In AS class we have been talking a lot about how our views of the past as a society change over time. I've been thinking about how I see the meaning of the quote Mr. O'Connor gave us from 1984, "He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." The first section has an obvious meaning to me, that the present is constantly becoming the past, so one who has control over what is occurring in the present subsequently controls the past as those events they controlled when they were present become past. But then I realized there was another meaning as well. The one in power during the present gets to control how past events are perceived. In this way, controlling the present gives one control over not only the history of their time in power, but also the historical recollection of past events before their time in power. My initial interpretation of the second section relied on the assumption that past events and our present interpretation of them dictate what future decisions are made. I point this out as an assumption because I have seen, many times in fact, that a society can be prone to making the same mistake twice. Because of this, I sought a different way to interpret this piece of the quote. I believe it means that one who is in power in the present, and therefore controls the past, can use evidence from the past (which they control) to justify and rationalize decisions for the future.
When I initially heard that quote, my mind thought of the transitive property. If you control the present, and therefore the past, and the controllers of the past control the future, then does that mean those in power in the present control the future? I don't know. But what I do know is that by understanding the past, people have a better chance to make a better future. And if past events were skewed in one way by those in power, the ones in power might be able to control the future for a little while longer.
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