Both Snow Crash and Jennifer Government postulate a fairly dystopian future. Snow Crash is very much science fiction, while Jennifer Government is merely fiction, and has nothing really scientific about it. However, both overlap in their portrayals of business, corporations and government in the future.
In Snow Crash, large franchises have all the power. These units are like nation-states, corporations, and gangs all in one. For instance, there is the Mafia, which alongside its goons and guns for hire, run a large and successful pizza business. There is the Hong Kong franchise, New South Africa, and among others, the Government franchise. The government has turned into a for-profit business like the rest of these entities. All of these entities can battle it out with the minimum of interference by any other organization, because the government doesn't work the same way as it used to. Security must be handled by private firms, and all roads and mail are covered by private firms. It is a darker place if one wants some government supports in their lives. Jennifer Government postulates the same sort of future, with a few twists that's make it interesting to the Snow Crash future. Jennifer Government is set in a world where corporations run everything. The government has been nearly disbanded, and has only one job now. The government tracks down criminals and catches them. The catch is that the victim must pay the government to actually perform this service, because after taxes were abolished, the government needed some form of revenue. The rest of the world, except for socialist Europe, is under the sway of anarcho-capitalism, which sounds very similar to the economic model in Snow Crash. Roads are built by private companies, and are all toll roads. That fact is hinted at in Snow Crash but never said right out. Companies ally themselves together, and hire private security to keep their Corporations secure. On one side the corporations hire The Police, a private security company descended from the real police. This company has the power to throw people in jail that it was hired to arrest, just like in Snow Crash when Y.T. is caught in the burbclave. On the other side is the NRA, which has evolved from its status to become a paramilitary organization that trains commandos for secret missions for its clients. It has evolved into a company, just like The Mafia does in Snow Crash.
Jennifer Government's premise is a dreary one. Jennifer Government takes the anarcho-capitalism that is in Snow Crash and drives it to the next level. War in the world of Jennifer Government means business. And the firms that are hired have surface to air missiles, tanks and other modern tech. And they fight huge clashes between corporations. No one says anything because it isn't any of their business. In Snow Crash, the world has not quite progressed to that. The maneuvers between corporations tend to be lighter. They are still afraid to come out into the very open. This would have changed with Rife's victory, but luckily (for some people) that crisis was averted. But it is oh so easy to tell how much worse it could be for people if the world in Jennifer Government was the more similar to the world in Snow Crash.
Snow Crash vs Jennifer Government
By amphiskios - Posted on 9 April 2008 - 6:12am.
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