Power plays a very significant role in Snow Crash. With the fall of government, life has become radically unstable, with radically different expectations in terms of justice. Individual security no longer holds the significance that we are used to. The only way for an individual to ensure that violations of personal interests won’t go unpunished is to tie those interests with the interests of a group, which means, in effect, to become a part of a franchise. This truth is expressed repeatedly in the book by both Y.T. and Hiro and the way they manage their individualism. The book first hints at this fact when discussing Hiro’s employment choices. Hiro prefers to remain a freelance hacker, but apparently “now, that’s no longer possible, [because] software comes out of factories, and hackers are [] assembly-line workers.” (39) While the primary purpose of this passage is to describe the majority of the hacking profession, it clearly implies that there is no place for individual work, because organizations out-compete individual hackers. However, Y.T. provides the best example of how association with a group is a form of protection. When she’s kidnapped, her connection to the RadiKS company allows her to escape. Her membership in that group grants her the protection of that group, and ultimately, she’s able to rouse a minor trasher army to take down the helicopter that she’s in. This sort of street justice only protects those that are associated, and it seems that the more powerful your associates are, the better your protection will be. However, this protection has limits. When Y.T. is apprehended by Metacops after delivering Hiro’s pizza, she reminds them that “I work for RadiKS. We protect our own,” but the cops respond “Not tonight you don’t. Tonight you took a pizza from a scene of a car wreck. Left the scene of an accident. RadiKS tell you to deliver that pizza?” (52) She doesn’t dispute this, because she realizes that RadiKS won’t protect her if she strays outside their ‘jurisdiction’. This reveals that, while the associations which people attach themselves to do provide some safety for the individual, but individual justice is nonexistent, since these franchulates/companies/sovereign nations are really only concerned with the integrity of the group as a whole. Ultimately, this dynamic shows that the individual is only granted power through connections to other people, and adherence to the norms those people have agreed upon. At least, this is what the system seems to be in the beginning of the book.
As the book progresses, the power of the individual becomes more and more pronounced. Raven seems like one of the primary catalysts for this change in perspective. Raven, as an Aleut, is already predisposed to reject any association with any group. His family and tribe history isolates him from anyone else, because his tribe had been isolated and disregarded by the rest of the world, to the extent that their own government tested nuclear weapons on them. The resulting compulsion to vendetta, and quest to nuke America bars him from integrating into this culture. However, Raven does more than resist integration. From the first time Raven appears, it seems like he transcends the standard. Hiro notices Raven in the crowd outside the Black Sun initially, because he stands much taller than everyone else. Though, Raven manages to stand out in more ways than just his height. When he makes his appearance at the concert, he transcends local gang politics, all on his own. While it is arguable that the rules don’t apply to him, simply because he’s the most dangerous mother with a glass knife, and he’s got an H-Bomb rigged to his brain, it seems to me that his power comes from something less tangible. His ability to ride the waves seems like his real source of power. This applies physically to his ability to use waves to travel long distances in kayak, but it also applies more generally to see the forces that are naturally present, and hitch a ride, as he did with the Orthos. This sort of ability to ride these waves shows that he is able to manipulate existent forces to make groups work for him, instead of him working for a group. I think his introduction into the story opens up new modes of functioning, which Hiro and Y.T. explore.