“The true past”

I read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in high school. I need to read it again but it scared me back then and is sure to be even more frightening today. Nightly news reports on our distant wars in Iraq and Afghanastan feel an awful lot like the “telescreen” updates on the war between “Oceania” and “Eurasia.”

Wikipedia: “At the Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), Winston (Smith) is an editor responsible for the historical revisionism concording the past to the Party’s contemporary official version of the past; thus is the Oceania government omniscient. As such, he perpetually rewrites records and alters photographs, rendering the deleted people as unpersons; the original document is incinerated in a memory hole. Despite enjoying the intellectual challenge of historical revisionism, he is fascinated by the true past, and eagerly tries to learn more about it.”

“…fascinated by the true past.” Me too.