To become a member of a higher castes, moreover, it is necessary for an individual to be identified by the agents of the government and then for that individual to go through the indoctrination program at schools such as Tranover. The masses of citizens can therefore be ignored because they are never in a position to threaten the system - they are too ignorant of it. The result of such a situation is an innate lack of trust throughout society. People distrust other people because it becomes impossible to tell whether a neighbor s, a relative s, or a friend s success is the result of native skill or privileged information. People refuse to share information with one another because they are afraid of revealing something that others do not know.
People become isolated from one another, and their ability to share ideas and problems is lost.
Thus the average citizen of the world of The Shockwave Rider is paranoid. In such a society, Hearing Aid, a service run by the citizens of Precipice, becomes the single most helpful agency. The understanding that the hearer will never repeat or act on the infromation given by the caller allows overburdened callers to relieve themselves of their fears and gripes. But such an arrangement is rather artificial. It completely prevents any human contact and therefore only treatssymptoms.