing emergency aid, and with 1.5 million Somalis displaced by clan, tribal and religious infighting,” [5].

[6] Somali Pirates

All of this further supports the fact of having a sense of balance within the amount of protection and freedom placed in any society. A limitation in protection is necessary because excessive protection suppresses freedom, but too little of it can endanger civilians in many ways. Its approach also must be proper and civilized; it has to be empathetic and logical in the sense of looking out for one without not brutally disrespecting their privacy. With freedom, same thing applies: a lack of it results in chaos and disorder of the society, where as too much of it causes rebellions and fights due to disregard of individual rights. With balance of freedom and protections, there comes collective cooperation and satisfaction (somewhat).

[1]http://www.brainyquote.com/words/pr/protection207637.html

[2]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freedom

[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/big-brother-v-little-brot_b_827454.html

[4] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1033999452/little-brother-vs-big-brother

[5] http://depetris.wordpress.com/category/somalia/

[6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSp9OGK69oA&feature=player_embedded

[7] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-8nCkkmlxjXxSqtd7PGO1C5ZyXDgh_bXOQv9W5HnI9INrpo6eOYquxsEBPv0W5Thh25wAusylPIAgAfZGAYClVZZymyGSFZQIbveMubpQAp18o2QSxLU5FCd3VWcBPDpyd_caVxt4omY/s1600/1.gif

Media and Information (Justin)

Media is the main way in which we get our information about current events and the world around us. Media takes many forms as it can be radio, television, newspapers, magazines or the internet. In “Little Brother” the way in which the Department of Homeland Security and police manipulate the media helps to influence the people of San Francisco into what to think about their neighbours.
The media in the United States is completely privately owned unlike in Canada where there is a mix of crown owned media and privately owned media and countries like China or Libya where the media is completely owned and controlled by the government. In the US and Canada the government is not supposed to have very much control over the operations of the media. But in the book the DHS was manipulating what the media was broadcasting and was trying to control public opinions by misrepresenting the events that were happening. Such as the concert, the DHS chose not to tell the public about how it was a peaceful gathering until the police told them to dispersed and started fighting with them and gas them. The DHS made it sound like it was a terrorist training camp and that the concert goers were trying to hurt people. The media chose to only show the DHS’s story and not the stories of the Xneters. In China the government uses state owned media to completely control the information its citizen’s receive and in the book the DHS seems to also be controlling what information the citizens get to ensure that the majority of people don’t believe that the DHS is wrong.
All media has bias. Even if it is intended or not, the personal beliefs of the writer will create a bias. In the book all of the media coverage has bias against the Xnet and against the youth who are involved. The people in the media in the book tend to be more willing to accept anything the DHS says as the truth without questioning it and by doing that they are only telling one side of the story.
The source of information is important to the integrity of media. If a media outlet does not properly source everything they say then things they produce may not be taken seriously. But in the book it seems news stories are not being researched the way they should be to ensure its integrity and validity. News outlets seem to just take whatever the DHS says at face value and they do not seem to be questioning what they are saying.
There is always a chance that what media is saying is bias or being manipulated to someone’s advantage, but as people we need to question what we see and demand the most factual information out of our media.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=hHkza3TX-LIC&lpg=PR9&ots=fLVwk8w_he&dq=media%20in%20china&lr&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false
Canada Act 1982, (U.K.) 1982, c. 11 http://lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Charter/FullText.html
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/B-9.01/page-17.html#h-14, http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/B-9.01/
http://www.ccnr.ca/english/index.php

Flash Mobs & Torture - Shaundra M.

A flash mob is a group of people that perform a pointless act to catch the attention of bystanders. When a flash mob gathering is being planned a notification is sent out using technology and social networking. The 'original' flash mob was unsuccessful because their location was ratted out before the flash mob even started. Flash mobs are often performed to amuse, or confuse the crowd, or for fun! There have been countless times where flash mobs have resulted in violence, vandalism, riots and injury.

Police have used pepper spray as crowd control, which is very similar to the book when the crowd at Dolores Park is pepper sprayed and taken in by the DHS. A bunch of Xnetters had planned a concert at this park, and to disobey any orders the DHS. That is when things turned ugly for them.

Torture, however ..is violent and brutal. Not only is it physical, but its mental and pyschological. This can effect the way you think, the way you feel and the way you look at things. I don't think it's okay for people to be tortured, or for people to allow torture. It's not okay to torture someone just to protect others, because if it was turned around I'm sure we wouldn't like it.

A man named Christopher Hitchens volunteered to 'waterboard' in order to write an article about it. Waterboarding is a stimulation that makes you believe you are drowning. Although he volunteered this man is still being tortured. He was in the stimulation for less than a minute when he released the metal objects. He says he knew he was drowning, and felt like he was going to die.

Torture can be related to our novel, "Little Brothers" because the DHS has been taking teenagers from San Francisco to Treasure Island where they are held captive until proven innocent. Marucs, Van, Jolu and Darryl found themselves in this situation. They were interrogated because the DHS had reason to believe they were terrorists, since they were at the Bay Bridge when it was bombed. They were held captive for six days with or without food and water depending on their cooperation. When they were uncooperative, they weren't given and food or water. They were sent back to their cell to wait.

Flash Mobs & Torture - Shaundra M.

A flash mob is a group of people that perform a 'pointless act' at the same place and time. When a flash mob performance is being planned, a notification is sent out to all participants using social networking and technology. The original flash mob was not successful because the group was 'ratted' out before it even started. Flash mobs are often performed for fun, to confuse or amuse people, although some flash mobs have resulted in violence, vandalism, riots and injury. Police have used pepper spray as crowd control when they were being disobeyed, just like in the book. The circle of trust had planned a concert at Dolores Park, where a band would perform and people would scream and dance to loud music. When the DHS arrived they were to continue this behaviour and rebel against them, but this didn't go as planned because the DHS had used pepper spray and had arrested hundreds of people. Torture, however, is violent and brutal. Not only is it physical, but it is mental and pyschological. This can effect the way you think, feel, and look at things. It is not okay to torture someone in order to protect others, because if it ever came down to us being tortured we wouldn't approve. Christopher Hitchens had volunteered to be put into a drowning stimulation, to experience and write about it. He was placed on a wooden bench, strapped and blindfolded. A towel was put over his face, and pulled on either side to make it tighter. Water was poured over the towel which started the stimulation. He wasn't under there for more than a minute, and he said the he felt like he was actually drowning. Torture can be related to the book, "Little Brothers" because the DHS has been taking teenagers out of San Francisco and bringing them to Treasure Island where they are held captive until proven innocent. Marcus, Jolu, Van and Darryl found themselves in this situation. They were interrogated because the DHS thought they were terrorists, since they were at the Bay Bridge when it was bombed. They were held captive for six days, with or without food and water depending on their cooperation.

Media and Information ( Hannah A)

March 25th 2011

Media is the means of communication such as radio, newspaper, television or magazines that reach out or influence people. Media has a large role in the book "Little Brother" and the events that occur because of the media's information and influence. There is the assumption that the information that the media produces is always true however this does not always happen as it is proven throughout the book. The media's influence on a situation can have a large effect on how the viewers of the media react to the message being portrayed, as it is shown various times by how the DHS describes the people who use Xnet.

Media has the strong ability to influence our thoughts based on the information that is presented, an example of this in “Little Brother” is when the DHS made the concert in Dolores Park seem like a riot instead of what it truly was. Instead of showing the happy viewers of the concert, or the severe methods that the DHS used to make the people disperse, the media chose to show more violent pictures and videos. An example of how the media can influence a viewer’s reaction is the terrorist attack on the twin towers.

The way that information is shown in media can be bias. Bias in media is presented many times in our lives through the government, such as election commercials. Commercials for elections are constantly bias they choose to discuss all the negative aspects of the opponent and high light it in there add. In “Little Brother” the bias in the media was the view that the DHS had on the Xnetters. The Department of Homeland Security was causing people to fear their own neighbour and made people believe that they were trying to keep the people of San Francisco safe from terrorists. The people of San Francisco were not informed that innocent people in their own city were being interrogated and tortured, and the people on the Xnet were not terrorists but people trying to achieve justice against the DHS.

The Media will always have the ability to influence people because the information that is shown is trusted to be true. In “Little Brother” the positive way that media influenced people is that Marcus became an idol to some of the Xnetters because of the article that was printed of him and his story about being taken to jail. Media and information can not only have a negative influence it can also have a very positive influence on a viewer, and the way that media was used in “Little Brother” is very similar to the ways that media is used in our everyday lives.

Fear as a Control by Amber McGill

Fear as a control is a very big part in "Little Brother" for it gives many examples to how fear is used in many ways. In the beginning of little brother fear is introduced as a more, protective way of finding their indepdence. Once Marcus returns to his home and more "protection" and surveilance systems are installed by the DHS; people begin to notice more often they should not be afraid of the worst, but to be afraid of their own neibors and peers. As Xnet becomes more intense and more plans to over ride and Jam the system the more the DHS watches and monitors people in their everyday lives. Eventualy, citizens become terrified of everything and become paranoid. This state of paranoia is causing their lifes to be over ruled and controlled therefore making their fear a controll of their life.

Freedom Vs Protection

Freedom is the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints, we have the right as not only Canadians but as human beings to this right. Both freedom and protection are a state of mind, you can’t literally have either but the sense of peace that comes with either is enough.
Without protection however the freedom that we have created in our minds will be shattered, because fear will control you. It’s the same for when there is too little freedom, because without freedom, protection no longer feels like protection, it becomes harassment. Finding the middle ground between the two is quite difficult because each individual has his or her own idea of how much freedom and protection their life requires.
When considering this in the book Little Brother we can see that Marcus’ father is completely fine with all the changes that have been made, he believes that the amount of protection being used is creating their freedom. However Marcus doesn’t agree with the new way of protection at all he feels they have lost all of their freedom and their government is no longer protecting them but the ones creating the terror.
Canada’s charter of rights and freedom states the everyone has freedom of conscience and religion. Freedom of thought, belief and expression, including freedom of the press and other media. Freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association. These rules were created for a reason to protect the fundamentals of humanity, so why do we still hear of cases where individual’s rights have been taken away. There is no real way to make everyone of a society happy, someone will always be protesting or arguing to make a change.

Surveillance and ownership (by Rebecca Chislett)

To start off surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, actives or other changing information. In little brother the DHS is always shriveling Marcus and everyone else that lives in San Francisco. That’s like going to work and always having someone looking over your shoulder all day long then following you home to do the same thing. That would be so annoying.

Ownership is just what it sounds like. It is to have the right or possession over an object. In the book little brother Marcus has the right to his freedom and his privacy but the DHS will not allow him to have that. It’s like on face book if you upload a photo of yourself it no longer belongs to you and face book can use that photo for whatever they want if they so wish. Even thought that picture belonged to you they can take it.

When you think about it ownership and surveillance are related closely to each other. If you own something you want to make sure that nothing bad happens to it. It’s like parents they raise us and throughout our whole lives they are watching over us and yes embarrassing us. The government is like the counties parents they are the people in charge of what happens. In the book little brother the DHS is trying to act like the parent but is more taking on the bigger brother role. They won’t listen to you, they try to own you and they beat you up because they feel like it. Just like how they treat the people of San Francisco, like at the concert, the tracking, the questioning and the torture they put innocent people through.

Ownership and surveillance can be something very simple or complicated depending on the situation. It can range from the ownership of an iPod to the ownership of a house. You want to make sure nothing happens to it so you survey it but a lot of people take it over board just like the DHS in little brother.

Subversive Behavior (Erin)

Subversive behaviour is when a person participates in radical actions meant to undermine and/or overthrow a government or other type of enforcement. These actions play a major role in our book Little Brother and have popped up hundreds of times throughout history. The Underground Railroad, the destruction of the Berlin Wall, or the protests in Cairo are all examples of subversive behaviour, and as technology grows so do our methods of protest. Little Brother focuses mainly on subversive behaviour through the Xnet, which is very similar to Wikileaks.

Wikileaks launched in 2007, it was a non-profit association that combined investigative journalism and security. They were an organization dedicated to informing the public and highlighting the faults of governments. Wikileaks used advanced forms of cryptography to protect the identity of their sources. They also ran multiple internet servers across different international networks to ensure anonymity and had an anonymous ‘drop box’ for information. Wikileaks published major stories about many heavy topics such as abuse, diplomacy, spying, torture, and confinement.

After researching Wikileaks I couldn’t help but see the similarities between it and Little Brother. Marcus is acting subversively via the internet in order to emphasize the wrong-doings of his government, as was Wikileaks. Both did their best to protect their sources be it by encrypting the data or stripping the signatures from photographs and videos. Wikileaks caused incredible controversies but they were a legal organization. They quote Article 19 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The Xnet is also totally legal.

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was arrested on December 7, 2010. The arrest happened almost immediately after Assange posted top-secret Pentagon documents about the Afghan war online. His arrest was on a charge unrelated to Wikileaks, and many people are calling the arrest fake. Many are saying that governments wanted to shut him up, but his site was legal, so they pegged him for an unrelated and made-up charge. I can honestly say that I don’t now whether the charges were true or not, but it does make me wonder about Marcus’ fate. Wikileaks is very similar to the Xnet and I wonder if the DHS is going to try and shut Marcus up by any means necessary.

Sources and Further Reading:

http://213.251.145.96/About.html

http://info-wars.org/2010/08/23/julian-assanges-arrest-warrant-a-diversion-from-the-truth/

Subversive Behaviour (Sam)

Many have heard about the unrest that occurred in Egypt during January and February of this year. The public of Egypt began protesting the 30 year reign of Hosni Mubarak on January 25, 2011, after being inspired by Tunisia's successful revolution. The protests began with thousands of people, mostly from the younger generations crowding the streets of Cairo, crying out "Down with Mubarak". The riots were mostly peaceful, with minor exceptions. The police attempted to end the riot by tear gassing the crowds; however the protests still remained strong.

(Tear Gas being used on the public in Cairo)

As the tear gas failed to end the protests, the police force, known to the public as nothing more than corrupt thugs, began to turn violent. The police beat many people, used water cannons to scare people off, tried using more tear gas, and arrested many. Protests broke out later in Alexandria and other cities against Mubarak. Twitter was the place where many of the protests were organized and was used to outmaneuver the police. Over 90,000 people on Twitter said they would join in the fight against Mubarak, but later that afternoon Twitter was down in an attempt by the Egyptian government to end the protests.

Men, women, and children alike joined in the protests to end Mubarak's reign, they joined together as true Egyptians. Due to this, the protesters won the battle against Mubarak when he resigned on February 11, 2011, and left Cairo. Subversive behaviour can lead to a positive change in countries, like how Egypt is now not autocratic or a police state.

(Men and women protested against Mubarak)

Little Brother also displays subversive behaviour while trying to rid San Fransisco of the Department or Homeland Security (DHS). They go through similar trials like the Egyptians. At Dolores Park, during a concert about gaining their freedom back, the DHS appeared and told them to disperse. The crowd of people refused to disperse, calling out "Take it Back" to the DHS. Eventually, tear gas was used on the people in the park, and more than 800 people were arrested. Throughout the book, the DHS beats, tortures, and arrests people for no real reason other than thinking they could possibly be terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.

Internet was a key role in the Egyptian revolution as well as in Little Brother. The Egyptians used Twitter to plan protests and outmaneuver the police, while in Little Brother, Xnet is used to plan the downfall of the DHS. Like the Egyptians, who had mostly the younger generations protest, Little Brother mostly has people under 25 protesting, like one slogan used, "Don't Trust Anyone Over 25".

All in all, Little Brother somewhat mirrors what happened to the Egyptians this year when it comes to subversive behaviour. The Revolution of Egypt ended up being successful; they were able to have Hosni Mubarak overthrown. The next question in regards to Little Brother is will Marcus and the Xnetters be able to rid San Fransisco of the DHS? We'll have to finish the book to see.

More information about Egypt:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/30/egypt-revolution-2011_n_816026.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/mubarak-faces-egypt-prote_n_813572.html#s229544 (Pictures come from here)
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/28/egypt-revolution-the-purity-protests.html

Technoculture

By Sean Hudson

Technoculture is a culture that is defined and is built on technology. Our society is dependant on technology for information, for communication, and for entertainment. When people get home they jump on the computer, or sit on the couch to watch television. Social activists depend on it, by committing hacktivism. These groups are dependant on it to get their message across. Without technology how are people going to get their information, there is only so many things that can be put in a newspaper, but on the Internet there is unlimited space. People use telephones, facebook, or instant messaging to communicate, without these they would have to write a letter, or meet up with people face to face, and there is no way you could communicate as much with as many people by meeting up with them. this society needs technology to keep together, and informed, it needs technology to save the time which we value so much. Many people use dating websites, and depend on them to find someone for them. An average of 542 eharmony members, in the United states, get married to someone they met on eharmony each day. If it weren't for technology chances are, those people would never have met.


The book, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, is full of technology and technoculture. The ARG that Marcus, and his friends are playing at the beginning requires a lot of technology to keep the game running, and possible. The technological items which they use, are what gets them arrested and suspected of terrorism in the first place, setting the entire story in action. Later on Marcus begins to use Paranoid Linux an OS that keeps him hidden from from the government. This operating system was made up for the book, but back in 2008 when some programmers began to work on a real version of it, but the project was dropped in 2009 after the alpha was released. If this was finished it would likely been used by the darker side of technoculture, such as child pornography and terrorism. Marcus also uses the Xnet, which is their version of freenet. A program made to cover up illegal doings on the computer, and hide from the government. There are other technologies that Marcus uses. They are all mainly used for illegal purposes, but he finds a way to use the darker side for justice, which shows that just because one thing like freenet is used for many illegal things doesn't mean it is bad, or can only be used for illegal things. It also allows people to host websites for free, which can only be viewed over freenet, many businesses even use it.

Works cited

http://www.eharmony.ca/about/eharmony

"The Dark Side of the Internet" By Andy Beckett

Fear as Control [Farhan Rahman]

Fear as Control is a very big part of the society of which little brother takes place in. Many things contribute to this throughout the book, the use of pure fear to control someone's mind and actions. using fear to control somebody can vary depending on the situation such as having access to something dear to the target, then blackmailing them giving them the fear of their secrecy being released to the public, this way you can mend their minds to your very will, and make them do as you wish because you have your own control of what you decide to do with the target's information. This is also known as Blackmailing which is illegal, but however it is a method of fear as control.

Another way for this to be enabled is to exert terror upon the people you wish to control, as demonstrated within the book in chapter 4, also for the next following chapters the government are hunting the terrorists, and basically force people to search for them by using the fear of terrorists upon them. Fear as control is no bad deed whatsoever, when using this to control people you are only using people's frights against them so they will follow anything to avoid their fear. An example of this would be to imagining if you were greatly afraid of a species, such as Rhinoceros beetles, and if an announced certain deed was not taking action this species would massively over produce. Of course you would want to prevent this since you are highly afraid of these beetles, therefor you are being controlled by your own fears.

Surveillance and Ownership (by Hanna Jalali)

First of all, we should look at the definition of surveillance. Surveillance can be defined as the close supervision or observation of a person, group, place, or thing. As the title of this blog topic suggests; surveillance often comes from the thought of ownership. If a person owns something, they want to protect it and make sure nothing happens to it, which is where surveillance comes in.

When we think of surveillance, most of us will see images of cameras, audio recorders, and other elaborate gadgets that we can be watched with. These devices are regular occurrences in Marcus’ life in the book Little Brother, and many people even accept this heavy surveillance as the norm! Throughout the book the government watches where every person goes and what they do there; not only outside their homes on the streets, but also within a person’s home through their technology. People were surveyed even before the terrorist attack occurred, and even though there was much more surveillance after the terrorist attack did occur, many people were able to accept it in their everyday lives.

Surveillance can consist of two aspects; care and behaviour control. These different aspects are determined by the amount of surveillance that someone is under. These two aspects can be exemplified by a parent-child relationship. Most parents want to know what their child is doing and where they will be going, which shows that the parent cares about their child and merely wishes for their safety. If the parent constantly watches over the child and they never have a moment of freedom, this can cause the child to feel fear of doing something wrong, and as was mentioned earlier in class, fear can be used as behaviour control. In the case of Little Brother the surveillance is extensive and hypothetically, it controls many people into behaviour that they may not otherwise perform. Such as cameras, that do not actually operate, are meant to scare away criminals. Little Brother did not address the surveillance that is used in private businesses, but the government would have gotten a lot of their information on people from there.

Throughout Little Brother there is a controversy between ownership of the freedom of the people, and their safety. For the most part, the government was established to protect the people of their country, and ensure them a good life. In all sense, the government owns the country, and in Little Brother they are trying to protect the people from further terrorist attacks, but through that procedure they violate the rights of their people, and take away their freedom, and through the surveillance they create what is heading towards a police state.

The government unknowingly takes away the ownership of their people’s freedom, while trying to protect and catch the culprit who was responsible for the terrorist attack on Bay Bridge through the heavy surveillance that is put on each person during that time.

Alcatraz and San Francisco (Leina)

The San Francisco Alcatraz prison was built during the 1850's. It has been used as a lighthouse, a military fort, a military prison, and most famously a federal prison. The federal prison housed harden criminals that needed to harsher discipline than that given in traditional prisons.

After reading further about the Alcatraz prison, it was not difficult to recognize that there was a connection between Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and specifically this landmark. This begins when Marcus and his friends are taken away by the Department of Homeland Security and he senses that they could be on a boat. The Alcatraz prison is accessible by ferry, a boat that can transport people and vehicles across water. This explains Marcus' thoughts and also why the captured people did not have to be removed from the vehicle. As well, under sparse conditions, prisoners were forced to follow rules at the Alcatraz prison before being returned to their original prison. This connects to Marcus' treatment during his interrogation by the DHS, as they did not allow him many "privileges". Only when he chose to cooperate was he allowed to leave.

However, what was most interesting was the Battle Of Alcatraz. On May 2, 1946, six prisoners attempted to escape the prison by stealing weapons and keys, and overpowering guards. At the mention of keys, I immediately thought about the double-meaning of "keys". Of course, in the prison, one can imagine a keyring with many keys for the cells. However, I wondered about encryption keys that Marcus raves about when explaining cryptography. I also wondered about overpowering the guards. Marcus "overpowers the guards" by skewing the amount of encrypted data usage in the San Francisco area.

Could it be that San Francisco has become Alcatraz for its citizens, with the DHS as the jailers; and with Marcus' plans involving encryption keys and overpowering the city's surveillance efforts? If so, will a sort of Battle of Alcatraz occur? Unfortunately, most of the prisoners involved in the 1946 battle faced death one way or another. However, Alcatraz was also shut down due to operating expenses, as shipping to even an island as close to the city as Alcatraz is expensive. This presents a variety of fates for Marcus and his friends.

Further reading:

• San Francisco History
• Alcatraz Prison
• The History of Alcatraz Island
• Timeline History of Alcatraz

Fear as Control

Ryan Brown

March, 10, 2011.

Fear as control is a shockingly large topic in the book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. There are two forms of using fear as control, the first of these is very obvious, a method that uses direct terror to control your behaviours. An example of this type of control can be found throughout chapter four in the book, at what can be assumed to be Alcatraz. The more common form of using fear as control is subtley, or as some may say, the second pearson fear. This is where someone uses the fear of something to make someone do something subconsiously, almost without recognizing it, this is what we will look at.

Imagine you have a strong irrational fear of spiders, you want to go to a place like Wal-Mart, but every door you try to enter has a nice little spider hanging from the top. Unbeknownst to the store owner they just stopped you from entering their store. This works near the same way in chapters five and six of Little Brother. The government, or more particularly the Department of Homeland Defense, uses the fear caused by the terrorists to survey everyone at all times looking for "terrorists". Quite honestly it is a possibility, not a fact, that the DHS may have done the terrorist attack themselves just so that they could servey everyone, at all times. The reason that they can do this act is that in peoples fears they do not see past their basic want for protection. Thus, this act of surveillance goes along unharmed, in fact encouraged at many points.

That is fear as control, at a very basic level, using fear created at some point, wether by the controller or a second party, and harnasing that fear to get what you want out of a pearson, people, or nation.

http://www.surveillanceequipment.us/ (For my lovely photo)

Little Brother, Doctorow, Cory (2008) (For the topic of my writing)

dictionary.reference.com (For the definition of fear, terror, and control.)