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] 
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
I really like how you took situations form today and related them to the fictitious situation in "Little Brother:, giving perspective. Its also great how you attached videos with your entry, since a picture speaks a thousand words. (so does a video speak a million? hmm :P) As for a piece of advice, I think integrating your own opinion would be great. :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe a video does speak a million words in comparison with the old saying of a picture speaking a thousand words. I just thought that a video may allow a more in depth example.Though, I don't quite understand what you mean by "integrating your own opinion"; I mean I get the fact of adding more of a self-voice to the work but to what extent?
ReplyDeleteI was having difficulting of thinking of improvement so I went with that
ReplyDeleteAs for the video it was a great idea