How we cite our quotes: (Book.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"My mother's eighty-one. She doesn't get around as easily as she once did. A year ago she fell and broke her hip, and since then I've been concerned about her. I asked her to have some security cameras installed, so I could access them on a closet circuit, but she refused. But now I have peace of mind. Last weekend, while she was napping—"
A wave of laughter rippled through the audience.
"Forgive me! Forgive me!" he said, "I had no choice. She wouldn't have let me do it otherwise." (1.8.72-74)
Recording someone on video cameras without that person's consent? Displaying those live feeds to a crowd of 10,000 employees? Justifying your actions by claiming to have had no choice? We gotta say, Eamon Bailey—these don't sound like very moral or ethical behaviors to us.
Quote #2
Mae continued on, away from shore. She set a goal to make it to a red buoy she spotted, near the bend of a peninsula, deep in the bay. Getting to it would take thirty minutes or so, and en route, she would pass a few dozen anchored barges and sailboats. Many had been made into homes of one kind or another, and she knew not to look into the windows, but she couldn't help it; there were mysteries aboard. (1.10.14)
"Not being able to help it" seems to be a recurring theme among those who work at the Circle. Curiosity isn't always a virtue, but it doesn't look like any of them got the memo.
Quote #3
Mae drove back to the coast, her body shaking with rage. They had no right to do that, to summon her home and then cast her out. She didn't want to smell his s***! She would help, yes, any time she was asked, but not if they treated her that way. (1.21.1)
A key to ethical behavior is recognizing and respecting both the dignity and the rights of those around you. This is just one of the episodes in The Circle when a Circler's self-absorption inspires that person to deny the rights and dignities of others.
Quote #4
"Mae, let me ask you a question. Would you have behaved differently if you'd known about the SeeChange cameras at the marina?"
"Yes."
Bailey nodded empathetically. "Okay. How?"
"I wouldn't have done what I did."
"And why not?"
"Because I would have been caught."
Bailey tilted his head. "Is that all?"
"Well, I wouldn't want anyone seeing me do that. It wasn't right. It's embarrassing." (1.44.32-39)
Throughout The Circle, Dave Eggers presents us with a serious and hard-hitting question. If we do the right thing only because we know that someone else may be watching, is our behavior actually moral or ethical?
Quote #5
He put his cup on the table next to him and rested his hands on his lap, his palms in a gentle embrace. "So in general, would you say you behave differently when you know you're being watched?"
"Sure. Of course."
"And when you'll be held accountable."
"Yes."
"And when there will be a historical record. That is, when or if your behavior will be permanently accessible. That a video of your behavior, for example, will exist forever." (1.44.40-44)
Although Dave Eggers clearly has some doubts about whether true morality and ethics can ever be inspired by fear of discovery or punishment, Eamon Bailey isn't troubled by any such concerns. If people are behaving well because they don't want to be caught behaving badly, that's good enough for him.
Quote #6
"Okay," Bailey said, "for now, we can't think of good secrets between friends. Let's move on to families. In a family, is a secret a good thing? Theoretically, do you ever think, You know what would be great to keep from my family? A secret."
Mae thought of the many things her parents were likely keeping from her—the various indignities her father's illness caused them. "No," she said. (1.44.64-65)
Even after having had some time to cool off from the anger she felt after being sent away from her parents' home after her father's accident, Mae Holland still hasn't taken the time to consider that her father's right to dignity might actually trump her right to intervene when she's not wanted. Unfortunately, Eamon Bailey's "wisdom" makes Mae even surer of herself and her own rightness.
Quote #7
"You know what my spouse said to me years ago when we got married? She said that whenever we were apart, for instance when I might go on a business trip, I should behave as if there were a camera on me. As if she were watching. Way back when, she was saying this in a purely conceptual way, and she was half-kidding, but the mental picture helped me. If I found myself alone in a room with a woman colleague, I would wonder, What would Karen think of this if she were watching from a closed-circuit camera?" (1.44.141)
Here's a stumper for you, Shmoopers: is there a difference between imagining that a loved one is watching you and knowing for realsies that anyone might actually be watching you? Personally, we think there is. And although we can't say so for sure, we're willing to bet that Dave Eggers does, too.
Quote #8
"Mae," he said, "I truly believe that if we have no path but the right path, the best path, then that would present a kind of ultimate and all-encompassing relief. We don't have to be tempted by darkness anymore. Forgive me for putting it in moral terms. That's the Midwestern church-goer in me. But I'm a believer in the perfectibility of human beings. I think we can be better. I think we can be perfect or near to it. And when we become our best selves, the possibilities are endless." (1.44.161)
Here's another stumper for you, Shmoopers: if The Circle is suggesting that truly moral and ethical behaviors can't be inspired by fear or discovery or desire for praise, then what should inspire them? In other words, what makes moral and ethical behaviors truly moral?
Quote #9
"It was just selfish, Eamon. It was selfish and nothing more. The same way a child doesn't want to share her favorite toy. I understand that secrecy is part of, well, an aberrant behavior system. It comes from a bad place, not a place of light and generosity. And when you deprive your friends […] of experiences like I had, you're basically stealing from them. You're depriving them of something they have a right to. Knowledge is a basic human right. Equal access to all possible human experience is a basic human right." (1.45.103)
One of the scariest things about The Circle is how easily figureheads like Eamon Bailey are able to construct new moral systems for their acolytes. The problem isn't just that the Circle encourages its users to engage in immoral and unethical behaviors—the bigger problem is that the company has made those behaviors seem good.