Wednesday, January 14, 2015

He Is Not Our Brother

Most of us are doing the best that we know how.
In this topsy-turvy world one finds the blessing wherever one can, the fulfillment, the satisfaction.  But the curse comes along sometimes like an undesirable uncle showing up unannounced at the door.  We knew he would eventually arrive, we just didn’t know from where, and we didn’t know when.  But we’ll have to live with that.  Like the promise of death, or ageing. 

But there is an even more sinister family member who increasingly insinuates himself into our lives.  He masquerades as a big brother.  And big brother has become a tangible curse for most people these days, just like George Orwell said he would.  He finds his way into our life most inappropriately, and at the most inopportune time, bringing with him new laws, taxes, fees, regulations, and requirements of every kind.  Listening in on us, tracking our every keyboard stroke or smart phone transaction.  But it’s for our own good, he says.  It’s for our own wellbeing, and to help with our own security.
Yeah, real nice brother.  Always looking out for us!

The main problem with that kind of brother is that he actually believes his own fiction.  He pretends to be a loyal, moral and ethical member of the family, working hard on our behalf.  And yet he wallows in his own self-importance stroking himself, and his buddies, for gratification, all the while thinking that we see him as the character he so disingenuously masquerades as for the rest of us.  The truth is, we can see him, but for whom he actually is.  The sad part is that for the most part we don’t care.  That is the real tragedy.  It’s how he’s able to continue being a disloyal, immoral, and unethical member of the family, entertaining delusions of grandeur, and working hard on his own behalf.  He is not our savior, by any stretch of the imagination.  And he is not our brother.  He has, in fact, become our master.

Most of us are giving it our best, just trying to get through life, and haven’t got the inclination to supervise the behavior of a government that insinuates itself into, and imposes itself upon, our struggling lives.  Big Brother knows that.  Of that you can be sure.   
And it’s really how he gets away with the charade.

But we, as the recipients of his untoward affection, must be aware of him and his spurious ways, 
and make the time and effort to resist his unscrupulous advances.
That is something we can and must do, and we must do it with vigilance, the best that we know how.