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Blogs by David James Trapp
A thought from Orwell 1/8/2004 7:58:55 PM
Perhaps it's because this is an election year, and the thought police, the spin doctors and the propagandists, are prowling about from every direction, but I've been thinking about one quote from Orwell's dark masterpiece, 1984: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." It is a profound insight. Historians and writers who care about the truth should pause and remember it. When the powerful rewrite history to suit their tyrannical purpose (e.g. Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Saddam, Nero), it it the duty of the historian to testify to the truth. It can be a lonely testimony, but it is a sacred calling.
