J. Wright contends in his cartoon (The Age 13/5/01) that the public’s craving for constant surveillance anticipates that there is something quite wrong with us. He chooses to portray the public as exhibitionists, who do not care that somebody, “Big Brother”, is watching them 24/7. We see that there are many cameras in each cell, capturing everybody’s moves, and the public does not care. It is only in cell six, with a sign saying: ‘Big Brother is ignoring you’, that we see the public upset and throwing tantrums like little children.
Wright shows the public as egocentric. In every cell, there are one or more cameras. In cell three there is a camera at an ATM, for security reasons, where there is a man taking money out of his account and is reading that he is being watched, then automatically thinks that he is now famous. Thinking that we are famous by being watched by a couple of security guards tells us that we are increasingly becoming superficial.
When a man is asked and absurd question his reply is, “Of course I’ll answer your inane question – I’ll pull my pants down too if you like.” This asks the reader to accept that our lives are dull and boring, and the only way we can brighten our lives is to watching other people doing their everyday things, even if they are doing their business on the toilet. By criticising the public, and by implicating the readers by doing so in a humorous fashion Wright questions readers whether they are like this.
Wright further argues that there is something wrong with us by contrasting the ideas in Orwell’s novel 1984 when everybody dreaded “Big Brother” watching them to the present where ‘being watched is no longer our nightmare’. The people of 1984, as depicted by Wright, dreaded Big Brother watching them. They walked down the streets with worried faces, hunched shoulders and thinking that they had no privacy. On one of the faces of a building in the background there is a poster saying, ‘Big Brother is watching you’, reminding the pedestrians that they are constantly being scrutinised. In the last couple of cells, people are actually doing anything and everything to get Big Brother to watch them. By contrasting the change over time, Wright is inviting readers to feel alarmed and begin worrying again.
Another technique used by Wright is showing the number of cameras placed all around the city and the ludicrous places cameras are found, including the streets and in the toilet. In the second cell there are six cameras attached to the sides of buildings where member of the public are posing and talking into them. Then, in the fifth cell, a man on the toilet talking into a camera! This shows that there is something very wrong with the public today. That “something” is that we are becoming vain and “show offs”. Readers, seeing the validity in Wright’s argument, that surveillance is increasing, likely reject further such intrusions in their life.
Evidence of our tolerant reaction to being observed is yet another one of Wright’s techniques to persuade the reader. In the last cell, Big Brother is ignoring society and the people’s reactions are seen as very child-like. The characters in Wright’s cartoon throw tantrums and cry like children. This shows us that our behaviour is very child like. Children feel the need to have attention drawn to them. The people in Wright’s cartoon are seeking attention from Big Brother and those watching and this immaturity shows us that there is something seriously wrong with us.
I would like Antarctica to be preserved for future generations because it is the only landmass that has not been spoilt by humanity. Antarctica should never be touched by man. Humanity has already ruined too many of the places we are living in and killed too many animals. Take for example the dodo bird which once walked freely and now it only lives in books as a creature of the past. Man’s ever-changing ways are also destroying the environment. Mankind is clearing land to build houses for themselves, polluting the air to produce products for themselves endangering other organisms to make way for themselves. It almost seems that the world revolves around man. But there is one place that the elements rule over man – Antarctica. In Antarctica, the elements dominate any activity or research that is being done.
Scientist have found that Antarctica has many hidden minerals within the ice. Some people are saying that we should drill into Antarctica for oil. However, what if the oil leaks and stains the ice? Antarctica would no longer be white but black; it would no longer be able to reflect the sun’s rays, as black absorbs the sun. Then Antarctica would slowly begin to melt away, increasing water in our oceans and eventually flooding the world. That is why Antarctica should be conserved just the way it is.
It would be a great experience for future generations to take a trip down to Antarctica to see a world untouched, as it was the last continent to be discovered by man. Future generation can see animals in their own natural habitats, like many varieties of penguins, whales and seals. Antarctica should be left the way it is – untouched by man but not untouched by the elements and the arctic animals.
