"Who controls past the past control, controls the future"-- 1984, Part One, Chapter Three.
Think about the meaning of this quote. Is this true? Can this happen in our world today? Think about the Dove advertisement and the segment from NPR: "Changing History." Write a response to the quote from 1984 and agree or disagree with Orwell's idea from the novel.
23 comments:
Whoever controls the past, will inevitably control the future. I'm sure we're all familiar with the saying, "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it," and that quote holds a lot of relevance to the question at hand. If you "control" the past, you manipulate history to further a political agenda, or you manipulate it so that the public thinks a certain way - you are erasing the truth of history. When these gaps are left wide open, then the tragedy of the past will surely occur again, since no one can learn of it, let alone learn from it. With a lack of substantial and accurate knowledge of the past, the repetition of those undesirable events is inevitable. That's why we as a society need to teach every part of history, and not just the desirable and clean parts.
I think this comment is true. The future generations to come up after an event has taken place will only learn about the said event via textbook or word of mouth. If there are no textbooks to say that something different happened because it has been edited, then the future is set in stone on being some false information. This, however, would require the destruction of literally anything that contradicts the printed information. I think this is possible due to man's destructive tendency, but highly unlikely as well in our world today because of how vastly large the world is. Someone somewhere will have hidden a copy of the actual truth, and all it would take is for some explorer to rediscover the missing truth to bring the past back up to date. This would in turn change the future, as it would change what is learned by future generations in textbooks.
I believe that the past can not be completely changed but can be adjusted to fit the societal requirements. The ability for the people in power to sway the opinions of the citizens has been proven to be very easy. This ability has been seen in WWII when Hitler used propaganda and a negative portrayal of the people he did not like was what brought the beginning of Nazi Germany. Also, there is the fact about how things are taught in school. In the American school system, things are taught through the view of rose coloured lenses to give students the thought that America was always in the right.
I believe that this can happen in our world today. Many people believe to what others says without questioning the validity of the statement first. Without a skeptical look at information presented to us everyday, we fall prey to ignorant bliss. The government may not necessarily change specific facts of events, but the attitude they have towards the subject can color our perspective of certain events in history. This a small step at first, but could lead to the blatant falsification of past events to agree with the political climate experienced in present time.
I believe that this could happen in our world today, but there would still be traces of the past/truth, due to the kind of society we live in today; you would not be able to completely and absolutely destroy every piece of evidence, simply because there is too much to comb through. Something will always slip through the cracks, whether intentional or not, and people will question and debate the information.
I agree with the quote because you can influence people to believe that something different occurred in the past. You can change stories & people to fit the needs of control & this can impact the future's beliefs. That was the entire point of Winston's article about Comrade Ogilvy. He made him seem like he was a perfect person in the past so that the people of the future would aspire to be like the perfect Comrade Ogilvy.
I believe that the people that control the past do control the future. In the NPR article, it discusses how textbooks change over time based on who writes them. For example, when we are taught about wars, we are never taught that we started them. It is always explained as a different person's fault. In the Dove commercial, it was so easy to change the woman's picture to fit someone's idea of a model.
I believe this is true. Currently, I think the US government doesn't change facts outwardly. However, I do believe they have a huge influence on our perception of those facts. This influence is exerted in a variety of ways. The media can act as an outlet for the government to present the information in a way that they desire it to be presented. Textbooks and information found on websites can be altered to do the same. I took APUSH last year, and I remember my mom telling me that half the things I was learning weren't taught when she was a student. If the government has this power over our perception of the past, they have the power to change the future. As humans, we base our actions off our perceptions, not our objective observations.
I think it is possible for governments to change and rewrite the past to agree with what they think. However not all governments agree on things so they may have different versions of the past. I do not think it is possible for the truth to ever be erased, the world is to big and I do not think that anyone can destroy the truth. Someone will always know what is true wether they memorized it and pass it down through words, or they hide a document.
I believe that many things can be changed and altered but you cannot actually change history. It happens a certain way and that will never be changed but they way it is perceived can easily change. Very rarely do we actually hear the truth, which happens within most aspects of society. I mean this is lowering this very much but think about when two of your friends get in an argument it is always the other persons fault. They never tell you the same story, it is always altered to make one side look better no matter the truth.
I believe this could easily happen in our world today. It seems to me as if anything can happen today with the fear of terrorism and our country not knowing who to turn to to solve our problems, a poor decision could be made out of haste which could lead to our country becoming somewhat of a dictatorship due to safety concerns
The past is the past, the future is the future. The past is controlled by those who still advocate the different areas of society. Currently in the United States we are taught about WWII in the eyes of an American. Students have no insight from a German aspect or even an outsider. It's not like the U.S. makes it known when we make a change. They keep to themselves most of the time and if that doesn't work out they let out a little information at a time. Anyone can cover up anything just to make it look good. In the NPR the professor specifically says, "history textbooks are written for young white men who plan to attend college." Back in the 1900s and before segregation had a big impact on life. African Americans were given no shot for anything. Now we have changed but still those textbooks are written in a specific form.
I suppose that could be true but you cannot completely erase the truth someone somewhere knows it. It is just the matter of finding it. So much of what happens could possible not be true it's all through perspective. So yes I suppose if you erase everything anyone knows about everything and then change it you could control everyone. I still feel that is not very feasible.
I think it could be true to an extent. People are capable of changing things to a certain point of view, and then go on and teach/tell people this is what happened and this is what is true and this is what is false, eventually leading to people believing in this until someone comes out again changing it once again. If people come out with written text saying this is what happened, then there will be a large amount of people who will believe it because they are taught that way. I don't think they can rewrite the entire history but they can pick and choose. In the audio Prof. Ward talked about how throughout the years they added things and altered things in the history of the American-Mexican War, which leads the people to believe the most recent is the most accurate and true. It's definitely possible for people to change what happened, especially with the tools of today's society. But I don't think they can start from scratch and completely rewrite history.
I think that this quote is partly true because even if the facts of history is not changed the perception and the way that the history is viewed can be altered. The example being in the podcast when the professor was telling the differences in textbooks about the Mexican American war the thought on how the war started and the reason were different. So they people would view the war from different views. Another example could be was a story a teacher told was when he was in a school in the South when they were learning about the Civil War they were taught to cheer when the South won a war. Also after the Civil War the South started to claim that the reason they were fighting the war was not for slavery but to preserve the southern way of life.
Victoria Hunt
Big Brother controls the past and the future. Big Brother also means the government, they can control the past and the future. They are able to rewrite history in the history books, so that they don't look terrible. They could be lying about many things the history books these days. 1984 is possible that could happen in todays world. People are always changing history to make things sound better or make as if we didn't do it first. So I agree that people are able to control the past and control the future.
I disagree with the above statement because if you think about, though the actions of the past might directly effect the outcome of the future, it is the decisions of the present that have the highest amount of pull on what will happen in the future. Those who are given the opportunity to make that future altering decision are the ones that control the future. The past is an unchangeable linear order of events that, though people's opinions of it may differ, stays constant throughout the rest of history. The present holds the power and control of the future, not the past.
~ Kaci Wasilewski
I both agree and disagree with this statement. There are definitely some aspects to take into consideration with this. It all depends on who's changing what and why, who it benefits and who it hurts. If major events in history, such as wars or great political events that change the public view point of current economical and/or governmental circumstances, than yes it would very greatly effect the future. People would take on a new opinion of the way their nation handles things. Which, depending on how significant the situation is, may spark civil wars and public rioting. On the other hand, if smaller events that are insignificant to history and the general welfare of the public were to be changed, than it obviously isn't necessary to consider. In either case, history is history. Humans create their own history based on their decisions and the given circumstances. People are just as capable at making poor decisions as they are making good ones. Teaching younger generations that mistakes were made while also teaching them how to make better decisions for the future would benefit society as a whole in a positive way.
I think the past can be tweaked, but not overall changed. Historical documents cannot be manipulated to contain new information because they are highly secured. However, the way in which stories from our history are told can be reworded in a way that favors one group over another. For example, on Thanksgiving we just talk about the history of how the Pilgrims and Native Americans became "friends." However, it is often left out that the Pilgrims eventually took over the Native American's land. It was not all peaceful like it is often portrayed. So, all of our historical documents are carefully preserved, but specific details regarding certain events in history might not tell the full story because it could make our country look worse. Historians may contain the past, but what citizens hear from one another controls what we know about the past.
Yes I think that it can easily happen, people can be taught things and they often will not question what they learned. Also certain knowledge can be lost through time if it isn't passed down or recorded. And by changing the past, you determine the attitude about a certain event in the future. An example is the picture of the girl who had her image modified, you wouldn't question the image if you saw it because you would just think she looks like that and that is the way it is.
-Nathan White
I agree that you can change the view point of the past, but I don't believe that people can change what actually happened. People, I think, will create an arise out of others about wanting to change history or simple things, but in all reality the events that took place and the history will remain the same. If they do succeed traces of the events will still be around because everyone knows what happened, we are now just seeing it through a different point of view. With the dove commercial the girl was still the same the just changed a few features to make her look better. As you can see they changed her, but she is still the same person no matter what.
I think that our society as a whole is controlled by the beauty standards and what makes people presumably comfortable. The comfort level of people today has been set by what the government and Hollywood thinks is okay. If you look back to 9/11 all we saw were the attacks on the US, we did not see, however, the attacks on the middle east. Still today we only see what the first world society thinks is important. The day that the satirical magazine was attacked in Paris, an entire village in Nigeria was flattened by Boko Haram, who not only destroyed the village, but raped and killed men, women, and children. While we are all focused on the Kardashians and what ever is happening in upper class America, hundreds of women and girls are being attacked and kidnapped in the middle east and Africa, but because they have little to no social status due to the financial status of the countries they live in, they go unnoticed and unreported. The press only tells us what the government wants us to know. They have never told the truth about how the US military is the largest terroristic force in the world.
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