Big Brother Is Watching Us
There's a good chance you've heard someone say, ''Big Brother is watching you.'' Maybe they said it to discourage you from doing something you shouldn't when you were alone and thinking that no one would know. Or maybe they said it to mean that the government is keeping tabs on its citizens with surveillance cameras or other means. The saying originally comes from George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984.
A utopia is an imaginary place where the government, laws, and social conditions are perfect. A dystopia is the exact opposite. It is a society characterized by oppression, misery, and often a totalitarian form of government that attempts to stomp out individual freedoms in favor of the state's absolute power. Sometimes, the leaders of dystopian societies attempt to convince their citizens that they're well off and well cared for by the government. This is the case in Orwell's 1984.
In Oceania, the fictional totalitarian state that Orwell has created, every citizen knows that they could be watched at any time. There are telescreens everywhere, through which higher ranking Party members can watch and record their activities. According to the Party, this surveillance is for the betterment of Oceania as a whole, and citizens who resist or disobey are labeled as traitors and soon disappear. The leader of the Party is known as Big Brother.
The people of Oceania constantly see Big Brother's face plastered on posters that paper the streets, on their telescreens, and stamped onto the coins that they use. His face is described as handsome, with dark eyes, a mustache, and in his mid-forties. He's described here in this quote from the book: ''The black mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner… BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own.''
This image and slogan are a constant reminder that the people of Oceania are being watched, and all of their actions are potentially subject to disciplinary action.
You've heard the expression, "Big Brother." It’s taken from George Orwell’s book “1984”. It describes a totalitarian society where every citizen is under constant surveillance: Orwell wrote it 70 years ago. News flash, Big Brother has arrived. Big Brother is already watching you.
On our program recently, china watcher Michael Pillsbury described a global surveillance system, using facial recognation, which allows the Chinese government to watch anyone, anywhere, in real time.