The Air-Ship talks about people inhabiting small pods underneath the surface of the earth. My biggest thought about the Party of the Machine, in all it's 1984 style, is how it regulates the people living in those pods. Say for instance the woman acting as flight-attendant on the air-ship were to have whacked the woman complaining of the sunrise, in the face. Keep in mind that battery is not a serious crime, and is in most cases what we would consider a misdemeanor offense, however in the context of this story, at least in the case of the woman who was "whacked," direct touching of another person is entirely taboo and strictly forbidden. Now, what would have happened to the "whacker," is the mother of all questions that spoils my imagination.
Scenario 1: Part of me says the Party of the Machine, with its all-seeing eye, would have immediately relinquished this "whacker" from her duties, and sent her to some place of reform. This could be a dungeon of sorts, or even in a pod of her own- one that is limited in its capabilities and is meant to "build character" or "teach a lesson." There she would live for the better part of 3-6 months, at which point she would be confined to a pod, and told she could not leave, but could communicate with other people through the same means as the lady she once whacked.
Scenario 2: The same all-seeing eye would send this poor woman to the surface of the earth to fend for herself against the wrecked planet's nature, or to wander off to some random establishment where she could hopefully find someplace at which to survive, and essentially begin a new life. The Party would feel that the trouble she'd have to go through to achieve this acceptance and start a new life, would be enough of a lesson for her to know not to be so foolish again.
Scenario 3: Yet again, the Party acts- they exile the "whacker" to another planet, or even to the core of our own planet. If she went to the core of our planet, she'd be in a "hell" of sorts, but ultimately end up dying. If she went to another planet, it'd be like Britain sending criminals to Australia at one point, in that she'd be placed on a planet of exiles like herself. Now, depending on how strict the Party is with their no-tolerance policy, this planet could be one in which convicts roam free like nomads and either band together as one, kill each other, or do both in some facet of organization. If the party is not so tough (they'd have to be at least a little tough, though, to exile people for simply "whacking" a person), such a planet could be one with cages or facilities designed to contain prisoners.
Scenario 4: Lastly, I shall examine the possibility of nothing happening. I think this option is the most exciting to think about. Imagine if nothing at all happened to someone who committed an act such as striking another person. Would the Party see the act and respond immediately; would the woman who was struck have to file a formal charge at a police station; or would nothing at all happen, and that would just have to be part of life- a part that individuals are protected from by being in their pods in the first place? If nothing happened, then what would stop atrocities from being committed every second of every day, and even, what would keep something like "the air-ship" even running? A society of anarchy is much more exciting to think about than any regulated system of punishment. For all the story tells us, the rest of the earth could be an anarchist's playground, however, given the seemingly far-reaching and mighty power of the Party of the Machine, I don't think that citizens in a world like that in this story, would have such extensive personal freedoms.
Question for discussion: Which of the above options do you think is most likely, if any, and what makes you think that? If you don't think any of the above scenarios is likely to occur, then what is?
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Regulating the Underworld
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3 comments:
You pose an interesting question in this post. It's hard to gauge what probably would have happened if she had indeed gotten "whacked," but I think the people themselves definitely wouldn't know what to do. In this dystopian society humans have become entirely dependent on machines for all facets of life and that is not good at all. Just like when the guy drops his book and expects the floor to raise the book up to him, but when it doesn't he has no clue what to do and just walks on. Whatever punishment the flight attendant receives is most likely going to be administered by that all-seeing eye so I'd say Scenario 1 is most likely.
That's an interesting idea. I think the idea of someone actively seeking human contact, aggressive or otherwise, would be so foreign that the people in that world would have a hard time figuring out exactly what to do- my friend always said, the trick to never getting arrested is to do things so strange no one's thought to make laws against them. The story did mention Homelessness as a great punishment, which, presumably means life without the machine. Perhaps she would be better suited, but still hopelessly inadequate.
First off, I think that these ideas are really creative. I would have never gone into such depth about what "could have" or "would have" happened in such a case. However, I really like the concept of the last option. But in order to answer your question, I must first pose my own: Isn't the current system an anarchy? Or would you consider it a monarchy? Consider this- the machine is one entity, controlling everyone's life down to what they do, when the do it, and how they do it. If it's all the same machine, wouldn't that be a monarchy?
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