Who Controls the Past?

5/1/2023

Daily Literary Quote
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
- George Orwell

Journal Prompt
What do you think the above quote means? Do you think people "control the past" in our society? What are some examples of significant events in American history that might be either magnified our minimized in our history books? Why would we choose to do that?

29 Comments

Jace

5/1/2023 10:41:10 am

I feel like the people in power control the past a little but but I don't think anyone could ever completely alter the stories or anything like that. They have minimized things like stories of certain wars and things that people in power have done like scandals and stuff

5/1/2023 10:43:48 am

The quote is saying whoever controls the present controls the past and future. I do think people control the past in our society, such as the government. An example is many of the battles and wars in American history, because the survivors or winners of those events were the ones that controlled the future and the past.

James

5/1/2023 10:45:01 am

I agree that the government has pretty significant control over its people.

Hesston Hoggan

5/1/2023 10:45:14 am

Preach

Sedona Cannon

5/1/2023 10:56:49 am

I agree, battles and wars in American history is a great example,

James

5/1/2023 10:43:58 am

I believe that the quotes means that there will always be a higher power and they may end, but there will still be a version of it in power that’s in control. WWII has been magnified to make Nazi Germany look bad and though they did very messed up things they thought they were doing the right thing. The Nazi’s look really bad because of how we where taught in school by our people in control.

Cooper Sheldon Williams

5/1/2023 10:46:14 am

Are you a Nazi

5/1/2023 10:46:17 am

The Nazis killed 6 million Jews, James.

Hesston

5/1/2023 10:46:29 am

What do you mean by that 🤨

Kohlbin bragg

5/1/2023 10:48:03 am

So are you pro-Nazi?

Noah

5/2/2023 10:36:23 am

That’s a little suspicious baumer.

Hesston Hoggan

5/1/2023 10:44:28 am

The quote means that if you are in control you will stay in control. If you control the present you control the past and if you control the past you control the future. Being able to control the media is how history gets controlled now. Making certain issues seem more important than they might be or the other way around depending on how they view the issue.

James

5/1/2023 10:46:55 am

I agree that one who is in control will probably stay in control to some sense.

Cooper Sheldon Williams

5/1/2023 10:47:46 am

Aren’t you a Nazi🤔

Hesston

5/1/2023 10:48:42 am

I don’t feel comfortable with you commenting on my stuff.

5/1/2023 10:47:42 am

Yea I agree some people who wrote history did it for their own personal gain.

Cooper sheldon Williams

5/1/2023 10:45:08 am

History is written by the ones who survive. The battle of Bighorn is a great example. No Americans survived so they couldn’t say what happened so all other Americans just wanted to kill Indians. Colonel Custard didn’t even survive the attack to live at tell the lie like he did after every fight.

Noah

5/2/2023 10:36:49 am

I think that it’s very true that the victors write history.

Nicholas

5/1/2023 10:46:41 am

I do think that people can control the past, or at least control how we see the past. An example of this might be the Red Scare which was a movement against communism, socialism, etc. by the American government. This is an example of someone from the then present controlling the then past of communism and how it interacted with America.

Gabriel Petroni

5/1/2023 10:53:55 am

Interesting

Sara

5/1/2023 10:46:52 am

I think the quote means that depending on what one did in the past can change the future. I don’t know any specific examples of events that were minimized or maximized in our society but I’m sure we have done that for many different wars and battles. I think we choose to do that because society wants us to respect the people who sacrificed their lives more.

Sedona Cannon

5/1/2023 10:54:37 am

I really like your answer.

Kohlbin Bragg

5/1/2023 10:47:06 am

That’s if you control the present you control the past and the future. Yes, I think that people control the past because some stuff has been changed slowly throughout the years like what happens in different battles but we will never know for sure we just guess what happens and if it seems right they will change it because it might be more accurate. I feel like what happened with Atilla the hun we just now some stuff but I feel like there is a lot more to it

Gabriel Petroni

5/1/2023 10:52:43 am

It talks about if you can convince the population that certain things happened in the past, you can convince them that what is happening can be helpful for our future and that they should do this thing to bring a better future. I believe that people do somewhat control the past in our current time to help us believe that we did the good thing in the past and that what we do is either bad or good. We tend to magnify anything that we did we believe is good and we tend to minimize times we did something bad like how we ruined historical places. We also tried to minimize the events of us mass murdering civilians that didn't know that there were enemy people hidden inside the places they lived. We choose to manipulate what is known about the past to help our country think we did the good thing and that we are the good guys. We also do it to justify the different things that we do and what others have done to us.

Some Guy (Gabriel Petroni)

5/1/2023 10:54:28 am

I do Agree.

Sara

5/1/2023 01:34:12 pm

I like your examples. I definitely agree with you.

Sedona Cannon

5/1/2023 10:52:55 am

I think this quote means that those who are able to control history can also shape the future by influencing how people view the past. I think people control the past in our society by their point of view. Example of an event in American history would be the Civil Rights Movement. This event can be magnified or downplayed in order to maintain a narrative or to justify certain actions.

Sara

5/1/2023 01:33:32 pm

I like your answer. I totally agree.

Noah

5/2/2023 10:31:57 am

I think that there are people that control the past. For example one of the wars that are largely covered up is the Vietnam war due to americas large loss of troops and major failure in the war. Many facts of this event are not known widespread as other wars facts.

Who Controls the Past?

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