Dystopia is Good For Ratings

After four weeks here it has finally rained. This is the foggy London I’ve heard so much about. It’s not as gloomy as everyone makes it out to be, which makes me wonder what all the fuss has been about. Then again, I’ve only experienced one day of it. Maybe after years of this I’d start to think about possibly complaining. Barring that, it’s really fine.

Not much has happened lately, especially since I have been stuck in my room. I can make the dash to the Subway across the street to get my suggested daily fruit and veg, but I haven’t done much walking around. As a result, I have become obsessed with an English National Phenomenon.

Big Brother.

I have never watched the show in the States, so I don’t know how close the American version is (oddly enough, the show originated in Denmark) but it can’t be as psychologically taxing as the UK version. Seriously, Guantanamo Bay Prison is a cake walk compared to this show. These people are watched at all times by an assortment of sinister-looking cameras, and the feed is shown on Channel 4 all night as well as the internet. In addition, at any moment the voice of “Big Brother” can blast through the speakers with increasingly bizarre forms of torture the housemates must endure. If they succeed in completing the task Big Brother gives them, they are rewarded with things like cigarettes and alcohol or videos. If they do not succeed, however, then they lose a basic privilege of living...like rations of food for the week. Or soap. Or sleep.

They are not allowed the obvious, like mobile phones and computers, but they are also not allowed paper, pens or books. Their lives consist of waiting for the next directive from Big Brother.

This week was a Japanese theme. The tasks ranged from dressing like a Geisha for 7 days to “Endurance Karaoke,” in which they had to take turns singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler over and over for 24 hours. They had to eat only Japanese food and some of them were tested by learning the Japanese language in one day. These tasks were approached with extreme seriousness and dedication.

The really interesting thing is how easily a group of people allow themselves to be led by an all-seeing omnipresent force. They must ask permission from Big Brother to do anything, (“May I go to the bathroom Big Brother, please?”) and they are only allowed to sleep at certain times (if anyone falls asleep during the day, an obnoxious alarm blares through the house until they wake up.) Everything they do and say is recorded by people who go over the material with a fine-tooth comb and report to Big Brother...who then questions their actions and words by commanding them to enter the “Diary Room” where Big Brother interrogates them on their behavior. They must defend themselves, and they do so with such conviction you would think their lives depended on it. And perhaps because of the constant demands, in their minds, it does.

It astonishes me that people will put themselves into such a position where their every movement is watched by millions of people...that they will allow themselves to be commanded like circus monkeys to perform ludicrous and meaningless tasks...that they put themselves through hell for a few fleeting moment of fame.

However, it astonishes me that I watch it. No, it astonishes (and shames) me that I like it.

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Random fact - The show "Friends" is on at least 15 times a day.

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