Cory Doctorow’s, Little Brother is a spell binding book. Definitely one that I grabbed, glued my eyes to the pages and buried my nose between the spine of. I still have the scent of printed paper in my nostrils lurking around. Reading other books are interesting but you don’t see many using high school students that are extremely technically savvy and going against the odds. It seems like a book that could relate to me and that’s why I picked it up and could not put it down. This book gives off a sense of paranoia, in almost every form of government that a student could be afraid of. I could recall some incidents where I was felt or that I knew I was being watched or be caught at any moment, and sometimes did get caught.
Well I could recall, going to high school as a sophomore and thinking that everything was fine one day. Basketball season was over and the end of the year was closing in very soon. The principal was the head coach of the football team and he was a very strict individual. That year, I had a computer typing class with this girl that I was dating and we would chat a lot using instant messages. I don’t think the computer teacher minded too much as long as we finished our typing lessons or if it was open lab after school. Well, to tell a story short, I was using the computer for more than just chatting. One magnificent evening, I was in class and over the intercom, a nice voice spoke out “Brandon Stockton, could you please come to the principal’s office”. I didn’t think nothing of it since I was on the football team and that year we won the championship. So, I stood up, strolled down to the principals office as slowly as possible to miss as much class as possible to only see the face of one of the angriest men I had ever seen. I thought I had got caught for cutting class a week before but this was different. Apparently, the principal had access to all the student accounts, could read chat logs and monitor anything a student downloads. So thankfully to say I wasn’t suspended, but my mom and dad were furious. The principal sentenced me to twenty hours of community service or suspension for 3 days. I took the community service. That was when my paranoia about schools began.
My friend told me about an interesting video one day. The video was research a person had done about the incidents before, during, and after “9/11“. The video was about movie length filled with lots of interesting data about the government. After watching this video, honestly I felt a sense of dishonesty and that something did seem missing from that incident. So of course I had to watch the movie again to see what happened again. The movie was very convincing and the person telling the documentary sounded very educated as if he knew what he was talking about the whole time. My thoughts came to a contorted crossroad, of what I should believe or not; The person that was feeding me facts or the government in which I live under. Certainly, I have my thoughts and theories about the government, but this was different. This was important. I guess I’m still standing at that same crossroad today in my mind.
I know that most movies aren’t real but a couple movies that really stick into my head are usually government conspiracy movies. Those movies some of the best movies, because they are so action packed with tons of suspense and action until you really find out who’s pulling the strings on the evil puppets; the government. A couple movies to name were Enemy of the State, Conspiracy Theory and The Bourne Series. All of which really sticks into my mind this day because after watching them makes you wonder about the government. The tracking systems that they use to watch people. The instant data that they could obtain about you in less than five minutes. Makes you wonder, does that all really happen when someone is being watched by the government. I think the government are pushing people have credit cards and traceable information so that whenever they need to apprehend you for any reason, they could do so in less than 10 minutes. Almost makes me want to never buy a toothbrush with my debit card ever again.
Little Brother, did bring back these same feelings while reading it. I guess I could place this book upon the shelf of memories about the government that will always haunt me. I don’t think their could be anything worse than one of the three things: nuclear or biological weapons, catastrophic nature apocalypse, and government takeover. Government takeover is probably the worst out of all three because you suffer before dying. The surveillance of mankind is almost inevitable due to technology. The more convenient of technology we create, the easier the tactics are for the government to keep track of us.
Well I could recall, going to high school as a sophomore and thinking that everything was fine one day. Basketball season was over and the end of the year was closing in very soon. The principal was the head coach of the football team and he was a very strict individual. That year, I had a computer typing class with this girl that I was dating and we would chat a lot using instant messages. I don’t think the computer teacher minded too much as long as we finished our typing lessons or if it was open lab after school. Well, to tell a story short, I was using the computer for more than just chatting. One magnificent evening, I was in class and over the intercom, a nice voice spoke out “Brandon Stockton, could you please come to the principal’s office”. I didn’t think nothing of it since I was on the football team and that year we won the championship. So, I stood up, strolled down to the principals office as slowly as possible to miss as much class as possible to only see the face of one of the angriest men I had ever seen. I thought I had got caught for cutting class a week before but this was different. Apparently, the principal had access to all the student accounts, could read chat logs and monitor anything a student downloads. So thankfully to say I wasn’t suspended, but my mom and dad were furious. The principal sentenced me to twenty hours of community service or suspension for 3 days. I took the community service. That was when my paranoia about schools began.
My friend told me about an interesting video one day. The video was research a person had done about the incidents before, during, and after “9/11“. The video was about movie length filled with lots of interesting data about the government. After watching this video, honestly I felt a sense of dishonesty and that something did seem missing from that incident. So of course I had to watch the movie again to see what happened again. The movie was very convincing and the person telling the documentary sounded very educated as if he knew what he was talking about the whole time. My thoughts came to a contorted crossroad, of what I should believe or not; The person that was feeding me facts or the government in which I live under. Certainly, I have my thoughts and theories about the government, but this was different. This was important. I guess I’m still standing at that same crossroad today in my mind.
I know that most movies aren’t real but a couple movies that really stick into my head are usually government conspiracy movies. Those movies some of the best movies, because they are so action packed with tons of suspense and action until you really find out who’s pulling the strings on the evil puppets; the government. A couple movies to name were Enemy of the State, Conspiracy Theory and The Bourne Series. All of which really sticks into my mind this day because after watching them makes you wonder about the government. The tracking systems that they use to watch people. The instant data that they could obtain about you in less than five minutes. Makes you wonder, does that all really happen when someone is being watched by the government. I think the government are pushing people have credit cards and traceable information so that whenever they need to apprehend you for any reason, they could do so in less than 10 minutes. Almost makes me want to never buy a toothbrush with my debit card ever again.
Little Brother, did bring back these same feelings while reading it. I guess I could place this book upon the shelf of memories about the government that will always haunt me. I don’t think their could be anything worse than one of the three things: nuclear or biological weapons, catastrophic nature apocalypse, and government takeover. Government takeover is probably the worst out of all three because you suffer before dying. The surveillance of mankind is almost inevitable due to technology. The more convenient of technology we create, the easier the tactics are for the government to keep track of us.
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