from Richard Fernandez at PJ Media, The End of the Memory Hole

 The idea of the state as the “locomotive of history” is relatively recent. George Orwell’s 1984 saw state resting on the pillars of police power, a command economy and the ability to rewrite the Narrative.  The most important of these was the ability to rewrite the factual record.  In fact 1984’s protagonist was employed full time to rewrite newspaper articles.  In Orwell’s view the mutability of the past was the foundation of tyranny.  “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”  To ensure this the Ministry of Truth was honeycombed with Memory Holes into which any inconvenient fact could be dropped and be disappeared.

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