1984 #3

In 1984 the, who controls the past controls the future and who controls the present, controls the past are two slogans that the controlling party follow very closely. In order to have a control in the future, they must be able to control the past. To be able to control the past, they have to lie about it. They lie so people never learn about what society was like before the party came into power. By controlling the past, they are able to make their party look almost godlike as they don't show any signs of doing anything wrong and the people buy into this false status.

The past can only be remembered by human memories or physical evidence from that period. In the case of Oceania, the only evidence theyhave from the past is the lies that Winston helps create. The Proles are the only other group of people that know about the past besides the government, but they remain quiet the entire time. This shows how the past is usually recreated and altered to the likes of whoever is in the most power at the time.

The past can easily be reshaped by the present. Look at the the steroid issue in baseball. All of these "great" athletes were all on the juice. Clemens, Bonds, and Rodriguez were three of the best players our generation has seen but now all their credibility is wiped away due to the face that they were juicers. In the past, all three were locks for the Hall of Fame but now each one of them will not get in because they lied about steroid use and have now been caught. So yeah, the past can be reshaped by the present as new facts are always emerging and questioning the past.

I don't think that historical reality exists. No matter the circumstance, there will always be different opinions on what happened. The only way to uncover the truth is to find out what the person really meant, and that is impossible since they are not living. So the reality is not nearly a reality but more like a consensus of opinions molded into recreating what certain people believe is the past.

Power, authority, and control are all linked to this because whoever has the most power is in control. They are able to instill fear into others to get what they want. They can alter the truth in a way that makes the public forget about the real truth. Most importantly, they are in the postion of the the most power and no one will try to argue with them because they know what the consequences will be.