Big Brother

The term Big Brother refers to George Orwell's classic novel 1984, in which he "described a totalitarian society in which the government, referred to as the Party, had almost complete control over the people. The supreme ruler of the Party was Big Brother. Posters announced that 'Big Brother is Watching You'. Telescreens, which could not be turned off, droned endlessly with brainwashing propaganda about wondrous government programs. Coins, stamps, books, films, and banners proclaimed the three slogans of the Party: 'War is Peace', 'Freedom is Slavery', 'Ignorance is Strength'." [1]

"In Orwell's seminal novel, Big Brother and the party control the past, because by doing so, they control the present and future. Enemies become allies overnight, and all evidence to the contrary is put down the memory holes in the Ministry of Truth, and new archives written to back up the current version." [2]

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On September 21, 2004, the Illinois Pantagraph reported in "Chicago Becomes Oceania: Big Brother is Watching":

"It may have taken a couple extra decades for George Orwell's predictions in his book 1984 to come true, but Big Brother is watching.

"In Orwell's book, the residents of Oceania were under near constant surveillance. Sounds like Chicago of the near future.

"Mayor Richard Daley is developing a network of more than 2,000 surveillance cameras that would be linked to a computerized network programmed to recognize suspicious or emergency situations.

"Most of the cameras are already in place at O'Hare International Airport, on transit lines, in public housing buildings and schools and in high-crime areas. The new development would be the software designed to detect unusual activity, notify emergency officials and allow 911 operators to access the image.

"There is something vaguely discomforting at the thought of being watched by government cameras, even if they are in public places.

"In reality, more of these unblinking eyes probably look at us every day -- even in Bloomington-Normal -- than any of us realize.

"But do we really want to emulate London, where it's estimated the average person passes in view of 300 cameras a day?"

Related SourceWatch Resources

• Antiterrorism Tools Enhancement Act of 2003
• biometrics
• Bush administration fetish for government secrecy
• Bush administration: individual rights versus national security
• Bush administration propaganda and disinformation
• Bush administration Orwellian logic
• Carnivore
• CIA
• civil liberties
• data mining
• doublespeak
• Echelon
• enemy combatant
• Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
• freedom of speech
• globalization
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• Department of Homeland Security
• FBI
• Georgeland
• Homeland Security
• John Poindexter
• Magic Lantern
• MK-ULTRA
• New World Order
• Patriot Act I
• Patriot Act II
• preemptive war
• privatization
• PROTECT Act
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
• REAL ID Act of 2005
• Room 101
• surveillance
• Total Information Awareness
• Transportation Security Administration
• treating dissent as treason
• VeriChip Corporation
• VICTORY Act
• war on terror
• war propaganda

External links

• Big Brother (1984) in the Wikipedia.
• Big Brother. Prison Planet News Archive.
• The Complete Newspeak Dictionary. 1984 Newspeak and 2004 Modern Newspeak versions.
• Crimes Against Humanity. Numerous article links.
• epic.org: Electronic Privacy Information Center.
• Orwell Today.
• privacyinternational.org: Privacy International.
• Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists.
• Students for an Orwellian Society (SOS) "is a nationwide student group. Although SOS has always been a nationwide student group, there is evidence to suggest that it first appeared at Columbia University. The mission of SOS is to promote the vision of a society based upon the principles of Ingsoc, first articulated by George Orwell in his prophetic novel, 1984."

Articles & Commentary

• John Bennett, "Orwell's 1984: Was Orwell Right?", The Journal for Historical Review, Spring 1986.
• Solveig Singleton, "How Big Brother Began," CATO Institute, November 25, 1997.
• Janet Ward, "Beyond the Big Brother Syndrome," American City & County, October 1, 1998.
• Chris Gulker, "Listen up, Big Brother," Random Access, April 30, 1999.
• Rick Gee, "The Arrival Of Orwellian America," The Valley News, December 28, 2001.
• Daniel Kurtzman, "Learning to love Big Brother. George W. Bush channels George Orwell," SF Gate, July 28, 2002.
• Nat Hentoff, Ashcroft Watch: "The Terror of Pre-Crime," The Progressive, September 2002.
• Jennifer Van Bergen, "Homeland Security Act: The Rise of the American Police State" (Part 1 of a Three Part Series), Truthout, December 2, 2002.
• Steven Lawson, "Yes, You Are Being Watched. At home and in the office--and everywhere in between--you could be under legal digital surveillance," PC World, December 27, 2002.
• Declan McCullagh, "George Orwell, here we come," CNetNews, January 6, 2003.
• Declan McCullagh, "RFID tags: Big Brother in small packages," CNetNews, January 13, 2003.
• Jim Grichar, "George 'Big Brother' Bush?," LewRockwell.com, May 5, 2003.
• "Big Brother 2003,", USA Today, June 22, 2003.
• "Corporate Big Brother doing the spying," smh.com.au, September 8, 2003.
• Daniel H. Pink, "Little Brother Is Watching," WIRED, July 2004.
• Ian Williams, "Hello, Big Brother," AlterNet, August 2, 2004.
• Richard Roeper, "Big Brother is back, and there's no stopping him," Chicago Sun-Times, February 21, 2005.