Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

I believe we did not cover this in the Socratic seminar on Friday. I wanted to talk about this statement. In 1984 the control of the past ensures control of the future because the past can be treated as a set of conditions that encourage future goals. If the past was good then people will act to re-create it. If the past was bad then people will act to prevent such circumstances from recurring. The Party creates a past that was a time of misery and slavery from which it claims to have liberated the human race thus tricking the people to work towards the Party’s goals. The Party has complete political power in the present enabling it to control the way in which its people think about the past.