1984 Summary
He who controls the past controls the future.
He who controls the present controls the past.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton). Most of the ruler desired to rule for centuries or at least as long as they live. Absolute power inherits greed for more power. Moreover leaders try all they can to keep themselves in power and try to suppress their opposition in such way that they don’t harm them in future. George Orwell in 1984 has illustrated similar situations and character of power system. Emmanuel Goldstein is such character who is a well-known inner party member of the dominating Party but he tries to betray the powerful party for the welfare of people but annihilated by the party. The party then making its subjects believes that Goldstein is a traitor and completely abolishing the existing data of his efforts of freeing the people from fascism is a perfect example of the given context. George Orwell is trying to prove from this scenario that the party has full control over its subject and by manipulating them it has authority to abolish anything in the past if tries to against the party line. As they have total power over people they wanted to eradicate everything from people’s mind that happened in the past so that in future the party will have sole control over the society. In my opinion, since this book was written in 1949, the time of many dictators like Hitler and Mussolini writer George Orwell was trying to predict the future of our world with a vision of dictatorship. The statements simply defines that if the system controls the past then it directly controls the future as well with its powerful tool of controlling people’s mind. The Party has total control over the people, their past, their present and undoubtedly their future. All their activities are overviewed screened and judged; eventually punish anybody who tries to do any wrong against the norms of the party. The Party
He who controls the present controls the past.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton). Most of the ruler desired to rule for centuries or at least as long as they live. Absolute power inherits greed for more power. Moreover leaders try all they can to keep themselves in power and try to suppress their opposition in such way that they don’t harm them in future. George Orwell in 1984 has illustrated similar situations and character of power system. Emmanuel Goldstein is such character who is a well-known inner party member of the dominating Party but he tries to betray the powerful party for the welfare of people but annihilated by the party. The party then making its subjects believes that Goldstein is a traitor and completely abolishing the existing data of his efforts of freeing the people from fascism is a perfect example of the given context. George Orwell is trying to prove from this scenario that the party has full control over its subject and by manipulating them it has authority to abolish anything in the past if tries to against the party line. As they have total power over people they wanted to eradicate everything from people’s mind that happened in the past so that in future the party will have sole control over the society. In my opinion, since this book was written in 1949, the time of many dictators like Hitler and Mussolini writer George Orwell was trying to predict the future of our world with a vision of dictatorship. The statements simply defines that if the system controls the past then it directly controls the future as well with its powerful tool of controlling people’s mind. The Party has total control over the people, their past, their present and undoubtedly their future. All their activities are overviewed screened and judged; eventually punish anybody who tries to do any wrong against the norms of the party. The Party