OT.
"Orwell's 1984 was a required reading in German junior High schools more than 30 years ago. I found it horrible and it made me fear." - Thierry
I fully empathise with your feelings, Thierry! - Let us hope that we progress towards "Peace on Earth and Love between all human beings" and that the horror of totalitarian regimes becomes nothing more than a cautionary tale from the past.
As for being a "big brother" - Purge your mind of this - Dont forget one of the central themes in 1984 was distortion.. "Truth is lies, war is peace" etc.. this same inversion is apparent in the term "big brother" IMO - taking something potentially good and honerable and turning it into something to be feared.. It was written to alert readers, not for them to take the distortions and embrace them.. Alas, he wrote a little too well!
That you feel any discomfort at being lovingly called "big brother" IMO says that you have let 1984's tale go way too deep into your psyche, and upset you way too much - The book had a huge impact on me too - I wasnt taught it at school (living under a near-totalitarian regime in SA, its not the sort of book they liked people reading ;-) but got it when quite young just because I had heard so many bad things about it!
Fear is a strange thing IMO - It can actually create the very thing which is feared, even if that thing would never have existed if it hadnt been feared..
Happy new year to you and everyone here.
Fred.