Who is big brother?

[The name master]

Whenever I look at a topic (any topic) it says big brother is viewing the topic. Who is big brother?

[The Shrub Dragon]

dont question it


you are being watched


dont drink the water


dont fight the government

[The name master]

dont question it

Why?

you are being watched

Stop looking at me!

dont drink the water

I don't drink water, I drink coke.

dont fight the government

Give me a reason why I shouldn't.

[Liam]

It's my second account.

[SirBlaziken]

Obviously someone didn't read 1984.......

[The Shrub Dragon]

What...

1984 by george orwell, his most famous book other than perhaps animal farm.  it is a politically charged novel about the dangers of communism and is largely centred around surveillance.  one of the slogans used to control the proletariat is 'big brother is watching you'

[SirBlaziken]

It's a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone needing a decent read. Still yet to figure out the ending.

[Kpyna]

you don't get the ending?? i dont wanna spoil it because OBVIOUSLY some people havent read it but i thought it was fairly cut and dry man... resistance is futile basically

[SirBlaziken]

I was told there was a deeper meaning in the book by a few people. That's my fault then.

[The name master]

Well, I guess nobody really cares who big brother is. I don't!

PS: I've uploaded this video to YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6lYyKAbMg

[The Shrub Dragon]

I was told there was a deeper meaning in the book by a few people. That's my fault then.

i imagine they were ppl who thought they were rlly rlly smart for gettin liz's point and ur genuinely smart so u did a layton and went 'this reminds me of a puzzle' and have been scrutinising for months

Well, I guess nobody really cares who big brother is. I don't!

your opinion =/= everyone else's opinion.  george orwell was a cracking writer and the idea of 'big brother' is something which has literally affected people's moral decisions since basically forever initially with regard to god for indoctrination and control of the masses and now on a more sinister level with the development of new technology.  even shakespeare uses a similar template to big brother with hamlet's 'nah if i kill claudius while he's praying then i go to hell and he goes to heaven and i'm not down w that'.  nobody wants to know who big brother is.  big brother is not corporeal; he exists as a form of control and brainwashing and nothing more.  so yeah you saying nobody really cares who big brother is means,,,,,, basically nothing and i will debate big brother until i die

[Kpyna]

agreed with shrub -- i was in an A level class and a solid half of the class agreed they didn't understand the ending, or didn't get the point anyway. we were some of the brightest english students in the school so i can see that some of your peers in a similar level may have thought it was deep, when if you just paid attention, read, and properly enjoyed the book you would totally understand! not everyone enjoys the book though, and might just skim it because its dumb schoolwork... not trying to disparage those who didn't really get the ending.

also big brother is a concept you're going to run into again and again now that you've noticed it. i know in america at least it's huge because the concept of internet surveillance, the NSA eavesdropping on most of our communication... this is something you're probably gonna see people referencing until hopefully legislation is introduced to protect our privacy over all mediums

anyways, when i was 15, this was barely becoming important to me. i would give it another year or two and then pick up the book and see what you think. it's an old book, it will probably be like 50 years old when you read it, but its as relevant as ever. i'd say at your age, read a bit about the soviet union and then read Orwell's Animal Farm. It's a really good book, I read it and understood the meaning of the story but not the historical significance at 9 and then after learning a little bit of history reread it at 16 and it made total sense.

[not chloe]

I always find it crazy how many references there are to 1984 in popular culture that we don't even think about like the TV show Big Brother, where we literally take enjoyment out of watching a group of people 24/7 and then we vote on which ones we like (wth is wrong with that) and Room 101 - the Frank Skinner one where celebs vote on things they hate to put into 'Room 101' like idk.

Also as a point of interest (because Liz said the book will prob be 50 years old by the time /you/ read it) the book was written in 1948 and the title was literally just the last numbers of the year it was written switched around because 1984 seemed like a long time away back then and it was basically code for 'any time in the future' sort of thing.

I really love Georgie O and Down & Out in Paris and London is well worth the read as well as the two more obvious books.

Also pls watch the film of 1984 it has John Hurt in it and it's really good

[Kpyna]

ha 1948... i had the 60s ingrained in my mind for some reason. but now that i think about it late 40s makes a lot more sense. i remember my english teacher in middle school, when we talked about Orwell and books from WWII period (I chose Night by Elie Wiesel) he said 1984 was a weird year to write as the date, what with the book and all

[lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes]

with understanding the meaning of 1984 you also have to make sure not to err too far into bizarro libertarian bitcoiner land but yeh the dude basically was about and in the Spanish Civil War. and if you read a bit into spains dictatorship and all that you realise the fine art of allegory/satire as Undercover Education w/o being too obvious.



talking of the mass survelliance of the populace and the eroding privacy of the individual has anyone been following the san bernadino!apple .v. the FBI case lately??????? exciting legal ground happenin there atm. now scalias graciously deaded himselves the supreme court could be 4-4 and it'd have to be the lower courts and its gonna be Dramatic if apple wants to stick it out //rubs hands together excitedly for the advent of utter chaos and disaster esp. when Grand Overlord Trump is sworn in//