I’m Jarrett Kaufman for HPPR.
This the second of four reviews on Nicholas Lamar Soutter’s 2012 award-winning novel, The Water Thief.
The novel is set in a dystopian future where all governments have collapsed and corporations now serve as the organizing institutions of society.
Charlie Thatcher is a private citizen, which means he is the private property of Ackerman Brothers Securities, the corporation that employs him. He lives in a world where competition in the marketplace infects all corners of life. The population is controlled by corporate police who work for profit and watchdog agencies that are incentivized to surveil private citizens who are or might be a liability to profit.
Corporatism breeds paranoia and paranoia is weaponized to shape a servile workforce: Workers are pitted against workers, friends against friends, and even spouses against spouses—all in the name of profit. Hi co-worker, Linus, tells him, “Business is war and all war is based on deception.”
This is a society that bans any kind of collective will, a philosophical idea that proposes cooperation of all parties to establish shared goals in the effort to establish a stable society. This governing ideal, however, is considered a relic of the “old ways.” Shared governance kills productivity. Fair is what the market decides, regardless of its moral or ethical consequences.
Charlie works in the Perception Management Division for Ackerman, spinning information harmful to the company’s profit margins. When he discovers a woman named Sarah is stealing rainwater, his initial response is to report her so he can capitalize on her arrest and possibly receive a promotion. However, she disappears. And Charlie uncovers the transcript of her trial. In court, she states rainwater belongs to everyone. The judge, though, argues:
| Ackerman spends a fortune protecting the environment from pollution and abuse so they can sell a quality product. Every cup you take out of the air is a cup less they can harvest, and a cup less you buy. You’re looting them, their stockholders, colleagues, even their paying customers. |
Charlie discovers Sarah was affiliated with a group of revolutionaries who aim to destroy corporatism. He meets and falls in love with a rebel named Kate who teaches him about democracy, free elections, and governments—information that is prohibited in Capital City where he works and lives.
Born, raised, and educated in a corporate society, Charlie can’t grasp how democracy and governments work—the notion of cooperation for a common benefit. Kate introduces him to the prisoner dilemma, a theory regarding cooperation and mutual benefit. She explains:
| People who work together do better than those who don’t. In the Prisoner’s Dilemma, two thieves are caught and threatened with jail time. If they work together against the police, they each get less time than if they don’t. |
Charlie begins to understand the kind of society he’s been living in—one that is dominated by the interest of the corporations alone—where self-interest, a celebrated value of this hyper-capitalistic world, is used to control the private citizens to work for the company’s needs over the basic needs of its employees.
Charlie is reborn. He rejects his “private citizenship” and joins the rebels to destroy Ackerman. He says:
| I no longer cared what happened to me. I could risk it all, and that would be my strength. I would make one last throw of the dice, and this time I would win. |
But when Charlie has that “last throw of the dice,” he begins to wonder if Kate is who she says she is.
I’m Jarrett Kaufman for HPPR.
