The Circle and Thoreau's Walden

Once again, I'm going to be writing about The Circle since there is so much to say and interpret about it.  In Part A of Economy in Walden, Thoreau makes the observation that "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."  Plenty of people are desperate, or if not desperate at least longing, for something more than they already have.  If there is nothing to want, then there is nothing to work for.  However, there is a distinction between desperation and desire; desperation often leads to poor and rash decisions, while desire may simply serve to motivate, or might just be an idea that provokes no action.  Growing up, my dad always reinforced the idea that desperation is bad and will inevitably lead to bad choices--at the end of about every lecture about someone's poor decisions, he always said, "And you what caused them to act this way?  Desperation.  You never want to be desperate."  In Walden, Thoreau uses the word desperation to refer to the way humans continually want more success and wealth, pursuing technology for the sake of technology because we always want more, even when we don't need it.  This relates to The Circle in that the title company continually looks for ways to learn more, gain more information, get more people to join their network, and control people.  Although they won't admit control is what they're after, as their reasoning for transparency is so people can be free from secrets, the cameras everywhere are simply a way of increasing control over everyone.  Bailey and Dan argue that the world needs as much data as possible to make the best decisions and constantly look for more ways to obtain data, as well as "close the circle."  Ty points out that "if you can control the flow of information, you can control everything.  You can control most of what anyone sees and knows" (Eggers 487).  The Circle as a corporation is desperate to be entirely in control--of money, government, information, everything.  Just as Thoreau points out, they don't realize they have enough and don't necessarily need more; they keep looking for ways to expand just for the sake of it.  When the Circle brain trust gathers for the plankton meeting, Stenton seems to be "intrigued" (425) by anything that will give the Circle more control, supposedly in the name of safety.  No one considers that this technology might be unnecessary because they are too enamored by it to consider if they truly need it.