Oh brother another blog post. Just kidding, but this is another book blog post about Little Brother by Doctorow, Cory.
Little Brother was a great book that teaches and describes simple coding, programming, and hacking. It was also powerful to have a young boy stand up for his country against the government that was threatening and imprisoning innocent people.
But I’m not just here to talk about how good this book was.
In class a couple of days ago, we picked a topic that focused in on one aspect of the novel. We did this in “lottery fashion” which resulted in not getting my top choice, but still a good topic about the American Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The Constitution establishes America’s national government and fundamental laws. It also guarantees certain basic rights for citizens. The constitution was signed on September 17, 1787.
Later, in 1791, the Bill of Rights (10 Amendments ) was made to ensure that no part of the government had too much power over its people. It guaranteed basic individual protection such as, freedom of speech and religion.
In Little Brother, after the bombing of the Bay Bridge, the freedom was taken away from the people of San Francisco. Everything Marcus Yallow, the main character, had learned about his rights had not mattered anymore because the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) had taken over.
I think the fourth Amendment relates to this book the most because in chapter 3 of Little Brother, Marcus stopped a military car trying to help his friend who was severely wounded. Without hesitation the men pulled their guns on Marcus and his friends. “The faceless, eyeless armed man above me kept his gun very level. I didn’t even breathe. Van was screaming something and Jolu was shouting and I looked at them for a second and that was when someone put a coarse sack over my head and cinched it tight around my windpipe, so quick and so fiercely I barely had time to gasp before it was locked on me”(pg. 29).
Later, Marcus was held in a secret prison and questioned for multiple days. The military was ordered to do this by the government, which is against the fourth amendment because his property was searched without a warrant and he was forced to testify against himself.
I admired Marcus because the DHS and many others like his peer Charles were against him, yet he still stood up for himself. When Marcus was debating against Charles in class, he cleverly pointed out something he read from the Declaration of Independence:
“I wanted to read something,” I said. “It’s short. ‘Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness” (pg. 104).
This was a very important part to the story and he used this many times against adults who believed in the DHS.
The American constitution was created more than 200 years ago.
Hmm more than 200 years… back then there were no cell phones or computers just the newly created typewriter.
It’s amazing that even though our world has changed so much, the Constitution has proved to be stable and flexible enough to survive and remain effective today.
The Constitution is used both as a legal document and as a set of ideas in our society today.
Recently, a Supreme Court case debated whether “Obama care” was justifiable in the Constitution under the Commerce Clause. The Constitution was also used by gay rights activists using the idea of equal protection and personal freedom to achieve their goals.
Though the Constitution and Bill of Rights is still relevant and useful, the internet and technology has caused many problems that go against it. As previously mentioned, in the book Little Brother, the DHS was taking control and disrupting everyone’s life. Using technology, the DHS was easily able to track Marcus and find him when his guard was down.
In his own school, Marcus was also being watched by th administration because they instaled gait recognition, “Gait recognition software takes pictures of your motion, tries to isolate you in the pics as a silhouette, and then tries to match the silhouette to a database to see if it knows who you are”(pg. 32).
In our own lives today, our phones have our every location and every message, and if someone really wanted, they could get all of that. The Constitution agrees that we deserve privacy, however, we could be searched right now without even knowing it.
Sources:
https://i2i.org/the-relationship-between-the-declaration-of-independence-and-the-constitution/
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/inventions-that-changed-america-1790-1850
https://home.ubalt.edu/shapiro/rights_course/Chapter1text.htm
https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-amendments/bill-of-rights/