Make Your Own Decision

Finally, Mae has eventually become transparent as a Circler. This did not surprise me at all. I has been waiting for this moment since Bailey asked her to share her experience with kayaking as an example of how SeeChange benefits her life. Wearing the tiny camera on her chest every day, Mae got used to her transparency in her life. In the mean time, the Circle was accelerating on the procedure of Completion, to complete the circle. However, I can't help myself wandering the utopia empire the Circle attempts to create, the world of transparency, is truly helping Circlers or even people outside achieve the perfect of themselves.

It has been convinced that living a life under the observation of public can improve our behavior since Bailey illustrated the usefulness of SeeChange. As one of the two participants in SeeChange, Mae was acquired to wear the camera every day at the Circle which as I recognized her daily life was not humane any more. "She did without. Every day she'd done without things she didn't want to want. Things she didn't need. She'd given up soda, energy drinks, processed foods"(331). Things she gave up may not have benefits to her health, but she also gave up the chance to enjoy her life. Life would be dull and plain if she had to consider others' opinions on her deeds every second in her life. Mae "selected a packet of almonds" instead of  "a chilled brownie" because everyone else would see what she ate. It is our personal decision to choose what we want to eat, not what others want to see us eat. An immoderate life should be avoided, nevertheless, we should become better only for us, not for other individuals. 

Mae's transparency amended her unhealthy habits, however eliminated her opportunities to make her individual choices. She was striving strenuously to maintain her image of a role model. This did not trigger her to be the genuine herself but to be the one that satisfies others' expectation. As the Circle was promoting the process of Completion, not only staffers were asked to enroll in the developments but also everyone outside the Circle. "With 90 percent of Washington transparent, and the remaining 10 percent wilting under the suspicion of their colleagues and constituents, the question bear down on them like an angry sun: What are you hiding?"(313) The 10 percent of people were not hiding any malevolent plans, instead, they were attempting to reserve their right to make their own decisions. Transparency departs people from living their own life, and even prevents the minority from keeping themselves.  

The essence of SeeChange is that transparency brings out the best of ourselves in order to make us perfect and make the world perfect. What is the meaning of perfect? To my understanding it is the antonym of imperfect. Perfect and imperfect coexist just like moral and immoral, legal and illegal. The police is demanded by the society because of the crime; the protagonist is essential for a novel because of the antagonist; the truth is required because of false. The perfection exists because of imperfection. We should embrace the imperfection because the procedure of becoming perfect is the most meaningful part which is all about deciding what to do or not by ourselves. Therefore, we have to make our own decision in order to enjoy our life.