Awakening an Interest in History by Andy Starck
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” states a famous Party slogan in George Orwell’s 1984. These prophetic words not only encapsulate dictatorial governments but reveal one of the more subtle ways any power structure can redefine how a society thinks and thus functions. There are of course less subtle ways as Orwell’s tragic protagonist Winston discovered. Hopefully you will never be imprisoned in the Ministry of Love or have to encounter the horror of horrors awaiting Winston in room 101. If Orwell was right and truly “Who controls the present controls the past” then it begs the question, who is in control of the present? If we can answer that then we know who controls history.
