Week 10
Assignment
Little Brother
Generations, old versus young
Privacy
It’s not noticed until it’s taken away from you. Even just pissing.
Terrorism
Terror. Instilling fear into the people in order to maintain power; masked as providing safety
Censorship
Surveillance
Free speech
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Human rights
Invasion of intellectual privacy is really an invasion of the mind, which can turn people into zombies if we are not careful.
Quotes:
“The role of the government is to secure for citizens the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In that order… if the government wants to do something that makes us a little unhappy, or takes away some of our liberty, it’s okay, provided they’re doing it to save our lives… if you’ve got life, you might get liberty and happiness later” (209).
“that universal surveillance was more dangerous than terrorism” (210).
“what is the point in battleships and city walls, unless the people building them and protected by them are happy?” – Socrates
“I flipped around the 24-hour news networks… a parade of officials telling us why we should be scared” (214). “The point of terrorism is to terrify us. The DHS terrifies me” (237).

If terrorism is about terror—instilling fear into people—then the DHS is an example of how the US government itself instills fear into their own citizens in order to control them, rather than truly protecting them.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are part of the National Security’s mandate. However, what occurs inside Treasure Island as we have seen in the book clearly shows that the kids and the victims’ lives are not valued.
Marcus shows us that freedom for all is perhaps even more important than his own individual life. While this idea is debatable, nevertheless, it also reveals the interconnectedness between all American citizens and that each person has a responsibility to everyone else’s freedom.
Privacy should not be at the cost of security, for to lose privacy is to lose security. And to lose privacy is also a loss of freedom.
Silence as a part of the control. To silence someone is to control them.
Essay
Doctorow examines the definition of terrorism through issues of fear, power, and freedom. Terror, being a form of intense fear, can be used for gaining power and control. Freedom is to have control over one’s own actions. This includes the liberty to one’s privacy. Invasion of privacy not only strips away freedom, but creates terror.
Marcus speaks about the meaning of terrorism throughout the story. “The point of terrorism is to terrify us. The DHS terrifies