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Year of Consent
Security A.D. 1990.
It is only 36 years from now. The streets, the buildings, the fields look just as they do today. And the people look the same — until you get close enough to see the bland, vacant stare in their eyes, to hear the empty, guarded quality of their voices.
They are victims of a gigantic con game. Free will, the right of dissent have been washed away in a sea of slogans coined by the public-relations manipulators who have taken over the government. The rare ones who momentarily forget they are no longer individuals have their symptoms recorded by an enormous mechanical brain in Washington. The real dissenters, the incorrigible rebels, have their "sickness" cured by a simple surgical operation...
This is the year of consent. And this is the story of a man who fought back.
It is only 36 years from now. The streets, the buildings, the fields look just as they do today. And the people look the same — until you get close enough to see the bland, vacant stare in their eyes, to hear the empty, guarded quality of their voices.
They are victims of a gigantic con game. Free will, the right of dissent have been washed away in a sea of slogans coined by the public-relations manipulators who have taken over the government. The rare ones who momentarily forget they are no longer individuals have their symptoms recorded by an enormous mechanical brain in Washington. The real dissenters, the incorrigible rebels, have their "sickness" cured by a simple surgical operation...
This is the year of consent. And this is the story of a man who fought back.
- GenresScience Fiction
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1954
39 people want to read
About the author
Kendell Foster Crossen
102 books3 followersaka Richard Foster , Kendell F. Crossen , Kendall Foster Crossen , Ken Crossen , Christopher Monig
Kendell Foster Crossen was a mainstay of American pulp fiction and science fiction of the 1950s. He was the creator and writer of stories about the Green Lama (a pulp and comic book hero) and the Milo March detective novels.
Kendell Foster Crossen was a mainstay of American pulp fiction and science fiction of the 1950s. He was the creator and writer of stories about the Green Lama (a pulp and comic book hero) and the Milo March detective novels.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 20, 2022
tl;dr: 2.5. It tried, I guess.
It tries to say something witty and innovative about society, which at the time of this book's publishing, was becoming more and more engrossed with functionality and efficiency, but the point it pushes about overreliance on technology and technology eventually usurping human individuality ultimately falls short because we're only privy to one horrible instance of this phenomenon: We're told of the atrocities that the social engineers manufactur, the alien and unsympathetic Herbie who only cares for efficiency, and the various manipulative products that exist to mould American society to fit what Herbie (and the social engineers) deem most proper... but simply being "told" about it is not the same as seeing it for ourselves. The ending, too, undermines the horror that the book builds up. This book tries to be a critique of society at the time, but it's blindsided by its ambition.
I will give this book an ounce of credit: Some themes, such as the insistence that an overreliance on technology will strip away human individuality, self-autonomy, and logical thought, can be seen in the modern day through the ubiquity of social media and advertisements. Although I wouldn't say that individuality, self-autonomy, and logical thought are actively being destroyed by social media, it would be untrue to say that we aren't being influenced at every step of the way. Advertisements are everywhere. Young children and adolescents idolise internet personalities. Should we blame technology for this change? Gods, no. Technology is without morality; therefore, we must not assign morality to it. We only have humans and corporations to blame. However, it's worth acknowledging that technology presents its fair shares of drawbacks, such as short-term dopamine-driven feedback loops fascilitated by smart device usage, and a fair share of advantages, such as unparalleled access to a world of past and present information.
why did i type this. literally who is going to read this stupid review? go read 1984 instead.
It tries to say something witty and innovative about society, which at the time of this book's publishing, was becoming more and more engrossed with functionality and efficiency, but the point it pushes about overreliance on technology and technology eventually usurping human individuality ultimately falls short because we're only privy to one horrible instance of this phenomenon: We're told of the atrocities that the social engineers manufactur, the alien and unsympathetic Herbie who only cares for efficiency, and the various manipulative products that exist to mould American society to fit what Herbie (and the social engineers) deem most proper... but simply being "told" about it is not the same as seeing it for ourselves. The ending, too, undermines the horror that the book builds up. This book tries to be a critique of society at the time, but it's blindsided by its ambition.
I will give this book an ounce of credit: Some themes, such as the insistence that an overreliance on technology will strip away human individuality, self-autonomy, and logical thought, can be seen in the modern day through the ubiquity of social media and advertisements. Although I wouldn't say that individuality, self-autonomy, and logical thought are actively being destroyed by social media, it would be untrue to say that we aren't being influenced at every step of the way. Advertisements are everywhere. Young children and adolescents idolise internet personalities. Should we blame technology for this change? Gods, no. Technology is without morality; therefore, we must not assign morality to it. We only have humans and corporations to blame. However, it's worth acknowledging that technology presents its fair shares of drawbacks, such as short-term dopamine-driven feedback loops fascilitated by smart device usage, and a fair share of advantages, such as unparalleled access to a world of past and present information.
why did i type this. literally who is going to read this stupid review? go read 1984 instead.
December 9, 2018
In the far off future of 1990 the United States of America is ruled by the social engineers and their giant mechanical brains (which takes up over 10 floors of a building in Washington, D.C.), chief among them SOCIAC aka Herbie. All of North America and most of South America have been annexed into these United States. The social engineers rule by conditioning the population to consent (hence the title) to their rule with a barrage of carefully constructed media messages, ads and other propoganda. When such subtler methods fail they deploy white clad clinic squads which use computerized psychiatry as a means of suppressing dissent, if that fails they resort to lobotomy. The social engineers first emerged from the field of advertising and so the book answers the burning question: "What if the characters from Mad Men had taken control of the US government?" with all the drinking and smoking that implies.
The only effective internal opposition are the Uns, free thinkers and champions of the individual associated with the U.N. which now survives only in Australia. The USA exists in a precarious balance of power with the Soviet Union, which has expanded to include much of Europe while other European countries such as Britain have become socialist countries vaguely sympathetic to the USSR. The USSR are equally hostile to the Uns and are rejected by the narrator as merely another model of imposing the mass man on society and crushing the individual.
Our hero and narrator is in many respects a typical 50s square jawed science fiction protagonist, full of rugged American individualism and while working as an agent of the security and consent service (the social engineers) of the United States, is secretly a member of the Uns. The works of Thoreau are commonly cited by the protagonist and are the basis of the philosophy of the Uns. The narrator admits serious doubt in the face of the seemingly insurmountable power of the social engineers, this doubt makes him distinct from many other science fiction protagonists of the era.
The technology of this 1990 imagines a few major innovations including computers everywhere performing tasks like facial recognition, and linked by wire with difficult tasks handed to more powerful machines by the smaller machines below. Also kitchens have been fully automated and supplies are delivered from neighbourhood warehouses. On the other hand the trend towards smaller machines was not noticed by the author and the building sized computer still uses relays and transistors (which existed by 1954) is nowhere to be seen. The description of Herbie in particular reads as if the author has just taken the description of an early computer like ENIAC and added zeroes to the number of components, its size and capacity, however it is rare to see such engagement with actual developments in computer technology rather than fantastical imaginings such as Asimov's robots with their positronic brains unlike any real world computer.
The society of 1990 imagined is one where religion has become a neglected and uncommon thanks to the social engineers. However no fault divorce is apparently non-existent in 1990 as divorces are engineered by the use of revealing photographs that compose one or the other partner as needed by the machinations of the social engineers vetted by the central computer.
C. W. Adams a computer pioneer of the 1950s gave this description of the novel: "Some of you have no doubt, probably to your sorrow, struggled through a pocket-sized novel called "Year of Consent" full of overdone parable and underdone science." The politics and analysis of the book is not particularly sophisticated or detailed in its social or political analysis and its grasp of computer technology is limited, but it is interesting to read this book to see how it views the computer as enabling the surveillance society.
The story is generally low key and there are only a few action scenes in the book, it spends more time living in this imagined world and exploring some of its quirks, such as one day in the year when the social engineers are put under close scrutiny by Herbie using heart monitors and like constituting a kind of continuous lie detector test to watch for any signs of deviancy or disloyalty among them.
Despite the somewhat simplistic story and characters, and the causal 1950s sexism that shows up occasionally in the book (female characters tends to be somewhat passive, emotional and ditzy figures to motivate the protagonist). It is an enjoyable romp playing with some interesting ideas that contrasts with actual later developments, for example the idea of computerized psychiatry suggests the role of the actual program ELIZA that was so important to developing ideas about artificial intelligence.
Since the book was only ever printed once in 1954 it can be difficult to obtain, although it seems like many copies are for sale in the second hand market. I read my copy at a library that has a large science fiction collection.
A warning the book does contain a description of a lobotomy being carried out via the eye socket which is more than a little disturbing (at least to me).
The only effective internal opposition are the Uns, free thinkers and champions of the individual associated with the U.N. which now survives only in Australia. The USA exists in a precarious balance of power with the Soviet Union, which has expanded to include much of Europe while other European countries such as Britain have become socialist countries vaguely sympathetic to the USSR. The USSR are equally hostile to the Uns and are rejected by the narrator as merely another model of imposing the mass man on society and crushing the individual.
Our hero and narrator is in many respects a typical 50s square jawed science fiction protagonist, full of rugged American individualism and while working as an agent of the security and consent service (the social engineers) of the United States, is secretly a member of the Uns. The works of Thoreau are commonly cited by the protagonist and are the basis of the philosophy of the Uns. The narrator admits serious doubt in the face of the seemingly insurmountable power of the social engineers, this doubt makes him distinct from many other science fiction protagonists of the era.
The technology of this 1990 imagines a few major innovations including computers everywhere performing tasks like facial recognition, and linked by wire with difficult tasks handed to more powerful machines by the smaller machines below. Also kitchens have been fully automated and supplies are delivered from neighbourhood warehouses. On the other hand the trend towards smaller machines was not noticed by the author and the building sized computer still uses relays and transistors (which existed by 1954) is nowhere to be seen. The description of Herbie in particular reads as if the author has just taken the description of an early computer like ENIAC and added zeroes to the number of components, its size and capacity, however it is rare to see such engagement with actual developments in computer technology rather than fantastical imaginings such as Asimov's robots with their positronic brains unlike any real world computer.
The society of 1990 imagined is one where religion has become a neglected and uncommon thanks to the social engineers. However no fault divorce is apparently non-existent in 1990 as divorces are engineered by the use of revealing photographs that compose one or the other partner as needed by the machinations of the social engineers vetted by the central computer.
C. W. Adams a computer pioneer of the 1950s gave this description of the novel: "Some of you have no doubt, probably to your sorrow, struggled through a pocket-sized novel called "Year of Consent" full of overdone parable and underdone science." The politics and analysis of the book is not particularly sophisticated or detailed in its social or political analysis and its grasp of computer technology is limited, but it is interesting to read this book to see how it views the computer as enabling the surveillance society.
The story is generally low key and there are only a few action scenes in the book, it spends more time living in this imagined world and exploring some of its quirks, such as one day in the year when the social engineers are put under close scrutiny by Herbie using heart monitors and like constituting a kind of continuous lie detector test to watch for any signs of deviancy or disloyalty among them.
Despite the somewhat simplistic story and characters, and the causal 1950s sexism that shows up occasionally in the book (female characters tends to be somewhat passive, emotional and ditzy figures to motivate the protagonist). It is an enjoyable romp playing with some interesting ideas that contrasts with actual later developments, for example the idea of computerized psychiatry suggests the role of the actual program ELIZA that was so important to developing ideas about artificial intelligence.
Since the book was only ever printed once in 1954 it can be difficult to obtain, although it seems like many copies are for sale in the second hand market. I read my copy at a library that has a large science fiction collection.
A warning the book does contain a description of a lobotomy being carried out via the eye socket which is more than a little disturbing (at least to me).
August 3, 2007
Year of Consent, Kendall Foster Crossen, Dell Publishing, 1954
America in 1990 is a land of 24-hour surveillance. Cameras are everywhere, recording everything. It all gets sent to a giant supercomputer, nicknamed Herbie, that takes up 10 floors of a Washington office building. Any dissent, or even individuality, leads to a visit by the Clinic Squad (the police) and mandated "treatment," usually involving a lobotomy.
The social engineers have taken over America. The vast majority of citizens, whose "job" is to be consumers, are guided by massive amounts of propaganda in all media. The entire Western Hemisphere has been annexed, so America now consists of 74 states. The social engineers put forward candidates for President who will appeal to the greatest number of voters. Candidates for US Senate are chosen by the state Party (there is now one political party). Members of the House are employees of major companies. The only problem with this is a small and secret resistance called the Uns, which stands for United Nations, now headquartered in Australia. A major propaganda campaign is planned to equate the Uns with communists, who have been pretty well eradicated from America.
Garrett Leeds is a middle-level employee in Security and Consent, the government "surveillance department." He is also a senior member of the Uns, whose hero is Henry David Thoreau. Any attempt to disrupt the propaganda campaign will result in his exposure as the enemy. How can he stay one step ahead of the government, while preparing for a big push by the Uns to bring down the whole social engineering system? What can anyone do about a supercomputer that knows a person better than they know themselves, and can very accurately predict their future actions?
This book is surprisingly good, and, if you can find a copy, very much worth reading. In these days of growing surveillance and already large amounts of propaganda in the media, this novel is also pretty prophetic.
America in 1990 is a land of 24-hour surveillance. Cameras are everywhere, recording everything. It all gets sent to a giant supercomputer, nicknamed Herbie, that takes up 10 floors of a Washington office building. Any dissent, or even individuality, leads to a visit by the Clinic Squad (the police) and mandated "treatment," usually involving a lobotomy.
The social engineers have taken over America. The vast majority of citizens, whose "job" is to be consumers, are guided by massive amounts of propaganda in all media. The entire Western Hemisphere has been annexed, so America now consists of 74 states. The social engineers put forward candidates for President who will appeal to the greatest number of voters. Candidates for US Senate are chosen by the state Party (there is now one political party). Members of the House are employees of major companies. The only problem with this is a small and secret resistance called the Uns, which stands for United Nations, now headquartered in Australia. A major propaganda campaign is planned to equate the Uns with communists, who have been pretty well eradicated from America.
Garrett Leeds is a middle-level employee in Security and Consent, the government "surveillance department." He is also a senior member of the Uns, whose hero is Henry David Thoreau. Any attempt to disrupt the propaganda campaign will result in his exposure as the enemy. How can he stay one step ahead of the government, while preparing for a big push by the Uns to bring down the whole social engineering system? What can anyone do about a supercomputer that knows a person better than they know themselves, and can very accurately predict their future actions?
This book is surprisingly good, and, if you can find a copy, very much worth reading. In these days of growing surveillance and already large amounts of propaganda in the media, this novel is also pretty prophetic.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews