Is that from “1984”?
Yes. And it is found in Winston Smith’s sincere desire to believe—in that he was being tortured—what the Party told him: OBrien would hold up so many fingers, but told Winston the Party said it was a different figure.
So if it was impossible to search records to verify, say, the chocolate ration last month, or the country at war with them last year, or any other fact because if someone `scrubbed’ it at the direction of the party, then the party controls the past.
OBrien was able to believe this both subjectively and objectively using `doublethink’ while Smith could not, so Smith was, in the estimation of the Party, “insane”. Inner party members like OBrien had the ability to believe, say, that the earth was the center of the universe or that they could levitate, but suspended that belief when needed, for examples, to navigate or create effective weapons.
For a truly totalitarian society it isn’t enough that the rulers are able to control the actions of people; they must control their thoughts as well. Orwell described a totalitarian society as made up of many who revel in their subjugation, assist in it and in the suffering of others as well.
The Nazis made extraordinary efforts but were unable to make it work (along with the Church) and the Russians came close with the mass murders, torture, public trials, etc., but also failed. It encouraged rebels to know that their members went to the lions, the stake or gulag—unrepentant. It was necessary to humiliate those who would not conform and have them recant fully, and for them to be completely shamed so that others would draw the lesson of a totalitarian society: that it is impossible to obey the “laws.” The result was that the `Outer party’ were kept subject and in a constant state of terror
Here, someone thought that describing Obama as a Kenyan was not something they wanted being researched, in the present or future, so they deleted it, and in so doing controlled the past. By controlling the past, they control the present—our primary or `black letter’: constitutional law is ignored—and consequently, they control the future.
Question for discussion: Give O’Brian’s description of the future.