Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Personal Rights vs Public Safety

When I started to read Little Brother I did not think I would like it, but it turned out to be an interesting read. It is science fiction but is set in the near future and contains realistic characters, which I thought was interesting. A major theme in this story is the infringement on personal rights. The Department of Homeland Security infringes on Marcus' personal rights by arresting and torturing him. They justify the reasoning of this maltreatment by claiming his hacker abilities and proximity to the attack and say they are protecting the public. When, if ever, should personal rights take a back seat to public safety? Should the government be able to restrict personal rights to protect public safety during times of tragedy, like the one in this book?
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2013 at 6:42 PM

    One of the things about the book that really amazed me was how it almost mimicked what happened 12 years ago. Everyone began blaming anyone they didn't personally understand (unfortunately a lot of Americans still blame the entire Muslim community for the attacks on 9/11) and the actions by DHS aren't that far from actions taken under the Patriot Act. It's a dark subject to being up at the best of times.

    Here's a link to the text of the Patriot Act, passed shortly after 9/11. In short, it allows for 6 months of unreported detainment of suspected terrorists without due process, it also allows for roving wiretaps. While these actions have taken dangerous people off of the streets, American citizens have been affected.

    http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 13, 2013 at 10:02 AM

    The Patriot Act you posted is very interesting because I had no idea that this was by any means legal. The actions taken in the book seemed harsh and cruel, but according to this act the actions were perfectly legal. It is scary to think that after 9/11 innocent people were probably treated like this, but in order to keep the country safe this seems like the only thing that can be done as of right now.

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