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The Circle (Dave Eggers)


The Circle

Dave Eggers clearly thinks most of us have become incredibly needy and paranoid—guessing that anyone who is private, is doing so to deliberately withhold approval from us, and must be chased down and punished. There is a scene in this book where the main protagonist is going to pieces upon learning that 3% of her workplace doesn’t like her. All she can do is imagine who they might be, and wonder how they might be courted to her. Our collective regression to the emotional state of an abandoned child, is according to Eggers what could empower our wanting some giant company—a Google gone total world domination, for instance—to have everyone in some way under wraps. Little lollypop Google icameras everywhere, ensuring no one does anything that might be felt by our Earth hoard as a snubbing. Terrorism isn’t the issue. Nor really crime or racist behavior. It’s that someone if they could would “unfriend” you, if only if it could be done anonymously. 

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