BIG BROTHER

In his classic novel, 1984, George Orwell described a totalitarian society in which the government, referred to as the Party, had almost total control over the people. The supreme ruler of the Party was Big Brother. Posters announced that "Big Brother is Watching You". Telescreens 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.

Police Patrol helicopters darted among the roofs of the buildings, allowing police to snoop in people's windows. As insidious as the Police Patrol was, the government agents most feared were the Thought Police. Telescreens not only transmitted in the homes governmental policies, they also transmitted back to the Thought Police both sounds and pictures from inside the homes.

Distinctions between people were reduced through referring to them as "Comrade" rather than as "Mr." or "Mrs.". People were taught to hate their enemies through thought-control from the telescreens that drove the people into frenzied displays of rage and hate. Neighbors were enlisted by the Thought Police to spy on each other to root out unorthodoxy from society.

People lived by rigid schedules dictated by the Thought Police. Loud alarms were transmitted from the telescreens to announce when people should be doing the tasks that were specified by the Party, such as their daily exercises.

Walter Cronkite, in his Preface to the paperback edition of 1984 published by The New American Library, said Orwell wrote his novel as an essay on "power, how it is acquired and maintained, how those who seek it or seek to keep it tend to sacrifice anything and everything in its name." (p. 2) That statement gives us the key: the real purpose of control is power; power over others. Knowing that political leaders seek control over us should not surprise us, for government is an evolutionary thing and usually evolves towards more control.

http://www.bigbrothergovernment.org/index.html