Big Brother, Not so Small - Essay Example

Big Brother, not so small Novels remain popular mainly for two reasons. The first is the theme and then the way how the story unfolds by itself. The narration gets acclaimed if it maintains good flow of writing. And the author gets full marks only when good story and good narration goes hand-in-hand. But, the novel 1984 and its author George Orwell always remain lively for the topic being handled in the work. The topic of above novel is important at all stages in the growth of civilizations or mankind itself. A man can rule himself. But when it becomes men (a group of persons) a ruler is a must. We had realized this basic fact even centuries ago. An authority to rule and regularize is a must for the very survival of a society. All the systems which do not own such a surveillance arrangement will get only history of failure. Either other forces win over them or they perish by themselves. Realizing the unavoidable role of an administrative authority, we are pursuing the search for finding good models. Many options are developed, but still difficult to point out a perfect one. Developing new models, facing problems when they are attempted practically, trying for other forms- this set of activities is a continuing process. It is not sure whether we can reach a completely foolproof system. Anyway the necessity of administrative systems makes it relevant to continue with the discussions and studies on this topic. Different administrative systems are having different features. On common points different systems may have contradictory approaches also. There will be people to support both the approaches. So it is difficult to rate administrative systems and differentiate as good or bad. The only thing one can do is to compare and explain merits and demerits of each and all systems. We can name enough administrative forms like democracy, imperialism and autocracy. But when we start discussing about one particular system it is quite sure to think about other systems also. Of course, in such thoughts and discussions some terms also will be so common. Big Brother is one among the very important and popular term in these sorts of studies. For so long the term is in use among students of administrative systems. The term Big Brother was used first by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. (books.google.co.in/bookshl=en&id=yxv1LK5gyV4C&dq=big+brother&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=ol68A61VMb&sig=yu_lbdDeMTS6kHyAZDugrC6KE6M&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA1,M1). Big Brother is being presented as the all powerful dictator of Oceania state. Oceania is a totalitarian state where the ruling party is all important and superior to all other power centers and individuals of the state. It is observed that everybody is under the surveillance of Big Brother all the time. Even a phrase "Big Brother is watching you" developed as an after effect. It is not clear from the novel whether Big Brother was a real man or not. But the Party presents Big Brother as a real leader and one important one among the founder leaders of it. He is considered to be the leader of revolution also. O'Brien, a character in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four explains the cause which led to the development of Big Brother concept. According to O'Brien the aim of the Party is to gain power. It is not planning to create a heaven on earth. But need power only. The Party after capturing power is bothered only of remaining power, says O'Brien. To capture power they are thinking of bringing changes in the mindset of people. Make them stay off from enjoyments in life and Party believes that through this society also will undergo a change which will be favorable to the Party. If it is possible to bring this change in the society, the Party leaders hope that they capture power. Such a society will not have any good qualities like mercy or love. It will be a society with no space for art, literature or even science. Absence of such areas will give birth to such a situation in which people won't be having much topics other than party to think of. Party men hope that by doing like this deep devotion towards Party will develop in the minds of people automatically. The Big Brother concept has to do much with totalitarianism. In totalitarian political system everything is being guided by the state itself. Not just public life, but even private life is being controlled by state. The Big Brother's eyes are keeping a close watch on all activities whether it is serious or silly. The totalitarian state keeps its own tools to protect power. It will try to destroy all non political institutions. It prefers single party system. Media will be under strict control so that happenings which make totalitarianism unhealthy won't reach the public. It won't encourage free discussions on topics of politics. Totalitarian regime will keep a strong control over economy. If the history of different totalitarian states is studied, one can see enough dissimilarity. In USSR almost all non political institutions were destroyed. Hence it was impossible to bring back glory after the collapse of Communist regime. There were no social or economic non-governmental institutions. But no such problem was there in the case of Italy soon after the Second World War. There Nazis didn't destroy social structures and hence it was possible to rebuild Italy(wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian). Anyway by the fall of USSR in the 1990s it became clear that totalitarianist states can't survive for a long time. Hitler and Mussolini were very much attracted by totalitarianism. Their own words explain it. Hitler said: "The whole of National Socialism is based on it. Look at the workers' sports clubs, the industrial cells, the mass demonstrations, the propaganda leaflets written specifically for the comprehension of the masses; all these methods of political struggle are essentially Marxist in origin. All I had to do is take over these methods and adopt them for our purpose... National Socialism is what Marxism might have been if it could have broken its absurd and artificial ties with a democratic order". (wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian) In Mussolini's words: "In the whole negative part, we are alike. We and Russians are against the liberals, against democrats, against parliament". The failure of the ideologies of these two statesmen too asserts that totalitarianism is not stable. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian) Orwell is a writer who opposes totalitarianism. He supports democratic socialism. In 1940 he wrote that to defeat Hitler a socialist society is needed. He opposed the very old British class system based on the observation that it is a to hindrance to win the war against Hitler. During the rule of Big Brother what was happening was only perverted usage of socialism according to the author. Actually he had been trying to expose the dangers that might arise if Big Brother administration was in power. In a way, Orwell's attempt was to explain his views regarding the stability of states, through the medium of creative writing. Orwell's views in this line reflect in his other works also. In the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, we meet Winston Smith who is working in the records department of the ministry of truth. His duty is to make corrections in historical documents in accordance with the Party's requirement. To remain in power Party finds it necessary to rub off so many incidents in history. To assure this, correction of official documents is a must. For this he rewrites documents and replaces the originals which are burned to ashes. The character is actually confused at work station. On one side he enjoys recreating manipulated version of important documents. But on the other side the glorious past invites him to learn more about the good old days. Winston Smith is being tortured a lot to get him converted completely to Party doctrine. Towards the end of novel, we can see a major shift in his behavior. He realizes that Party is the most important factor and personal life or pleasure in life is not at all important. And, deep love to the Big Brother turns out to be the only emotion left in his mind. The Big Brother concept got wide discussion all over the world especially in the case of political systems. It has become a term which is being used so frequently by those who are interested in various aspects of political science. Big Brother administration developed in so many states. Through bloodshed revolutions and even elections Big Brother reached up to the hot seat of power in different parts of the world. We can see enough instances of Big Brother rule in history. States and respective time period may be different, that is all. USSR came under Marxian regime through the 1927 Russian revolution. There is a prevalent view that the Communist regime in USSR was highly influenced by the Czarist rule against which Communists fought and won. Czar rule was widely hated by people for its policies which nourish poverty and encourage corruption. Under the Czar power we could see that the state became a totalitarian one. Civil rights and pleasure in personal life were not allowed. Naturally people started protesting and finally led to October revolution. But it is very interesting to note that the Communist government which followed Czars was following the footsteps of its predecessors. It started encroaching into the private life of citizens and putting limitations here and there. If anybody tried to question the Party or government, power was used to suppress such moves. Just like in the history of different other Communist nations, USSR also is having a history of murdering its own citizens for the cause of questioning policies of the government. While Stalin was in power he o brutally killed 40 million people. Similar instance we can see in the recent history of China also where Communist party rules. At Tiananmen Square 10, 000 men were crushed to death by army tanks when they gathered to question the policies of administration. Communism plans not only control over the minds and brains of the people but even on religions. This is to convert the state into a totalitarian one so that they can remain safe in power. So an action plan is formulated to attain the goal. Actually here starts the days of Big Brother. Soon after reaching to power restrictions start getting imposed. For this reforms are brought in administrative setup. Education, media, jobs, business, economy and such other key areas get redesigned. Elimination of something that is present, inclusion of something that is absent and alteration in existing system are done so as to mould a society which can see and hear only of a Party dominated system. A feeling that the role of Party is the most important thing and there is no value for individual life is cultivated. Each person is advised to sacrifice for others and that through this the whole society will attain happiness. It points fingers towards capitalism saying that it is an ideology of selfishness. Another allegation is that capitalism is going to give better life for a small minority and majority will be left in darkness. Once Communists are in power they decide to change the whole system framed by prior governments. The Big Brother wants to keep a vigilant eye on everything going on in the state. The children should be taught in detail the ideology of the Party. At the same time Big Brother makes it sure that children are not introduced to other ideologies which are better than that of the Party. Media would not be allowed to propagate news which is not in tune with the Party line. Media should be biased to the Party and government. Media has no right to inform public about the failures in running the government. The opportunities to discuss of the administrative policies are very less. Big Brother keeps watch on industry also. No individual is supposed to run industry. All industries should be state-owned. Regarding industries it has got its own selection process. Whether a particular industry suits or not is studied in Party angle. Then only decision taken whether to start a particular business or not. Thus the jobs also get decided by the state. The same is the attitude towards business also. Regarding economy, Big Brother visualizes total nationalization. No wealth for individuals. The whole wealth will be controlled by the society. What the citizen is going to get is labor and wages from it. Big Brother is very much bothered about the thought line of people also. Big Brother wants everybody in favor of the Party. The central topic of all discussions about the state should concentrate on Party. Nobody should question the supremacy of the Party. For this, other than controlling the agencies like media inside the state, Big Brother tries to cut the contact between the citizens of the state and people from outside. The people of the state are kept occluded inside the state itself. Entry of people from other countries is restricted also. Cultural exchange also in kept under state control. Artists of the state are not given a free hand to go outside and perform. Similarly artists from outside countries are not allowed to enter the state. Russian circus can be cited as an example. USSR is the motherland of circus. But the Big Brother put enough restrictions so that circus stars were getting only limited opportunities to perform outside the country. And rarely when permission was granted, the movement of the circus team was kept under strict vigilance. Every steps of their trip including whom they should meet and whom they should not meet were preplanned by the agents of the Party. More than assuring the security and fair movement of the team, Big Brother was interested in assuring that the team won't get in touch with those who oppose communism. Similar to their own citizens, restrictions were put on people outside the state also. Foreign visitors were allowed to move inside the state only according to the schedule prepared by agents of Big Brother. They were allowed to see only those things which give a good feeling about the Big Brother state. All inhumane and unhappy things were kept covered by iron curtains. Foreigners were not allowed to reach such points. By introducing these steps stage by stage Big Brother himself declares that totalitarianism is not a system which is providing either freedom or individuality to citizens. The authority was not ready to learn the response of people about administration. Instead of being participative and reaching in collective decisions, certain policies were imposed on society. It is quite natural that people will get disappointed in an administrative system in which they are having no role at all. The fact that they cannot raise their own problems before the authority makes them more unhappy. Big Brother attitude is common to all communist countries and totalitarian states. May be slightly different from the USSR way, but this problem can be seen in countries like China, Cuba and Vietnam where Communists are in power. But nowadays, beyond political science Big Brother has turned out to be a common usage in so many situations in day-to-day life. More and more people started applying it in various fields even out of political science. When somebody imposes a biased decision without enough discussion, people see it to be a Big Brother attitude. It may be out of opposition or admiration, anyway Big Brother is very popular all over the world. It is evident from the never ending readership of George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty Four. The book is having a good sales record. But at the same time it was banned in a few countries. This was done in totalitarian states. The authorities here fear that the book will bring anti-government thoughts in the brains of citizens. Anyway the book is having wide acceptance that in 2005 Time magazine rated it to be one among the best hundred English language novels published since 1923. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Story). Wizard Magazine rated Big Brother to be 75th greatest villain of all the time. A television reality show under the name Big Brother turned out to be an all-time hit. The series of shows were about a group of men locked up in a lonely house. They were not allowed to communicate to anybody outside or vice versa. But all the time these men were kept under vigilance of video cameras. First it was broadcasted by Veronica TV channel in Netherlands in 1999. In very short time the show became very popular. Viewers welcomed it so much that the series were later broadcasted in more than 70 countries. {wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(TV_series)}. The Big Brother concept was used in advertisement by Apple to introduce Macintosh computers. IBM is being presented as Big Brother and Mac is presented as heroine. Big Brother is being smashed by a hammer following the quote that "Why 1984 won't be like 1984". In a play on Big Brother name, little brother is shown. The play explains the chances of peeping into privacy of individuals using modern technologically advanced modern equipments like camera phone, social web sites, etc. Even if his first appearance was as a character in a novel, now Big Brother has grown up to be as a symbol of totalitarian regime. The growth of Big Brother can be compared to that of Uncle Sam. Still we are not sure how the character Uncle Sam was created. It is only a prevailing theory that he was Samuel Wilson (http://home.nycap.rr.com/content/us_bio.html). Quite similar is the case of Big Brother also. There is no foolproof theory about his existence. But by this time just similar to Uncle Sam, Big Brother also became part of our life and discussions. References 1984 By George Orwell 23/11/2008 http://books.google.co.in/bookshl=en&id=yxv1LK5gyV4C&dq=big+brother&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=ol68A61VMb&sig=yu_lbdDeMTS6kHyAZDugrC6KE6M&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA1,M1 Totalitarianism 22/11/2008 Wikipedia 23/11/2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian Nineteen Eighty-Four 22/11/2008 Wikipedia 23/11/2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Big Brother (TV series) 22/11/2008 Wikipedai 23/11/2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(TV_series) Biography of Uncle Sam 25/11/2008 http://home.nycap.rr.com/content/us_bio.html 27/11/2008 http://home.nycap.rr.com/content/us_bio.html Read More