The article discusses the concept of 'memory holes' in George Orwell's 1984 as mechanisms of historical erasure, which serve the totalitarian regime's need for control. Unlike dramatic censorship, these hidden incinerators remove evidence of the past with ease, promoting forgetfulness among the populace. The discussion expands to contemporary political realities, particularly under the Trump administration, where similar practices are observed as words, policies, and institutional memory are discarded or altered, reflecting a chilling repetition of Orwell's themes in modern governance.
Memory holes may destroy words rather than churn out new ones, but they are extensions of the Party's insistence that 'WAR IS PEACE' and 'IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.' They turn absence into a claim of power.
The devices of memory holes are tools of mass forgetfulness; they rob people of their past, of the stories that once bound them to one another, and thereby of their future.
The new Trump administration has made memory holes relevant again. Words, websites, policies, and the livelihoods of federal workers have been consigned to the chute, making purge just a part of policy.
Orwell's insights are never as distant as we might want to believe; the destruction of history and collective memory is a relevant topic in contemporary political landscapes.
Collection
[
|
...
]