Big Brother

Most of us have read the literary masterpiece, 1984 by George Orwells. The book was published in 1949 and “focused on a repressive, totalitarian regime”. The novel symbolizes the way in which governments surveillance's and encroaches on the rights of individuals. The term ‘Big Brother” was where this ideology was first heard, “Big Brother is watching you.” In the story, these words dominated the lives of the characters, as well as two-way television (the telescreen) encroached on the private and public spaces of the city.

This past week, I visited the infamous Las Vegas. This city is a draw dropping spectacle in every shape and form. The hotels are humongous with mini cities inside each hotel, thousands of restaurants, amazing performing acrobatics shows, concerts, and money being spent at every hour of the day.

Las Vegas is a place that everyone should see at least once, however, I honestly had the feeling that I was under the “Big Brother” ideology like the 1984 novel. There are no clocks anywhere, making us not realize the idea of time so we would spend more time in the casinos. There are no seats besides the ones in the restaurant, by a slot machine or gambling table. At the end of the trip when I had seen pretty much all of the main spots on the Vegas a strip, I truly just wanted to sit outside in the sunshine and read a book, but there was not a place to sit outside and only one or two restaurants that I saw that had seating outside. It felt like I was forced to go inside and spend money, either sitting in a restaurant buying a drink or in the casino. Another example is that they were hardly any windows, the hotels are so big with much to see inside the hotel that if you did not wonder outside you might never know what type of day it was.

The Big Brother ideology behind Vegas is to spend money and they do that by not giving anything away for free. Personally there were two big things that got to me. Firstly, the lack of a coffee machines in the room. I love to have a cup of tea in the morning and I had specifically brought tea bags to boil water and have a cup of tea. However, I had to wonder down through the casino to a coffee shop to get a cup of tea. Secondly, the hotel we were staying at did not have an exercise gym, you had to go and pay $25-$40 to use the spa’s exercise room. In other places around the world, hotels you stay out which are half the price of the Las Vegas rooms will have an equipment room. These little things that we take for granted at other hotels in the world were not available in these hotels.

I was truly amazed on how influenced Las Vegas is. I enjoyed the whole spectacle behind the different themed hotels, the amazing shows, the different restaurants and the numerous amount of shops. However if you are not careful you will be influenced by the Big Brother to spend more money than you perhaps bargain for.