George Orwell’s dictum, "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past," is often quoted, and for good reason. But it is usually quoted out of context. The passage begins: "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -- if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. " Then comes the aphorism, and Orwell continues: "And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. All that was needed was...