Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Little Brother: Local, State, and Federal Government
One interesting thing I noticed in Little Brother was the conflict between the various levels of government. In the story the DHS clearly had the support of the government on a federal level as evidenced by the president intervening on there behalf in the epilogue. Also it seemed like the DHS had the support of local government, law enforcement, etc. as well. The thing that got me was that in the end it was the state government that stepped in to end what was going on. I was just curious if anyone had any thoughts on perhaps why the local government was in favor of the DHS, rather than it's own state's government. Also I thought the balance of power between the state and federal levels of government to be intriguing as well. How much direct control should the federal government vs. the state government have within our cities? Specifically in law enforcement and the judicial system. Anyways just some food for thought.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It seems to be a premise both of this story and in real law enforcement that the federal government has greater responsibility when it comes to dealing with foreign agents. Anti-terrorism legislation typically comes from the federal government. And states get sued when they try to pass legislation dealing with immigration from other countries.
ReplyDeleteDoctorow is a pretty outspoken Libertarian, and Little Brother even won the Prometheus award for best Libertarian Science Fiction novel of the year. I think that really shows when he paints the feds as the bad guys with no respect for the individual, where the state government flies in and "rescues" everyone.
ReplyDelete