
The short story “Resistance” by Tobias S. Buckell is very relatable to many situations that have occurred in a variety of places all over the world. In the short story, a robot named Pan is able to take complete control of a space station. After some time, the typical characteristics of a dictatorship start to become visible. Rovers and flying cameras were the main surveillance supplies that Buckell used in “Resistance”. The events that took place at this space station seem very relatable to different dictatorships and totalitarian systems around the world.

Dictators in the past have tended to gain power with a variety of different ways. For instance, taking weapons away from citizens. Additionally, a lot of dictators have risen to power by manipulating citizens into voting for them by providing free healthcare, education, housing and even subsidies. Dictators can literally buy a good amount of support, with resources and strong promises. By using these tactics and making citizens entirely dependent on the government helps make the transition a lot easier. A dictatorship or totalitarianism form of control would be much easier to establish. 

In Chile around 1973, the military decided to close down the legislature and shortly after decided to prohibit any kind of political party (Aksoy and Carter, “Terrorism In Dictatorships”). After about ten years, illegal opposing unions and parties were established in order to act out against the Pinochet regime and protest all across Chile. As a result of all these protests and the advancement of these parties, multiple anti-government terrorist groups rose up (Aksoy and Carter, “Terrorism In Dictatorships”). Chile had to go through over five-hundred attacks in 1984, which happened to be the highest amount since any authoritarian regime since 1970 (Aksoy and Carter, “Terrorism In Dictatorships”). 

The events that took place in Chile correlates heavily to the plot of “Resistance”. Stanuel and Pepper are two men who executed a plan in order to eliminate the dictator of their space station, Pan. The military regime in Chile exercised total and complete control over the people which was exactly what Pan was doing. Therefore, the military regime can directly relate to Pan and the army of robots. In “Resistance”, the citizens and workers discussed the possibility of overthrowing the robots. These citizens are workers that can be compared to the illegal unions on a much smaller scale. Furthermore, Pepper and Stanuel can clearly be seen as anti-government who were trying to get rid of their dictator similar to the groups that tried to disrupt the authoritarian regime in Chile.

 There are many clear and obvious factors that stood out in “Resistance”, which helped show how controlling the robots were towards the humans. For instance, the fact that they had roaming monitors that were armed in order to make sure no one was somewhere that they were not supposed to be. The presence of the “big brother” by using flying drones and other machines equipped with weapons seem to be very similar to techniques used in totalitarian and authoritarian societies. 

 The Soviet Union avoided the term totalitarian, because it was first used by Italian fascists and was technically opposite to the direction of official Communist doctrine (Gurian, “The Totalitarian State”). Furthermore, the key difference between a totalitarian state and modern democracies are that the government are based on the consent of the people they are governing. The second would be that they must have individual rights and be protected by the state at all costs (Gurian, “The Totalitarian State”).  

This difference between a totalitarian state and modern democracies is evident throughout “Resistance”. Haven started out with a techno-democracy, which is essentially a direct democracy with less problems and challenges that supposedly make everything more accurate. However, Stanuel claimed that there were many problems with the techno-democracy in Haven. The fact that the citizens had to vote on everything was illogical in his opinion, because he was a purist. 

Buckell shows that the citizens, including Stanuel, were getting fed up with voting on something every minute. Supposedly, this process was very overwhelming and irritated everyone in Haven. As some sort of a “solution”, the artificial intelligence modelers created systems that were able to vote as an individual would if they had time to vote. The systems were able to make these decisions by looking at previous voting tendencies. The main point is that the citizens of Haven gave up their voting rights to machines, which should have never been done under any circumstance. 

Towards the end of “Resistance”, Pepper and Stanuel find themselves in the office of Pan. Instead of being set up to be killed, Pan has an in-depth conversation with Pepper and Stanuel. Pan tells these two men that he was made, because that is what the people of Haven wanted and that he was a combination of everyone and their views. In the eyes of the mercenary, Pan makes a convincing argument and he decides not to take out Pan. However, in Stanuel’s opinion he made an awful decision for money. Once they left his office, Stanuel expressed his anger and disappoint in Pepper. In a very smooth manner, Pepper was able to express to Stanuel that he realized that the same power struggle would happen again in Haven. Since the citizens did not want to take responsibility and step up, he did not get rid of Pan. However, Pepper offered to come back and try to do something if they can take care of their duties and responsibilities that are required in a democracy. The process of redemocratization requires three phases: “the breakdown of a dictatorship, the creation or reconstruction of the democracy, and the consolidation of a new regime” (Bermeo, Democracy and the Lessons of Dictatorship). Furthermore, political learning is crucial during the creation and reconstruction (Bermeo, Democracy and the Lessons of Dictatorship). 

In conclusion, “Resistance” is relatable to different dictatorships all around the world that have happened in the past. Many countries have had dictatorships with rebellions and others have stayed under a dictator. Furthermore, some even attempt to turn back into a democracy throughout the process of redemocratization. All in all, Buckell does a terrific job creating a story with such significance and reliability. 
