Russel Brand - Big Brother Isn't Watching You

Essay – Russell Brand; ”Big Brother isn’t watching you”

The commentary “Big Brother isn’t watching you” is written by Russell Brand, who’s a British actor, comedian and activist. He’s known for comedies such as “Get Him to the Greek”. The title is from George Orwell’s novel “1984”. It was published in 1949, but people today still acknowledge the book because of the reproduction of a surveillance society. It’s ironic, because in Russell Brand’s opinion, no one is watching over the British rioters.

Russell Brand wrote it in 2011, on The Guardian’s website, concurrently with the riots happening in UK. Russell Brand is commenting on how the youngsters are ruining their homeland with the riots. He’s kind of ashamed of British society, and even mentions how the Prime Minister doesn’t go back to London from his holiday, to stop this. and how you in the business world are being told what to say, as he was in Big Brother. “… I quoted a British first-world-war general who, reflecting on the inability of his returning troops to adapt to civilian life, said: “You cannot rouse the animal in man then expect it to be put aside at a moment’s notice” – “Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of thing we want you to say the opposite of” said the channel’s representative” (p. 2, l. 18-22).

The whole thing started with Mark Duggan who refused to be arrested under the riots, and then was shot and killed by an officer, which was the thing that provoked Russell to write. That’s what makes him wonder, why the Ministry don’t get in and make a change. The death of Duggan lead to many other losses of lives and homes. He thinks that the media, is good at blaming the youngsters, by calling them both uneducated and saying that they don’t know what they are doing, but they are not the only one to blame in Brand’s opinion. “How should we describe the actions of the city bankers who brought our economy to its knees in 2010? …. But then again, they do wear suits, so they deserve to be bailed out, perhaps that’s why not one of them has been imprisoned ….. These young people have no sense of community because they haven’t been given one.” (p. 4, l. 97-103)

The sender, Russell Brand is originally from Essex, UK. Therefor he sees it as a duty to take participate or comment on the violence happening in London. He’s trying to find a reason behind the occurring of the riots. It’s a nonfictional text, considering the riot is a real demonstration in the streets of London. He starts out the commentary by saying he no longer resides in London, but now lives in London. “I’ve been transplanted to Los Angeles by a combination of love and money, such good fortune and opportunity” (p. 1, l. 1-2). He says this sarcastic sentence because of the thoughts of America, and the American dream, which is that people move her, to get wealthy and even famous. He carries on by saying he used to be part of the reality show Big Brother, where a lot of people are living in a house, being watched over by “Big Brother”. He follows up, by saying he’s no longer a part of the British “economic class”, which the rioters are from. The economic class is the working class. His message is, that he feels their frustration, which makes him much more reliable, because he knows how it is to be considered as a “lower class” than the wealthy ones, the “superiors” of UK. “I found those protests exciting, yes, because I was young and a bit of a twerp but also, I suppose, because there was a void in me. A lack of direction, a sense that I was not invested in the dominant culture, that government existed not to look after the interests of the people it was elected to represent but the big businesses that they were in bed with”. (p. 3, l. 74-77).

“Big Brother isn’t watching you” was published in “The Guardian”, which is a British daily newspaper, known for their very leftist opinions. You could say that the receiver of this commentary is the ministry, who should do something about the riots and deaths, but also generally the nation in altogether. Deaths, violence and injustice should awake a reaction in everyone. The text is, even though it’s a few years ago, still relevant. There are still problems between young people and the authorities, as we often see in the U.S.A, where many young, black people were killed by officers, in the light of racism and power cravings.