The State power and subversion of the will of the people are stories the world wakes up to in one way or the other. Political leaders sometimes in an attempt to control the dissidents introduce laws that control their association, expression, religion and even belief. It is a general law that power must be protected. This is captured in the first paragraph of the book “WE” written by Zamyatin (1921). The first passage (3) introduces readers to the unprecedented state power. The Integral building is to be completed in the next 120 days and which is to be the tallest of all buildings in the United States. In this letter to the Americans, the task did not end when their ancestors forced the whole world to believe the doctrines of the United States, the greater objective now is to bring together the otherwise unintegrated world by the use of first growing and angry Integral. The writer describes it as “glass, electric and fire-breathing” (3). The task ahead is to let the rest of the world accept beliefs of America or force the unwilling to do so. In fact, the citizens are presented with two options: to try dialoguing but if it fails they are permitted the latitude to use arms (3). The use of state newspaper implies state-controlled media, a country that lacks the freedom of expression. The information is only expected from the government and not any other source. The expression “will rise to the limitless of space of the universe” (3) implies that it will not only oversee happenings from all over the world but also control them from America. This paper, therefore, seeks to break the central theme, of freedom into Freedom of Desire/Freewill, Expression, Religion, Movement, and privacy as discussed below.
The citizens are deprived of the freedom of Desire or free will. As the writer puts it, a schedule is put that regulates when to have sex when to stroll and the morning routines (22). The foods as well are customized just like fuel to the car (22). This is unchallengeable, and wrath is set to anyone that breaks the law. The people are put into units for easy control by the state, and when one takes food, it must be accompanied by “fifty statutory chews” (197). Even the names of the citizens are programmed and numerical for easy control, for example, D-503, I-330, 0-90. The character S-4711 is a state officer mandated to spy on the movements of D-503 and report to the state for punishments. The Benefactor narrates to D-503 that the one state aims to make the most of happiness to its citizens. He believes that happiness is the absence of desire and that the state is tasked to fulfill the desires. It has the ability to do so and thwart the ones it cannot. 1-330, is met with fear and humiliations in her pursuit of the world she would choose to do what makes her happy (177). The benefactor assumes that paradise is a state in which citizens have no more interests in desires (207). Posters announcing Mephi are put in the city saying the rebellious citizens who voted in protest of OneState government. I-330, R-13 and other rebels who voted against the regime, the first time in the country’s history are put to light. The needs are systematic, channeled and controlled by the state. This does not meet the desires of the citizens in the contemporary context. I-330, S-4711 and R-13 desire revolution. D-503 desires for I-330 breaks his world far from his previous well-structured life.
The citizens are also denied the freedom of Expression. Citizens loyal to Onestate like D-503 believe that true happiness is realized when one chooses to question not the state and its laws. He imagines that freedom results in unknown worries and that the best way is to let the desires of the state control oneself. He asks the rhetorical question of why the dance is so sweet and then concludes that it is sweet because the secret lies in non-free movement. D-503 love for state subjugation is propelled by the free will of the machines to work on preplanned manuals to bring out uniformed products and hope for the day when his fellow citizens will take to his footsteps to subject to the totalitarian government (6). As it turns out in the novel We scientists flourish in turning humans into living machines by developing a surgery that removes imagination. D-503 accepts the operation and believes that he is component in the state (6). D-503 panics in fear when confronted with the concept of the square root of -1 because it does not exist. He wonders how a number squared produces a negative integer and concludes that the world will collapse if such irrational thoughts are expressed (39).
It is also critical to note that the citizens are deprived the freedom of religion. The OneState embraces an otherwise state religion in which the people glorify reason and the unquestioned god-kings. The benefactor is dubbed the “new Jehovah” and his ways simulated to the ancient god (135). D-503 does not need a proof to believe that the government loves him because he trusts the system. The benefactor is deemed unique, omnipotent and that human beings lack the right to question his authority; his system of governance is thought to be a product of the garden of Eden where sanity began (135). The people of OneState government have remained holy to a point when Eve, in this case, I-330 enjoys the little freedom of unwarranted sex and tempts Adam (D-503) to go by her practice (135). The writer uses this metaphor to challenge a non-progressive and totalitarian religion.
Another freedom limited to the citizens of OneState is that of movement. The citizens are alienated from the rest of the world both in terms of emotions and physical movement. The state builds a wall that separates its citizens from the rest of the world which remains ungoverned. In fact, the citizens are not expected to copy their ways. All buildings and furnishings are glass made to monitor the citizens' movements. The state has also placed the guardians to report any citizen going contrary to the laws in place. Equally, the citizens are in constant fear and report their fellows who deviate from the set practices of the state. U spies and give intelligence to the state about the plans of the rebels to steal the Integral. As D-503 puts it, the state has erased privacy and anonymity by ensuring that every citizen sees whom the other votes for. “I see how everybody votes for benefactor and everybody sees how I vote for Benefactor” (133).
Lastly, the citizens lack the freedom of privacy. The intrusion into one’s privacy does not end with the political choices as D-503 expresses above. He proceeds to explain that individual rights cannot supersede the interests of the group (111). D-503 and the state adopt a mathematical formula which simplifies humans’ operation. The calculus provides that an individual’s life is but a fraction of the bigger population and therefore the public interest comes first whenever the two conflicts. A OneState system acknowledges a system of collective responsibility, no wonder chewing, walking and even sex is perceived collective. When D-503 falls in love with I-330, he felt out of place and detached from the rest of the population. D-503 figures that he could be a body with a million hands (13).
In conclusion, the citizens even in the present-day experience deprivation to many rights and freedoms. The systems have been state-made to intimidate citizens from free expression, and best practices of democracy. The freedom of the press in many instances is regulated through state propaganda, threats of advert denial, protections and other state benefits. This in many cases makes the media to tore the line from informing the public on the happenings in the government contrary to what should be done. However, like the novel ‘WE’ where D-503 cuts away from vices of the state, state men and women of goodwill must rise to the occasion to save their respective nations from these monsters of oppression.