STOLEN!/redefined...words/phrases/ideas

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I watched part of simon schama's history of britian thing and enjoyed it well enough. he was talking about winston churchill and george orwell [and winston smith, kinda] and I got to think: the idea/phrase 'big brother' has totally been stolen and changed. and not only from people who have never heard of orwell or his 1984 [plenty of, I bet].

I am not totally sure but I am worried that if I heard someone talking and heard them say 'big brother' I would think of the TV's before orwell's.

I don't have a problem with TVBB but it annoys me so [does it?] that this TV 'big brother' has ALMOST NOTHING TO DO WITH orwell's. it's like...there was orwell's as part of his 1984->there was the phrase "big brother is watching you" that became disconnected itself and meant something to people who didn't actually know why it was->there is this TV show that takes it even further away.

these things happen. it upsets me is all.

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 8 December 2002 02:23 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not that far removed, surely: the link is that these people are living their lives under constant surveillance, and hearing a disembodied voice issuing instructions, plus they are expected to act against one another in secret ways (nominations for ejection).

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 8 December 2002 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

uh-uh. it's like it's been simplified so that the concept of big brother, these days, is just about surveillance without any of the other bits. which means something quite different. [again: I am not just talking about the TV one].

― RJG (RJG), Sunday, 8 December 2002 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Orwell's Big Brother is a concept dependant upon living in a totalitarian society where capitalism effectively doesn't exist, though? so keeping it stuck to that exact meaning is perhaps not the most useful way of doing things.

The, uh, worshipful aspects of the concept are implicit in the television show: they are the television itself (or not); anyway it is a double joke because the millions of viewers are also part of the reference, although I'm not sure how far this idea stands up..

― thom west (thom w), Sunday, 8 December 2002 13:17 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

RJG must go.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

the joke is that WE'RE all Big Brother now (though we were in 1984 too).

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 24 June 2003 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

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