Argus Society
From Gothpoodle
The Argus Society is an association of Public Eyes with worldwide membership. It acts as an independent observer, watching the activities of governments, large corporations, and other powerful institutions worldwide.
The Argus Society was founded by Marien Smith in the early 2040s. Smith was an American political activist. She believed that news outlets and other media were effectively corrupt, serving the interests of the government or of large media corporations rather than of the people. She conceived of the Argus Society as a tool for uncovering inconvenient information, secrets and half-secrets that powerful institutions would prefer to conceal.
During the turbulent years of the Transhuman Awakening, the Argus Society made a considerable (but mixed) reputation for itself. Naturally, governments and the establishment media frowned on Argus activities, but the Society was favored by populists and radicals of all stripes. Aside from its anti-establishment bias, the Society had no specific ideology. National military secrets, the corruption of government officials, corporate violations of environmental law, the hypocrisy of leading Preservationists, or the horrific results of unbridled genetic experimentation – all were subject to the eyes of Argus.
The Argus Society still exists, although it has split into factions in recent years. Some of its members have gone beyond radicalism, pursuing strange conspiracy theories and regarding even other Society factions as untrustworthy. Others have become almost mainstream, providing information to a consistent audience much like any other media outlet.
The Society is probably the world’s most prominent example of a “network polity”. It has a very loose and decentralized organization, with members all over the world. Members rarely use the best available information-gathering technology. As private citizens, they buy whatever equipment they can afford (although some of them can afford a great deal). They normally operate independently, gathering into teams only occasionally and on an informal basis. The Society has no formal hierarchy of rank, although members can accumulate status by “counting coup” on powerful institutions.
