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?

55 Comments

mose

5/1/2023 12:14:03 pm

Whoever controls information at the given moment essentially has control of how (or if) we see the past. Some examples of this are how american textbooks tend to clean up or all together gloss over things like native removal or american colonialism.

Liberty

5/1/2023 12:17:35 pm

That is a good point.

Erin Jones

5/1/2023 12:17:40 pm

I agree, many textbooks miss important detail when it comes to history.

tay

5/1/2023 12:17:40 pm

period sis

Brayden Askew

5/1/2023 12:19:25 pm

That's a good example.

Aspen Smith

5/3/2023 12:33:42 pm

I think you have the control of the future in your hands and your choices you make now could heavily effect your future life. You can have life many ways but if its impacting enough it will throw your plan off and then effect your future.

Tay

5/1/2023 12:14:38 pm

girl you think i know. I think alot of history is hidden and is not taught anymore. I think they do it because they dont want to deal with the dirt and secrets.

laynee

5/1/2023 12:16:13 pm

girl same

Katie

5/1/2023 12:16:33 pm

Agreed

bella

5/1/2023 12:19:12 pm

That's facts, the government only tells us what they want us to know.

Katie

5/1/2023 12:14:46 pm

People control the present which will effect the past and future.

Laynee

5/1/2023 12:16:24 pm

preach

Anika

5/1/2023 12:16:32 pm

This is a good idea

bella

5/1/2023 12:18:17 pm

exactly

Anna

5/1/2023 12:19:29 pm

Facts

Makenna

5/1/2023 12:20:01 pm

I agree with this but I think more if the future affects the past instead of the present.

Janna

5/1/2023 12:14:59 pm

I think the quote above means that each individual controls their own life, such as what you do in the past can affect the future.I Bel eve women's suffrage was a minimized event. In the past we decided to undermine women because men saw them as child provided and nothing else.

Erin Jones

5/1/2023 12:18:51 pm

I agree, women’s suffrage was such an undermined event and we still see women suffrage still being fought over today.

Laynee

5/1/2023 12:15:42 pm

I think civil rights is very magnified in our history books. Even today we are still having riots for equal rights.(BLM) People chose to magnify civil rights because they are still seeing inequality today.

Katie

5/1/2023 12:16:48 pm

Yes

Tay

5/1/2023 12:17:06 pm

agreed. period sis.

Haylee

5/1/2023 12:21:09 pm

Yess. I agree!

colton

5/1/2023 12:15:59 pm

I think that the quote is saying that people in power can controll what information gets out and can change the perspective of people witch in a way is controlling the past. controlling the past and what people think or altering there perspectives on history can help them stay in controll of the future in a way.

Anika

5/1/2023 12:17:15 pm

I agrée with this idea

Haylee

5/1/2023 12:21:04 pm

I like how you stated this!

Anika

5/1/2023 12:16:00 pm

I think the quote means that there will always be something in the past that controls the present and future. I think Martin Luther King has a great impact on how our minds think nowadays. We chose this because after what he did, all of our minds thought differently

Liberty

5/1/2023 12:16:06 pm

They say the winners write history and I agree. Oftentimes we only see the side of the winners because they want to be seen as heroes. An example of this could be any war that America has been in. We often only show the good we did and not all the bad.

Colton

5/1/2023 12:17:28 pm

thats a good point

Janna

5/1/2023 12:18:11 pm

We often don't get to hear other countries pov in our books over wars and such but we really should hear how both sides felt and how both sides were affected

Riley S.

5/1/2023 12:19:19 pm

I agree.

Erin Jones

5/1/2023 12:16:38 pm

I believe the quote refers to those in power who change the way history is told to benefit themselves. I do think there is people who “control the past”. I believe some significant events in our history have been undermined such as safety during the industrial era. So many have lost their lives due to the lack of safety precautions and this has been often swept under the rug to continue to make the era look great.

Liberty

5/1/2023 12:18:36 pm

That is a good example.

Janna

5/1/2023 12:19:31 pm

That is a very insightful writing

bella

5/1/2023 12:17:20 pm

I think the quote is saying that you should hold yourself responsible for the things that you do in your life whether its part of the past or part of your future. Nobody in our society has responsibility for anything that has happened like 100 years ago just like how our kids in the future won't be responsible for the creation of phones or global warming when we are the ones really letting it happen.

Katie

5/1/2023 12:18:06 pm

Preach

mose

5/1/2023 12:21:30 pm

yeah

Makenna

5/1/2023 12:17:38 pm

I think that even if we control the past by being the present the future won’t know the truth because most history is made to seem “better”.

mose

5/1/2023 12:21:44 pm

mhm

Riley S.

5/1/2023 12:17:48 pm

History is written by the victories so whoever wins is able to control the view on the past. Our own government controls the past since they have been the winners of most of the recent wars and conflicts. Since they have been winners most of our victories are probably blown out of proportion. They would do this to make us appear to be the better people.

Anna

5/1/2023 12:19:57 pm

True

Colton

5/1/2023 12:20:11 pm

amen brotha

logan

5/1/2023 12:20:36 pm

well said

maren

5/1/2023 12:18:17 pm

there are many events in history that have been made to seem either less or more bad than they were and i think the government does it to have more power and make it seem like they arent so much of a problem.

Makenna

5/1/2023 12:21:46 pm

Yes

Anna

5/1/2023 12:18:24 pm

I don’t really know. The history we learn at school makes us knowledgeable so we don’t make the same mistakes that we did in the past. If we don’t know a historical event, we can’t prevent it from happening again.

Hannah Rich

5/2/2023 12:14:33 pm

I think history should be taught from different points of views because then we can understand all perspectives. Where we went wrong as well as other people.

Brayden Askew

5/1/2023 12:18:42 pm

People that make a difference in the world will be known in the future for changing the past. There are many people that control the past in our society, these people make big changes to how the world works. The president is a good example as they will be looked in the future as how they changed the country. War leaders are magnified in our history books.

logan

5/1/2023 12:21:21 pm

nice

Logan

5/1/2023 12:19:01 pm

I think that the quote is saying that history repeats itself. In this world the past can be changed or repeated. We look back at the past and try to not make the same mistake twice. We as a country try to build off our past mistakes and even us as humans try to learn from our personal past as well. I do think the past plays a role in the future. The only thing I can think of from the past playing a role in the present day is the economy situations. That seems to be pretty repetitive.

Riley S.

5/1/2023 12:20:30 pm

Those are some great points.

Colton

5/1/2023 12:21:04 pm

I didn't think of it that way but good point

Hannah Rich

5/2/2023 12:13:37 pm

Do you think actions to cover up the past are justifiable?

Haylee

5/1/2023 12:24:34 pm

I believe that the quote means you can't change to future but you can change words making it seem different or even leaving things out. I don't really know of an example. I think that people try to control our society.

Tristan

5/2/2023 12:12:02 pm

Whoever controls the present effects the past and the future.either mentality or physically.

Hannah Rich

5/2/2023 12:13:11 pm

I think it means our actions now change the future. It also means what we do now and what we choose to focus on changes the past. I think America tends to make us seem like we are the goody guys even though we make mistakes all the time. We just cover them up often.

Who Controls the Past?

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