Isn't it just the worst when something—a person, an organization, a corporation, whatever—promises to make you more free but actually binds you down with all of its rules and requirements? Like that loan company that gives you room to breathe while you pursue your dreams and your degree but then hangs around you like Jacob Marley's padlocks and chains as you struggle to keep up with its inflated interest rates?
In our modern lives, we're confronted with lots of scenarios where we're asked to give up certain kinds of freedoms in order to gain other kinds of freedoms or conveniences. The Circle is all about scenarios like those, but it's particularly interested in those that conceal just how much freedom we'll need to give up in order to get the things we want. Is Dave Eggers suggesting that humanity is entering into a Faustian bargain with our social media-saturated world? You bet your britches he is.
Questions About Freedom and Confinement
- According to Mae Holland, how do the Circle's technologies liberate their users from everyday inconveniences?
- According to Eamon Bailey, how will the Circle's technologies help to make human beings safer and freer?
- According to Mercer Medeiros and Kalden, how do (or how will) the Circle's technologies limit human freedoms and entrap their users?
Chew on This
In The Circle, people like Mae Holland sacrifice way too many of their basic rights and freedoms in exchange for the paltry conveniences that the Circle offers. A person's right to privacy is more important than that person's access to consumer goods and services.
In The Circle, Mae Holland believes that it's no big deal to sacrifice her privacy in order to gain access to new forms of social communication and consumer experiences. People sacrifice their privacy whenever they use basic things like debit or credit cards. The Circle's tools aren't any different from the ones that ordinary people use every day.