Hello all!
So a few days ago I finished the book Blind Faith by Ben Elton.
This book is set in England in the future when privacy is a perversion and children barely make it to the age of four because of the 'Plagues' The 'Love' (God) sends. The main character is a man called Trafford who delights in keeping small secrets to himself, going against the social norm.
In this alternative future sharing every moment of your life is crucial, not just the every day things on their Face Space but you are expected to post videos on their TubeSpace. For example of the time they lost their virginity, them giving birth (the birthing video), whenever they have sex with their wives or husbands etc.
You are expected to eat as much as possible because if the 'Love' has granted us delicious food, why not have more of it? Furthermore, why not celebrate that joy even more by putting chocolate sprinkles on it?
Nudity is expected. The Love made you beautiful and sexy so why not show it. So in a cramped hot city where obesity is normal and praised, you are expected to go around in crop tops, short shorts or for very special occasions, G-strings. Women are expected to get breast implants as The Love made them so beautiful why not be bigger?
Science, the thought of evolution, reason and privacy are all evil. Vaccinations are poisoned needles injected into babies skin that defy The Love.
So that's an overview of the world the book lives in. I'm sure a lot of people will say the easy conclusion of "This is meant to be a negative view on sharing things to everyone, over the internet all the time" but actually, I disagree. I do not feel that Ben Elton is having a go at the world we live in now, or warning us to change our ways. I do not think that he is against Facebook, YouTube and blogging. I just feel he is saying with this book that this is how the world could be, it is a world flipped on its side for the purpose of this story. What Ben Elton and Trafford in this story are striving for is reason an intelligent thought. Trafford wants to get his child vaccinated based on evidence that he is shown and when it works, he wants to show what he has learnt with the world, and in the end (spoilers)
It turned out that everyone else wanted reason too, just because of the oppressive world they are living with they were not able to express this need.
Religion is clearly the main influence of this book but again, this is Ben Elton's way of say this is how it might be in a world flipped on its side. In the book they don't describe themselves as Atheists or even Agnostics, just Humanists, people that are devoted to human wellfare! I don't think Ben Elton is attacking religion, I think he's attacking what religion can do, how it can control people and how people of power within religion can have great influence over the masses and the people they have control of.
He's of course attacking blind faith, considering that's the book title. This idea that if they do not worship The Love as loudly as possible throughout the day they will get socially attacked and eventually really attacked. Trafford clearly says this in the book:
"I mean wouldn't faith itself be more valuable if it was arrived at through question and doubt? Seriously, it's not difficult saying you have faith if the alternative is being burned alive. But does that mean you really have faith?"
So what he is saying there, I think is that it's okay to have faith, but that faith means nothing if it is pressed upon you by threats.
This is a very good book if you want to read a story that has some really shocking and interesting ideas (I know I was shocked a few times!) of how the future could be. I think it's far too easy for people who comment on this book to go down the route that Ben Elton is just attacking Social Media. I think that this idea just clouds people's thoughts of the real issues shown in the book. Trafford never says that "We need to get all the network and the live sites down" all he wants is just a bit of privacy. I've also seen people say it's a warning about global warming, but I really disagree with that, I think the global warming is just the backdrop for this story, that global warming is what causes this future the be made, so this story can happen within this future, but it's not what the story is about.
In conclusion, I think most people are wary of the growing power of the internet, the need for people to feel like they have to constantly share everything, but right now we have a choice not to share. Our privacy is not treated as perverse and that are trying to hide something. I feel that as long as within our social circles we do not expect each other to share to with everyone, that we respect privacy, then there can be a balance of privacy and sharing in our lives. I feel that Ben Elton is trying to make sure that as a community we don't turn into this world described by the book, that reason, learning and questioning is very important to how we grow as a society, and that faith is an good thing, just not blind faith.
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