"'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'" (34).
The past seems an unalterable thing; yet in most forms of history, such as oral history, or the histories found in books, such as the Bible which has been "re-translated" at least once by a king who could rewrite it without fearing any consequence, truth has ultimately been lost. Orwell realizes, though, that there is still the truth that comes into being when one believes completely that an event has occurred; therefore he is able to successfully use this idea as one of the founding principles of his Utopia he creates in 1984. If everyone believes that the event happened in reality, than no one can say that it did not happen. The Party realizes that although the past is generally thought of as a factual thing, it is really a story riddled with bias and falsities, a story controlled by those who hold power over the present; thus, the controller of the present controls the past. More importantly, though, is how the Party uses this power; they use their ability to change the past in order to adjust events so that the Party is continuously correct. Although at first this seems like more than a slight waste of time, a perfect rule would not be possible without it. Because the Party is continuously correct, the people have no reason for discontent, which completely removes an extremely common reason for overthrow. In that way, the Party's control of the present gives them the control of the future.
Speak of lit in the present as much as makes sense -- and for the most part you have. Speak also of writer's crafting a piece in the present tense
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ReplyDelete"The past seems an unalterable thing; yet in most forms of history, such as oral history, or the histories found in books, such as the Bible which has been "re-translated" at least once by a king who could rewrite it without fearing any consequence, truth has ultimately been lost. Orwell realized, though, that there is still the truth that comes into being when one believes completely that an event has occurred and successfully created a Utopia centered around this idea. If everyone believes that the event happened in reality, than no one can say that it did not happen. The Party realized that although the past is generally thought of as a factual thing, it is really a story riddled with bias and falsities controlled by those who hold power over the present; thus, the controller of the present controls the past. More importantly, though, is how the Party uses this power; they use their ability to change the past to adjust events to make the party continuously correct. Although at first this seems more than a slight waste of time, perfect rule would not be possible without it. Because the Party is continuously correct, the people have no reason for discontent, which completely removes an extremely common reason for overthrow. In that way, the Party's control of the present gives them the control of the future."