My first email on the day I presented this paper came from Edward Snowden! Snowden's letter—sent through the American Civil Liberties Union —was to celebrate the first anniversary of “the leak.” Here are his first words: “Technology has been a liberating force in our lives. It allows us to create and share the experiences that make us human, eff ortlessly. But in secret, our very own government—one bound by the Constitution and its Bill of Rights—has reverse-engineered something beautiful into a tool of mass surveillance and oppression. The government right now can easily monitor whom you call, whom you associate with, what you read, what you buy, and where you go online, and they do it to all of us, all the time.” As I revised this paper, I thought about the Edward Snowdens of our world, the increasing importance of whistleblowers, and their diminishing status. My epigraphs highlight the significance of “independent thought,” “invisible government,” and the meanings of “those phrases we're ruled by.” I re-read them more closely now, as our current world—in all of its contextual complexity—impinges upon them, expanding their meanings.

The concept of “control”—in its multitudinous uses—is resoundingly communicated by the epigraphs I have chosen.