The Every, Dave Eggers, author; Don Graham, narrator
The Every is a new concept. It is The Circle expanded and gone mad. Surveillance is everywhere. Privacy is almost non-existent; freedom no longer exists. Judging the actions of everyone and everything is commonplace and is encouraged; language is redefined as words are restructured so as not to offend; a person is no longer homeless, but is unhoused. The length of texts and posts are controlled so as not to be too long encouraging dissent; in this way the amount of information provided is censored and controlled. Some people can no longer function unless they are managed, or unless they have something to complain about, or something to criticize, or something to judge. It makes them feel important, since they do little else of importance. It makes them feel virtuous. This kind of angry behavior and censorious rhetoric seems almost necessary as all aspects of life are slowly being more and more controlled by The Every and everyone is slowly being placed under their control with cameras, listening devices, artificial intelligence and GPS coverage. Carefully, one step at a time, the program is designed to compromise privacy with lies and deception.
Once the egregious behavior of the company is discovered, it is too late. The constant monitoring of people’s thoughts, emotions, actions and speech has already been accepted as normal or has made life so much easier no one will give up the benefits it provides. They simply acknowledge that they are being spied upon and accept the invasion of their private space. Life has become easier, they need less, live less complicated lives. Large homes are not really necessary, and without them, the land can return to nature. How much space does a person really need? How much water does one need to use? One can wash at a sink, so when water is limited, there is no outcry. Given enough time, all habits and perceived abuses can be examined and supervised to be improved.
Hear Me is a listening device installed in most people’s homes without their knowledge. It is simply embedded in something else they have purchased. They do not think it works 24/7, but it does. They cannot turn it off as they thought. Soon eavesdropping on conversations is followed by arrests even before a crime is committed. Just thinking about domestic violence or imagining a crime and putting it into a verbal statement could get you arrested. Certain words and algorithms trigger law enforcement to take action. Hear Me listens to everything, monitors all behavior, tracks and reports it, and no one is the wiser until they are so used to the improvement in their quality of life, the decrease in crime and violence, that they are willing to give up more of their privacy once again, when they finally find out that they are being spied upon. They decide the benefits make it worth it. Just as cameras, facial recognition, Artificial Intelligence and GPS tracks everyone, Hear Me is now as commonplace as they are. As crimes are witnessed by cameras, crime disappears. As conversations bordering on dangerous are overheard in private homes, and the speakers are apprehended for crimes they have not yet committed, people feel safer. They learn to watch their own speech and are guarded when they realize the hear me cannot be turned off. Shame is used to control their thoughts and behavior, but they seem not to mind. Still, by the time the polices of The Every policies become oppressive, there will be no alternative, no turning back. They will be too embedded in society to remove, just like government handouts. People grow lazy, and incapable of critical thinking. They do not have to worry about anything, as long as they do what is expected, act appropriately, experience acceptable emotions and voice no suspicious comments.
People are required to live where they work and not commute. Roads are unnecessary. Cars cause pollution. They should ride bikes. They are content to live in pods, in small spaces. What more do they really need? They use only small amounts of water so as not to waste the natural resource. They must not invade the natural spaces of other living creatures. They were not invited there. They must protect the environment. If someone interferes with the process, that someone is eliminated. Since the news and information is controlled, there is no way to know what really happened to that person. All investigations are controlled by systems that are managed by The Every. Information is controlled completely.
So when Delaney goes to work for The Every with the sole objective of destroying it, he is totally unaware of the fact that they are too advanced for him to outsmart, rather they outsmart him. Making people mindless and obedient is their business and they do it well. There are few complaints or uprisings and those that abuse The Every’s expectations are swiftly dealt the justice of The Every. People disappear or die with whatever plausible story is made up and spread by those in charge. There is no resistance, there is no one to resist. The person taken out is often falsely honored by those that removed him.
The people in charge are generally the dysfunctional, those unable to cope in the world, those not operating with a full deck, socially unable to manage. These are the people making the rules, controlling the world. The most damaged individuals actually operate and continue to imagine more and more schemes to create their idea of a perfect world, a world occupied by humans who think little and perform less. Not much is required of them. Auto plants are not needed, animal farms and many kinds of factories are no longer needed. This is not utopia, it is a nightmare vision. Everyone is managed.
The book is kind of silly because it is too extreme, even as a parody. Still, it makes one think since we already are controlled by devices and our privacy is limited. How much more will humans accept as this pandemic has shown their predilection is to be lazy. If the government provides enough, people are willing to give up a lot. Unless we want to become mindless, we need to stop the growth of the invasion of our privacy, and stop the need for safe spaces and big government. We need to function and cope with the world as we control our environment without a nanny state. We need to stop escaping from independence and responsibility or the real authoritarians will take over, and they won’t come from any expected direction. Those in charge use misdirection, subterfuge and deception to succeed. It is already coming from the political left and the narrative being spread is falsely blaming it on the right. The left is invading our lives far too much. Our schools, media, entertainment and athletic worlds are controlling the news and information we get, not necessarily honestly, but definitely broadly skewed with propaganda and lies.
I found the book depressing as the possibility of this nightmare scenario grows closer in our real world, with every passing day, under our current leadership, especially. When roads are condemned because they lead to accidents, it leads to condemning the cars that use them, as well. When natural habitats are condemned if viewed by humans since there is always the possibility of an accident injuring an animal, the animals are indeed running the zoo. If we are so controlled, we may not have much of a life left that is worth living, and an increase in suicide in this novel and in our real world is proof of the consequences of such draconian rules. Those in charge in the novel, and those in charge in our real life, are blaming and punishing others for their very own behavior that goes unpunished.
The book drags as it is often repetitive. It is difficult to read as it is also about an unpleasant world. I did not find the humor that is supposed to be evident. I found it to be too close to the nightmare we may one day soon be living. I think in this book Eggers tried to be a little too clever which was distracting.