Big Brother is a concept first put forth in George Orwell's book 1984. In the book, he is a person, the dictator of the principle country, Oceania. It has come to be more of the idea that there is an entity (typically the government or government agency) watching over us. While it primarily is used in reference to literal "watching over" (through the use of public area video surveillance) it is sometimes also used to describe any activity in which the government tells the general population how it should or should not act.
Edit Speech Relevance
Reagan makes a single reference to Big Brother in '
Encroaching Control':
Get any part of a proposed government program enacted into law and then, with the principle of government participation in that field established, work particularly during each election year to expand that to the ultimate aim that one day government must become a big brother to us all. Traditionally, one of the methods first used in imposing statism on a people has been government paid medical care.
The Big Brother concept is a 180 degree departure from what was put in place by the
Founding Fathers through the
Constitution. It emphasizes that people are unable to make proper decisions for themselves and thus need a "big brother" to help them from failing. The
Constitution was designed to allow people to make their own decisions and suffer the consequences should they fail.
Edit Source Links
Big Brother (Wikipedia)