10. Big Brother

© Robbie O’Connell 1999 Slievenamon Music (BMI)

The term “Big Brother Is Watching You” originated in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, to describe the tyranny of the surveillance state. However, “Big Brother” seems to have morphed into a term for the oligarchy that dominates our economic, political, and cultural worlds today. It implies all the attributes of a greedy older brother who hoards all resources for his own exclusive use and fails to grasp the concept of “enough.”

What drives plutocrats to always want more and more? It seems like a mental illness to me, yet millions of people aspire to be just like them. It reminds me of Shel Silverstein’s poem about Hungry Mungry, who began to eat everything in sight and didn’t stop until he had devoured the universe and, finally, himself.

Profit, at any cost, is the driving force of the western world. Capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction within itself. It appears to be on course to devour all of our planet’s resources until, like Hungry Mungry, it has sucked it all dry and nothing remains.

Kurt Vonnegut once teased Joseph Heller at a billionaire friend’s party that their host made more money in a day than Heller’s novel, Catch 22, made in his lifetime. Heller responded, “I’ve got something he can never have.”

“What’s that,” asked Vonnegut.

“Enough,” replied Heller.

The world would be a better place if we could all be content with “enough.”

Lyrics:

BIG BROTHER

© Robbie O’Connell 1999 Slievenamon Music (BMI)

CHORUS: 
Oh Big Brother’s looking for a little bit more,
A little bit more just a little bit more.
Big Brother’s looking for a little bit more,
He just can’t get enough!

He owns the farm and he owns the cows,
The sheep and the chickens and the pigs and sows.
He owns the house and he owns the land,
But he still walks up with an outstretched hand.

He owns the roads and the shipping lines,
The lumber yards and the quarries and mines.
He owns the rivers and he owns the streams,
You’d better watch out or he’ll own your dreams!

He owns the banks and the stock exchange,
The armoured vans and the trucks and trains.
He owns the planes flying in the sky,
But he still wants more, don’t ask me why.

He owns the movies and the movie stars,
The football teams and the racing cars.
He owns the lawyers, he owns the gold,
He believes everybody can be bought and sold.

He owns the TV and the radio waves,
The software, computers and the video games,
The web, the papers and the magazines,
But I’ll be damned if he’ll ever own me!