Book Review: The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod Essays

In the dystopian worlds created by the film director Andrew Niccol and renowned author George Orwell, notions of control and freedom are explored. Both worlds contain an overarching power that governs the rest of the population and restricts freedom of individuals, these powers also aid in the progression of technology, which further act to control individuals. The characterisations of the protagonists of each text portray the lack of freedom from the perspective of those that are affected. Both authors use a variety of techniques to portray themes of control and freedom in their texts.

Lack of confidence or self-doubt is something someone deals with more than once throughout their lives, lack of self confidence can put someone through small to severe stages of depression, these stages can create thoughts of suicide or lead to actual attempts of suicide. Being scared of something or someone or being scared to do something that can change your life, when this happens, it kills or severely damages confidence and once confidence is damaged every life choice that has been made or is about to happen is thought upon negatively or reconsider all together. A young child choosing his or her career and sticking to it can create pressure the older the child gets and the more the pressure continues to become larger it can start to diminish confidence. The Space Between Stars by Geeta Kothari, follows the journey of Maya as she tries to figure out where she belongs in the world. Maya battle with the world, she is stuck in this never ending battle between the two cultures that are present within the story. Kothari illustrates Maya as this person who dislikes living in her own skin, within her own culture and her entire life as a whole. The death of the sunfish has lead to the idea of one single image that can impact an entire thought and decision made throughout an entire life.

The first chapter begins by explaining the relevance of the economic stand points that people are unaware of. F.A. Hayek points out a key aspect that relates to society sharing a Totalitarianism view; which is simply one person or a government being the absolute power. However, all people really want is their freedom. Over time I believe that Hayek feels that the people are losing their freedom. Totalitarianism is different and the people did not fully understand what was going to happen. In all reality it was just a change not necessarily for the better.

Bernard, Lenina, and Linda all have unique characteristics that set them apart from the regular citizens of the World State Society. However, all three of them have unknowingly fallen into the conformities of the state’s maladaptive rules, preferably choosing to emanate the state’s values that do not fit their own characteristics. The World State’s guidelines and regulations pull all the citizens of the World State, including Bernard, Lenina, and Linda, into one lifestyle of living through a domino effect of conformity: the more people that conform, the more harder it is to resist the urge to conform with them. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New

The idea that capitalism allows for the most freedom out of any political structure has been long perpetuated by proponents of capitalism. The thinkers in favor of capitalism, according to socialist thinkers, misinterpret what it means for a person to be truly free in a society, and capitalism cannot achieve that goal of making everyone truly free. Cohen believes that socialism not only is more attractive, morally, but also less constraining on liberty than the capitalist theorists believe because capitalism forces the proletariat to “sell their labor power” (Cohen, The Structure of Proletarian Unfreedom, 3). Cohen’s explains why socialism is morally acceptable as a theory of government through the example of the camping trip thought experiment, where the principles of community and egalitarianism are brought out. In this essay I will explore how Cohen forms these arguments, and then form counter arguments from a capitalist standpoint to try to derail his arguments.

Dystopias are a hyperbolic view of a familiar society’s values, and assert that total control is harmful to the individual. Anthem is a grim future Rand envisioned after experiencing first-hand the impacts of a brutal Stalinist rule . It was influenced by general socio-political trend of increasing signs of collectivism and oligarchy developing into more recent politics during the early 20th

The ideal of capitalism believes in the ideal of Laissez-faire and opposes government intervention in economics because capitalists believe free-market produces the best economic outcome for society and the government should not pick winners and losers. Even though capitalism disregards the theory that government can change rules of conduct/business practices through regulation or ease of regulations; socialism is still the better form of government because its’ ideals are that people are to have equal opportunity to

main theme for the book was that Capitalism is evil and Socialism should replace it.

The books main themes include language as mind control and psychological and physical intimidation and manipulation. In the book, the people live in a city which is very out of the ordinary and also overseen by a charismatic leader, Big Brother. This society, portrayed by George Orwell has

The Manifesto’s opening establishes communism as “a spectre [which] is haunting Europe” (218). At first glance, this would make communism the supernatural entity that threatens the natural world of capitalism. The

The story takes place in 1984 in London, in a city called Airstrip One. In 1984 which it is the future, there are three states that rule all Oceania (the setting of 1984), Eastasia, and Eurasia. Airstrip One is one of the provinces of Oceania. Oceania is in a constant war state where the people are in terrible living conditions. In the beginning of the story we are told Oceania is in war with Eurasia, and is allied with Eastasia. Then in the middle it’s switched. Oceania is in war with Eastasia and is allied with Eurasia. In Oceania, the government is split into four parts that do different things. There is the Ministry of Love they make sure everyone is following the law, and none are being broken. The Ministry of Truth deals with changing the history to fit into the totalitarian government standards. The Ministry of Plenty, which is in charge of economic relations, and the Ministry of Peace which is in charge of war.

This dystopian novel questioned many things that we value in our society like religion and family. The need for family is eliminated because instead of reproduction, people are cloned. Without a family and without the attachments that other relationships bring, they have soma. This is a drug that allows them to have a euphoria away from reality. This drug use in the World State is a more extreme version of how people cope with things today. This constant euphoria of the soma hides the truth from all of its citizens. The truth is upsetting and sometimes not at all what needs to be heard, which is why the World State hid it from everyone. In both realities secrets are hidden and people are fooled into thinking that ignorance is bliss, this is not the case, however.

This novel is about the corruption omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation the superstate is under the control of the privileged elite of the inner party and government that persecutes individualism. When he wrote this book he wanted the readers to know that there are similar to today's society and 1984 like what was happening then is still happening now like all the bad things that happened then are still happening in today's society. The way that 1984 and the society that we are in today are similar is like how 1984 had big brother watching them so if they broke a law or rule than they have to suffer the consequences because they did something they were not suppose to do so for us today we have more than just one person that is watching us we have the president and the government and the police and more

The STARS program is a process that most students have not even heard about, as a first time student myself, I was not even aware that the program existed. Most people might wonder what STARS is, for instance, STARS, however, stands for “Statewide Transfer and Articulation Reporting System.” It is an agreement that mostly a two-year college and most public four-year colleges in Alabama has that give all the transferring of courses taken to a public university in Alabama. In addition, most student wonder how to connect to STARS through their school site, it is an easy process; most colleges will have a link at the top of their website that will lead straight to the STARS site. However, from there STARS will give student instructions on how

The works of Karl Marx are a crucial part of the foundation of the utopia, as they outline the overt flaws in a capitalist system and define the economic plan of the utopia. Although not inherently communistic in every aspect, the dominant political ideology of the utopia is libertarian socialism. Under libertarian socialism, the citizens can reach their full potential while remaining under the care of the government for systems such as healthcare and education. By being allowed to the same opportunities as everyone else from birth, the concept of equality of opportunity is instilled in each person and is further cemented into the foundations of each individual as they age. Eventually, they will come to see themselves and others as complete equals, which will give them a better understanding of their environment and will make for better choices.