oceania

in george orwell’s 1984, the dictatorship of oceania controlled perceptions by continuous propaganda broadcast through the “telescreen” and constant updating of news print so that the past would conform to the lies of the present. the device used to discard any document contradicting the fakery of the present was called a “memory hole.”

orwell was acutely aware of the fact that empire thrives on imperial amnesia and constant historical revision of the past by the powerful. he knew that citizens would be much easier to control if they were forced to live in an eternal present — a place where it would be impossible to critically assess and compare today’s world by looking at what happened yesterday and the day before.

in the 21st century, we have constructed our own kind of orwellian memory holes. the global nexus of economic and political powers in neoliberal corporate capitalist states and international bodies tend to view critical and historical consciousness as an impediment, if not an outright threat, to their hegemony. the reason is obvious: an informed, critical consciousness is the foundation upon which any flourishing democracy is built — where the “political” is understood as government of, by and for all citizens, not merely in the interests of the wealthy or powerful few. 

alfred de zayas' 

human rights corner