[ExI] 1984 and Orwell's Warnings

[Lee Corbin]

BillK writes

> Rafal wrote
> 
>> It is extremely tedious and odious to find streets and plazas in my
>> birth-city of Bytom continuously renamed. From "Kaiserplatz" to
>> "Hermann Goering Platz", to "Plac Stalina", to "Plac Thelmana" to
>> "Plac Solidarnosci", little political rat-creatures gnawing at names
>> and places, ever eager to erase the blackboard and to repeat old
>> mistakes.
> 
> And historical photos are edited to remove people no longer approved
> of by the present masters. And history books are rewritten so that a
> generation grow up not knowing the truth about what previous
> generations did.

We've swerved right back into the subject line!

"Historical photos edited?", present masters declaring some 
people to be unpersons?, history books rewritten?.  Sounds like
a job for Winston Smith at MiniTruth:

HE WHO CONTROLS THE PRESENT CONTROLS THE PAST.  [1]

> The masters try to create a younger generation of followers
> who ignore (or do not even know about) history.

"Try"?   Well, maybe you're right.  I dunno.  Think so?  After
all, what about just general labor-union driven, government
bureaucracy driven incompetance and waste?  I will paraphrase
the great M.N. Plano:

        Never attribute to wicked design what can be
        explained by incompetance.  Don't assign to
        incompetance what might be due to ignorance.
       And don't try to attribute to ignorance or stupidity
       or "mean-spiritedness" what may simply be a 
       conflict of visions or basic values.  
                        - L. D. Corbin  [2]

Lee

[1]   Oh dear, did I offend anyone with the Orwellian remark
        "He who controls the present contols the past"?   We
        must go back and change what he wrote, just as people
        have gone back and changed what E.T.Bell wrote in
        "Men of Mathematics".  1984 should now read
        "She who controls the present controls the past."

        Honestly---did anyone really notice the "sexist language"?

        And how long until E.T. Bell's book gets renamed itself
        to "Persons of Mathematics?"

[2]   Based, of course, in case you missed my earlier email on
       M.N. Plato's fine
              Never attribute to malice what can
              be explained by stupidity.  Don't
              assign to stupidity what might be
              due to ignorance.  And try not to
              assume your opponent is the ignorant
              one-until you can show it isn't you.