Jennifer Government

Combine 1984, American Psycho, and The Matrix and you get Jennifer Government. In author Max Berry's corporate future there is no tax and the United States is simply the collection of companies that operate within its territories. Even the government has been privatized. It's as far as you can get from 1984's Big Brother or the minutemen's fear of a "New World Order." But the typologies of government eschatology (1984, Brave New World, Farenheit 451) still exist - they are simply reversed in a terrifying display of consumerism.

Two customer rewards programs bind American businesses into one of two factions: Team Advantage and US Alliance. That seems a bit silly, but it isn't too far of a leap from today's corporate model in which Disney and GE control large swaths of not only media but also technology.

I wish Barry had given a little more information as to the media. Apparently in the future there are still papers, but because the only functional independent company is the government, I wonder how they would survive. Probably all media would be partisan. Clearly, independent media would be really important, but would probably be inaccessible or at least censored, depending on who controls the wires.

An excerpt:

John Nike was reading a novel called The Space Merchants; it had been reissued and he'd seen a review in Fast Company. They called it "prescient and hilarious," which John was having a hard time agreeing with. All these old science-fiction books were the same: they thought the future would be dominated by some hard-ass, oppressive Government. Maybe that was plausible back in the 1950s, when the world looked as if it might turn Commie. It sure wasn't now.

In The Space Merchants, the world was dominated by two advertising companies, which was closer to the truth. But still, there were so many laws the companies had to follow! If these guys had all the money, John wondered, who could stop them doing whatever they wanted?

That's a chilling question, even today.