It's not
enough that the Party controls the
lives of its citizens; it has to control what they think. And
one way in
which the Party does this is by rewriting the past. In Oceania, history is what
the
Party says it is. 's job in the Ministry of Truth involves doctoring
historical photos and texts
to fit in with the Party's propaganda narrative.
This is just a small, but significant part of
the regime's ceaseless efforts
to legitimize its continuing rule. On a daily basis, the Party
hammers home
the message that life's so much better now than it used to be and that there can
be
no going back.
In controlling the past in this way, the
Party also controls
the future, or to be more precise, the future
expectations of Oceania's citizens. For most
people in Oceania, the rule of
the Party is all they know. Among other things, this means that
they lack the
imagination to envisage a future without the Party in control, without Big
Brother's stern portrait staring down at them from everywhere. All aspects of a
citizen's
beingtheir past, present, and futureare thus controlled by the
Party, the better to consolidate
its iron grip on power.
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