American Popular Culture Home American Popular Culture Home
American Popular Culture Home About Americana Contact Americana American Popular Culture Archive
 MAGAZINE AMERICANA
 
Film
Television
Music
Sports
Politics
Venues
Style
Bestsellers
Emerging Pop Culture
Archive
Links
Magazine Home
 AMERICANA: THE
 JOURNAL OF AMERICAN
 POPULAR CULTURE
 ENDOWMENT FUND
Become a member!
Receive our
e-newsletter
 SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Magazine
Journal
E-newsletter
   
 
Television in American Popular Culture Visit the Television Archive
 Who Is Watching the Watchers?
 Or, What I Ponder When I Watch Big Brother

CBS’s new “reality” show Big Brother premiered and then flopped three years ago, but now it’s back and the only thing more shocking than its premise of total surveillance is the growing acceptance of surveillance by many Americans.

Consider urine testing.This obscene practice is now thought to be “normal,” a regular partof life for some people and a mandatory prerequisite for employment in many places.What began as an outrageous violation of our bodily sovereignty is now seen as a harmless screening for employment and job safety.A little propaganda goes a long way.

Since Americans care so little for their personal privacy, I predict thatthenext violation of our privacy will be the body cavity search.You know the one I mean, the really scary search with the elbow length gloves?I can hear it now: “It’s for your own good” or “if you’re not guilty, you have nothing to fear.”Sounds crazy,right? Not really.

A cavity search would only be a few inches from the site of our last surrender of bodily sovereignty. Why stop there?

While CBS may merely wish to increase ratings, the show Big Brother has more sinister implications.By baiting players into exposing themselves for a chance at a half-million dollar prize, CBS trivializes privacy and encourages greed.In their attempt to make a game show out of what normally would be an invasive nightmare, the network dismisses the inherent dangers of surveillance and makes a game out of surrendering privacy.Considering the current trend of corporate incest and conglomeration, terrifying new possibilities loom.

The concept of an all-seeing Big Brother was popularized by George Orwell in his novel 1984 which portrayed a nightmare world of surveillance, state control, and

social conformity.Orwell is only one voice in a chorus of authors who have tried to warn us of these dangers.As we enter the twenty-first century,we are ignoring their warnings as we saunter smugly down the path of propaganda towards Big Brother, hoping we will be rewarded for our submission with the carrot of cash.The show really shouldn’t surprise us however; it is only the natural progression from a host of sad shows that exploit greed and human depravity.Media executives have guessed correctly that Americans will sell their privacy and freedom (not to mention their dignity) for the right price.

It is especially ironic that this show premiered after the Fourth of July, our yearly celebration of freedom from tyranny.What could be more tyrannous than an all-seeing eye minding our business?I’m not certain that surveillance and freedom are compatible.The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that “surveillance” is defined as a watch or guard kept over a person, especially over a suspected person or prisoner. It is supervision for the purpose of control. The word “freedom” comes from an Old English word for love and was used to distinguish friends from slaves.Are we really free if our guilt is assumed and our behavior is monitored?

Usually surveillance is sold to us under the benign guise of “safety.”We are told that we need to be watched.It’s for our own good.But how much are we willing to give up for this illusion of absolute safety?The only thing surveillance can do is chronicle a crime; it cannot stop it.I don’t argue against basic security measures, but when I go to a mall and see ten cameras in one area, I have to wonder if there aren’t also cameras in more “private” places--for our own safety, of course!

What I really want to know is: who’s watching the Watchers?

Prohibition hysteria is partly to blame for this questionable state of exposure and mistrust.Constant anti-drug propaganda on billboards, busses, radio and TV stations, home testing kits for control-freak parents, and Tiananmen Square tattle-tale tactics have all inched us towards the tyrannous world we’ve been warned about.And it’s not just the drug war.Advertising and media hype has helped create our unreasonable expectations of absolute safety.From this fertile manure springs the surveillance and investigation industry which has been booming since the 80’s—and the terrorist attacks of 9-11 only exacerbated the situation.

Increasingly, we are hypnotized by a technology that is evolving and developing ever more subtle ways of prying into our lives to monitor our behavior.If a video camera can be hidden in a fire sprinkler, we’re all in trouble.Think about that next time you are in a public restroom.

Our current situation is almost like that old story about cooking frogs.If you drop a frog in hot water, it might jump right out, but if you slowly increase the heat, the frog won’t even notice it’s being cooked.The same principle applies to violations of freedom and privacy.Sudden changes would be resisted, but a slow, insidious erosion of freedom and privacy can proceed almost unnoticed by the average American.

Beware. Big Brother is minding our business more and more every day.

Some surveillance, it is true, is done to protect freedom.If we didn’t have video cameras, we’d never know about Rodney King or Thomas Jones, but think about it: do we want police like that to be able to monitor our private lives?Coast to coast, police brutality should give us pause: perhaps it is We the People who should be watching the Watchers.We’re not playing a game here. Although CBS might have us believe otherwise.

August 2003

[back to top]

Home | About Us | Contact | Archive

All materials on this site © 2003 Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture
Website Created by Cave Painting