History PlayingWith / BigBrotherIsWatching

* '''Discussed''': “Shh…the walls have eyes.” “Right. And the doors. And the ceiling. And on the floors. All of them have the eyes of our [[CurseCutShort fu—]]er, ''[[LastSecondWordSwap fabulous]]'' leader, Emperor Evulz the Great!”

** The government uses AI to sift through the thousands of hours of security footage to throw out all of the obviously-not-a-threat and pick out only the clips of probable threats, because computers don't get bored and never lose focus. If the AI is advanced enough, human reviewers won't be needed at all; even if it's not (yet) at that level of sophistication it can still sift through the raw footage first and screen out the boring stuff, only sending the parts that are likely to reveal some kind of threat to human reviewers to look over.

* '''Exaggerated''': [[LogicalExtreme Every single person on the planet]] is being monitored by the New World Order in this manner.

* '''Enforced''': Madethisupolis is a ShoutOut to [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Oceania]], so SinisterSurveillance [[NecessaryWeasel is a must]].

** Madethisupolis' citizens are '''''[[UpToEleven themselves]]''''' sentient security cameras.

%%* '''Played for Drama''': ???

** The surveillance system is meant to prevent terrorism, but according to official government statistics, hasn't coaught a single terrorist but thousands of incidents of petty theft and [[EvilIsPetty people making jokes about the government]].

* '''Exploited''': [[PowerPerversionPotential Women in bathrooms are watched by horny government.]]

** ...until a terrorist [[ComicBook/VForVendetta bombs the Parliament building in London]], and such surveillance becomes necessary again to prevent another attack.

%%* '''Played for Laughs''': ???

'''Basic Trope''': The [[{{Dystopia}} government and/or organization of high authority]] uses [[SinisterSurveillance sophisticated surveillance technology]] to spy on its citizens while looking for dissidents – and everyone is aware of it, but never know ''when'' they are being watched.

** [[JustifiedTrope Due to limits involving Human Rights laws]], the government is only allowed to “spy” on one particular person on a given day.
** The people of Madethisupolis are constantly monitored in public, though when they're in their own private homes, they cannot be monitored.
* '''Justified''':

** There is a terrorist threat against the country, but nobody knows who the terrorist is or what he ([[SamusIsAGirl or she]]) looks like – therefore accessing the nationwide SinisterSurveillance is the fastest way to find out who’s responsible.

* '''Inverted''': As part of a revolutionary new political system, the people of Madethisupolis can watch what the government officials are doing at any given time by broadcasting meetings directly to their television screens. In other words [[RussianReversal You Watch Big Brother]].

* '''Parodied''': Madethisupolis' citizens' ''refrigerators'' have cameras in them.
* '''Zig Zagged''': Sometimes the entire surveillance system is down for months at a time for maintenance – therefore nobody ''is'' watching sometimes. [[ParanoiaFuel Not that anyone can tell, though…]]
* '''Averted''': Despite possessing other [[{{Dystopia}} Dystopia-like]] qualities, the people are ''not'' being watched by the government on a day-to-day basis.
* '''Enforced''': Madethisupopia is a ShoutOut to [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Oceania]], so SinisterSurveillance [[NecessaryWeasel is a must]].
* '''Lampshaded''': “We’re being watched by our government…we never know who’s being watched – or ''when''.”

* '''Exploited''': [[PowerPerversionPotential Women in bathrooms are being watched by horny government]].

* '''Discussed''': “Shh…the walls have eyes.” “Right. And the doors. And the ceiling. And on the floors. All of them have the eyes of our [[CurseCutShort fu--]] er, ''[[LastSecondWordSwap fabulous]]'' leader, Emperor Evulz the Great!”
* '''Conversed''': “Dude, this is totally like ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''!” “[[CompletelyMissingThePoint No, I’m pretty sure we didn’t have that technology in the year 1984.]]”
* '''Deconstructed''':
** Government officials eventually become bored of watching mundane activities 24/7 – and never have enough time to have a life themselves. This in addition to the lack of any anti-government activity for ten whole years causes “Big Brother” to declare the [[SinisterSurveillance surveillance system]] not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to the well-being of the citizens [[HiddenHeartOfGold he cares for]], and it is uninstalled.

** ...until one of [[TheLoad extra moronic]] Resistance members gives everything away, destroying LaResistance in one fell swoop.

%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
%%
%%* '''Implied''': ???
%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???
%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???
%%* '''Played For Drama''': ???

* '''Downplayed''': [[JustifiedTrope Due to limits involving Human Rights laws]], the government is only allowed to “spy” on one particular person on a given day.

'''Basic Trope''': The [[{{Dystopia}} government and/or organization of high authority]] uses [[SinisterSurveillance sophisticated surveillance technology]] to spy on its own citizens while looking for dissidents – and everyone is aware of it, but never know ''when'' they are being watched.

* '''Downplayed''': [[JustifiedTrope Due to limits involving Human Rights laws]], the government is only allowed to “spy” on one particular person in a given day.

* '''Inverted''': As part of a revolutionary new political system, the people of Madethisupolis are able to watch what the government officials are doing at any given time by broadcasting meetings directly to their television screens. In other words [[RussianReversal You Watch Big Brother]].

* '''Zig Zagged''': Sometimes the entire surveillance system is down for months at a time for maintanence – therefore nobody ''is'' watching sometimes. [[ParanoiaFuel Not that anyone can tell, though…]]

* '''Lampshaded''': “We’re being watched by our own government…we never know who’s being watched – or ''when''.”

* '''Discussed''': “Shh…the walls have eyes.” “Right. And the doors. And the ceiling. And the floors. All of them have the eyes of our [[CurseCutShort fu--]] er, ''[[LastSecondWordSwap fabulous]]'' leader, Emperor Evulz the Great!”

** Government officials eventually become bored of watching mundane activities 24/7 – and never have enough time to actually have a life themselves. This in addition to the lack of any anti-government activity for ten whole years causes “Big Brother” to declare the [[SinisterSurveillance surveillance system]] not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to the well-being of the citizens [[HiddenHeartOfGold he actually cares for]], and it is uninstalled.

** Being a member of the network is boring. Really boring. The people in charge spend most time sleeping and playing card games instead. Everyone is free to talk about anything, simply because they know that, since most of the people shifting through the footage won't be because it's too goddamn boring, they're likely to miss ''any'' plots against the government.

** The people of the government are [[TheParanoiac extremely paranoid]] and/or [[ControlFreak control freaks.]]

* '''Deconstructed''': Government officials eventually become bored of watching mundane activities 24/7 – and never have enough time to actually have a life themselves. This in addition to the lack of any anti-government activity for ten whole years causes “Big Brother” to declare the [[SinisterSurveillance surveillance system]] not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to the well-being of the citizens [[HiddenHeartOfGold he actually cares for]], and it is uninstalled.
** The surveilance network is so large that it takes DAYS to shift through all of it, and LaResistance [[SpySpeak is so good at making plans sound like mundane conversation]] that any plots against the government can't be confirmed until it's too late...
* '''Reconstructed''': ...until a terrorist [[VForVendetta bombs the Parliament building in London]], and such surveillance becomes necessary again to prevent another attack.

* '''Subverted''': The American government is taking extreme measures to follow everything Derek is up to, but that is only because he uncovered a secret file detailing a sinister plan.
* '''Double-Subverted''': …but it so happens that the government is capable of watching anyone in the country at any time.
* '''Parodied''': Derek’s ''refrigerator'' has a camera in it.

* '''Averted''': Despite possessing other [[{{Dystopia}} Distopia-like]] qualities, the people are ''not'' being watched by the government on a day-to-day basis.

* '''Exploited''': ???

* '''Justified''': {{Dystopia}} [[ExactWords Justifies]] [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans The Means]]

* '''Deconstructed''': Government officials eventually become bored of watching mundane activities 24/7 – and never have enough time to actually have a life themselves. This in addition to the lack of any anti-government activity for ten whole years causes “Big Brother” to declare the [[SinisterSurveillance surveillance system]] not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to the well-being of the citizens [[HiddenHeartOfGold he actually cares for]], and it is uninstalled.
* '''Reconstructed''': ...until a terrorist [[VForVendetta bombs the Parliament building in London]], and such surveillance becomes necessary again to prevent another attack.

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** There is a terrorist threat against the country, but nobody knows who the terrorist is or what he ([[SamusIsAGirl or she]]) looks like – therefore accessing the nationwide SinisterSurveillance is the fastest way to find out who’s responsible.

* '''Enforced''': Madethisupopia is a ShoutOut to [[NineteenEightyFour Oceania]], so SinisterSurveillance [[NecessaryWeasel is a must]].

* '''Conversed''': “Dude, this is totally like ''NineteenEightyFour''!” “[[CompletelyMissingThePoint No, I’m pretty sure we didn’t have that technology in the year 1984.]]”

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