Will You Choose To Rebel?

Although I believe that we will never have a perfect society because to have a utopia we don't need it to be perfect. We need to stray away from the idea that everything needs to be perfect. But let's take a second and think hypothetically here. If there was a perfect society, throughout time there's always someone or some group that decides to rebel. Things can be running smoothly and everyone is living the dream life but there's always that one person who just decides that they want to go against the system in place. We've seen this in movies, books, and all over social media. This relates to what I think is an ongoing debate in our generation. Whether we should try to fit in with the crowd or stray away and be ourselves.

 You also see this in today's fashion and music where people are constantly trying to find ways to be different and start new trends. This group is always itching for that next trend to emerge just so they can drop it in the next two weeks. Then there's the other side of the fence, the group of people who were raised to just go with the norm and often get offended by these ideas. Have you ever been told to "stay woke"? There's this theory going around that we are blind to what actually takes place. For the most part, I tend to agree with this idea, I believe that we are only exposed to certain things while we miss out on key important pieces that are kept in the dark. I feel like this will not last long mainly because of the fact that we are exposed to so many different things on social media, where previously our only source of information came from mostly news outlets. Who’s to say they don’t keep certain stories from us blinding us from the truth and what’s really taking place in the world.  

M.T Andersons Feed is a book based on a future society. Titus along with his five teenage friends all share the feed. The feed is a microchip that is put into the head and constantly feeds knowledge to the brain. It also does a majority of critical thinking. Violet, a girl Titus meets on the moon doesn't have the same view towards the feed as everyone else. She takes on a negative perspective and fights against the norm.

In M.T Anderson's Feed, you can debate that there is a theme of rebellion, but there's a constant defiance taking place with Violet.  Violet didn’t get the feed until she was seven years old. Mainly due to the fact that her parents were not able to afford it and they also objected to it based on a moral standard. Her father wouldn’t have implanted the feed into his back if it wasn’t for the fact that he was missing out on crucial information. Which pushes him to makes sure Violet gets the feed so she does not miss out on the same opportunities that he has. Among the group of friends, she is much different, she seems to be much smarter and thinks outside of the box. She comes up with a plan to take interest in different products of different varieties. As she says “Listen,” she said. “What I’m doing, what I’ve been doing over the feed for the last two days, is trying to create a customer profile that’s so screwed, no one can market to it. I’m not going to let them catalog me. I’m going to become invisible.” page 98  By doing this the feed can't predict her interests because if she doesn't have consistent patterns it confuses the feed. When they go to the mall they start off by going into a tech store and begin to look at the most unusual products they have, the first being a search light. Violet begins to tell Titus some of the different weird things that she has been looking at. Some of these items being a “pennywhistle, a barrel of institutional lard, some really cheesy boy-pop, a sarong, an industrial lawn mower”. page 102 Along with information on business, male pattern baldness, and house paintings for an Antarctic home owner. I don’t know about you but if someone came to me looking for these things it would definitely confuse the shit out of me. She continues to do this at other stores but she doesn't buy anything she looks at items then gives them back and leaves. As she's going through there's stores she's actually taking on the role as an interested buyer by pretending she actually likes the items.

Her plan begins to work as the feed can't find any consistencies and can’t properly read her. But little

does she know it actually works against her and the feed begins to shut down. She later finds out that this simply can't be fixed because of the fact that she got her feed later than others. This reminds me of certain examples where there is an uprising and there's always an effort by someone or something to quiet the rebellion. The one thing that comes to mind that relates to this is the assassinations of different leaders who lead movements throughout history. These movements didn't sit too well with certain people and they felt it should be handled even if it meant murder. Just because they decided to stray away from the norm, and make a change. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement.

In feed, you do see other hints at rebellion but none as strong as what’s going on with Violet. For example, when they were driving through the tube streets there was an ongoing protest on the moon. Some of the people were protesting the feed and were broadcasting different slogans to everyone. To be exact one of the slogans went, “Chip in my head? I’m better off dead! Chip in my head? I’m better off dead!” page 31/32. This shows that there are people out there who are against the feed but it does not specify if they have the feed or not.

The question is, would you choose to be different like Violet and think for yourself or is the easier life where knowledge is hand fed to you the easier choice?

Citation :

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Word Count : 1122

Malachi A