How we cite our quotes: (Book.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Now imagine the human rights implications. Protestors on the streets of Egypt no longer have to hold up a camera, hoping to catch a human rights violation or a murder and then somehow get the footage out of the streets and online. Now it's as easy as gluing a camera to a wall." (1.8.45)
According to Eamon Bailey, Circle technologies like the SeeChange camera system will create social justice by exposing unjust activities and making it easier for the perpetrators to be held accountable. Sounds pretty good, right?
Quote #2
"The square is quiet now, but can you imagine if something happened? There would be instant accountability. Any soldier committing an act of violence would instantly be recorded for posterity. He could be tried for war crimes, you name it. And even if they clear the square of journalists, the cameras are still there. And no matter how many times they try to eliminate the cameras, because they're so small, they'll never know for sure where they are, who's placed them where and when. And the not-knowing will prevent abuses of power." (1.8.59)
Ever heard of Michel Foucault's idea of the panopticon? The panopticon is a prison design in which a central observation tower is surrounded by tiers of cells that surround it in a circle. Every cell is exposed to the central tower, and so the prison guards who sit in the tower are able to monitor every single prisoner easily and efficiently.
Foucault tells us that the thing that makes the panopticon particularly effective is the fact that there doesn't need to be anyone in the central tower at all in order for the system to work. As long as the prisoners believe that they're being watched, they'll behave accordingly. Sound anything like Eamon Bailey's thoughts on the SeeChange system?
Here's the kicker, folks: Foucault tells us that the panopticon isn't just an example of historical prison design; it's also an allegory for oppressive institutional control. Can Eamon Bailey's SeeChange system really be used to further the cause of justice when it shares so much in common with the tactics of totalitarianism?
Quote #3
"Okay, now this doesn't just apply to areas of upheaval. Imagine any city with this kind of coverage. Who would commit a crime knowing they might be watched any time, anywhere? My friends in the FBI feel this would cut crime rates down by 70, 80 percent in any city where we have real and meaningful saturation." (1.8.61)
For someone who claims to be invested in the human rights implications of his technologies, Eamon Bailey has pretty conservative ideas about crime prevention. Rather than attempting to curb crime by instilling an all-pervasive fear of being watched, what might a truly progressive person suggest instead?
Quote #4
"But for now, let's go back to the places in the world where we most need transparency and so rarely have it." (1.8.63)
According to Eamon Bailey, absolute transparency is the only guarantor of justice. It's no surprise that his thought process follows the track that it does in The Circle. By making it impossible for people to be anything but transparent, he believes that he'll eradicate injustice. Is he right? Do you think he even really cares about justice?
Quote #5
"You know what I say, right? In situations like this, I agree with the Hague, with human rights activists the world over. There needs to be accountability. Tyrants can no longer hide. There needs to be, and will be, documentation and accountability, and we need to bear witness. And to this end, I insist that all that happens should be known."
The words dropped onto the screen:
ALL THAT HAPPENS MUST BE KNOWN. (1.8.65-67)
Eamon Bailey's all-caps announcement that All That Happens Must Be Known is our first major clue that Bailey has a bit of a God complex. Will omniscience be enough to satisfy him, or is he likely to claim quasi-divine powers of judgment for himself, too?
Quote #6
This went on for an hour, and by the end, Mae was wrecked. The MS, her helplessness to slow it, her inability to bring back the life her father had known—it tortured her, but the insurance situation was something else, was an unnecessary crime, a piling on. Didn't the insurance companies realize that the cost of their obfuscation, denial, all the frustration they caused, only made her father's health worse, and threatened that of her mother? (1.9.66)
Mae Holland's moral compass isn't always off-kilter; there are scattered moments throughout The Circle when she's fully capable of recognizing unjust behaviors. The problem is that Mae is often seduced by "solutions" that are equally unjust. The medical insurance that the Circle offers her parents seems, at first, like a liberation from the criminal behavior of their former insurers, but it doesn't take long for Mae's parents to realize that the Circle's medical care comes with terrible rules and conditions of its own.
Quote #7
And there was a wonderful thing that tended to happen, something that felt like poetic justice: every time someone started shouting about the supposed monopoly of the Circle, or the Circle's unfair monetization of the personal data of its users, or some other paranoid and demonstrably false claim, soon enough it was revealed that that person was a criminal or deviant of the highest order. […] And it made sense. Who but a fringe character would try to impede the unimpeachable improvement of the world? (1.33.6)
Ah, yes. Poetic justice. That's definitely the term we use when a corrupt corporation destroys anyone who threatens it or stands in the way of its continued expansion. Wait, what? That's not what that term means? Huh. Someone should probably send Mae Holland a "zing" to let her know.
Quote #8
The pressure on those who hadn't gone transparent went from polite to oppressive. The question, from pundits and constituents, was obvious and loud: If you aren't transparent, what are you hiding? Though some citizens and commentators objected on grounds of privacy, asserting that government, at virtually every level, had always needed to do some things in private for the sake of security and efficiency, the momentum crushed all such arguments and the progression continued. If you weren't operating in the light of day, what were you doing in the shadows? (1.38.5)
This mass momentum that crushes everything in its path should be setting off some major alarm bells as you read The Circle. Dave Eggers' novel shares more than a few concerns about the violence that can ensue when people are presumed guilty rather than innocent (contrary to their constitutional right).
Quote #9
"Now all humans will have the eyes of God. You know this passage? 'All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of God.' Something like that. You know your Bible?" Seeing the blank looks on the faces of Mae and Francis, he scoffed and took a long pull from his drink. "Now we're all God. Every one of us will soon be able to see, and cast judgment upon, every other. We'll see what He sees. We'll articulate His judgment. We'll channel His wrath and deliver His forgiveness. On a constant and global level." (2.13.18)
Although Mae Holland and Francis Garaventa can't stop laughing at the deluded ranting of the drunken former divinity student who preaches to them at a bar, the truth is that his ideas aren't all that different from Eamon Bailey's. In fact, Bailey has said almost all of the very same things, but because he has couched his ideas in more progressive and humanitarian (and less obviously religious) speech, his radicalism has gone largely unnoticed by Circlers like Francis and Mae.
Quote #10
Another column featured users' own photos, posted according to relevance. Within three minutes, there were 201 photos posted, most of them close corollaries to the face of Fiona Highbridge. On-screen, votes were tallying, indicating which of the photos were most likely her. In four minutes it was down to five prime candidates. (2.23.34)
Notice how the Circle's impressive new search technologies don't actually bother with facial recognition programs but instead tabulate the results of users' votes to determine which woman is most likely to be fugitive Fiona Highbridge? The search tool is using mass guesswork as a substitute for careful analysis and investigation, and it's celebrating the light-speed judgments of the masses as reliable and praiseworthy. Does anyone have any actual evidence that the woman these people find and corner is actually Fiona Highbridge?