Big Brother

In Orwell's 1984, 'Big Brother' and 'the Party' are government of England.  As such they are attempting to control all aspects of civilians lives, so far in that simply one's thinking could be a death sentence if exposed.  Lives of 'outer party members', essentially middle class, were to be lived in worship of the government and the ways that were set forth by the upper class also known as the 'inner party'.  In this era children were taught to spy; the little minions would even turn in their parents, if anything suspicious came to their attention.  So in essence 'big brother' was not just one person, but all that allowed the mental flogging of deceitful information to take hold in their brains.

In our society today i believe 'big brother' exists, but in a different sense.  No the government does not strictly control our every movement, but they can tap into our phone lines if there is reason to believe that treasonous behavior has or is taking place.  Corruption in government is something we still see a lot of today, yet for some reason we accept it as more bearable, maybe because one political figure does not have as much influence as one did in Orwell's novel.

Aside from the obvious, we are all in a sense affected by another 'big brother'.  We give up our right to privacy by using technology.  Anything that we post online or send in a text message can be retrieved, whether it be of malicious intent or not.  Once you hit send or post, that personal information or conversation is forever lingering in cyber space for anyone to stumble across and interpret in anyway they please.  My apartment complex has a protection on their internet usage, that will quarantine your computer if malicious content is found on your laptop through their filtering system.  They can go through your files and recent searches to see exactly what you were doing.

So do we still have privacy? Maybe, if we protect ourselves...

We are determined to be starved before we are hungry...

"...to front only the essential facts of life, and see if i could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when i came to die, discover that i had not lived."  In this quote Thoreau is explaining why initially he wanted to go to the woods.  While some may think he is being an extremist, i feel that he has really hit the nail on the head.  We are no longer living for the substance of life, were living for the next 'fix'.

In most of our cases that fix is technology.  Instead of enjoying our regular 'old' cell phones, we need new smart phones...but then they aren't really good enough either once we get them.  Our 'old' dell laptops? Yeah, well macs are sooo much better. I fall victim to this, just as much as the next person.  I ordered my mac after graduating HS and here we are a year and a half later and i'm ready to order the newer and sleeker macbook air.  How different is our addiction than a drug addict or a gaming addict? Not so different, is it?

If we were to live simply and not 'frittered away by detail' wouldn't we enjoy the little things in life a lot more?  By eating one meal a day, consisting of very bland unseasoned natural foods, wouldn't we appreciate the nourishment it offers our bodies much more?  It seems in this case we wouldn't be putting 'bad foods' into our bodies as much either, with the 'tastiness' gone.  

We're allowing all of these incidentals to consume and destroy us.  Many families are so detached meals that are eaten 'together' aren't really even together anymore.  I know personally, that my family does not allow cell phones at the table during meals, but that many do.  How connected are you at a meal if you parents are trying to talk to you and you are there texting away under the table, with the occasional 'uh huh' 'yeah' to add to the conversation?  Your parents, grandparents, siblings and whomever else your having dinner with won't be around forever, yet you waste your precious time texting away, instead of spending time with real people. One could argue that texting is socializing with other real people, and it is, but we really need to get back to the basics on somethings, like communication.

So in response to this weeks prompt: No, i couldn't live in the wilderness like Thoreau did.  I truely admire him for doing so and feel that it is primarily wrong that we live our lives today as we do.  Why do we think that we are entitled to waste this life we are given? We are so worried about getting through life we forget to live purposefully.  I know i now look at the activities that fill my day much differently than before i was introduced to Thoreau and Emerson as writers.  When I'm old, i hope to say that i too have lived deliberately and with purpose.