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> best way to control a population is to analyze and manipulate the information they consume That brought back a quote from a past: "He who controls the past c
by bostik 13y ago
> best way to control a population is to analyze and manipulate the information they consume
That brought back a quote from a past: "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past."
I had to look it up to get the exact wording right. Was only half surprised that it comes from Orwell's 1984.
- digitalengineer 13y agoAgreed. Some time ago on HN: Law firms forcing online newspapers to delete older articles. No one cares, it's old news right? Step by step they're changing history.
- auggierose 13y agoThat implies you have not read 1984. You should.
- bostik 13y agoOh, I have. It's just far too long ago, and I had the misfortune of reading a translation. A bad one, at that. So I couldn't place the quote. I just knew it from different context. Much the same way it took me years to find a quote that my gradeschool math teacher used and which had lodged itself firmly in my brain. Namely: "To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous." - Confucius
- auggierose 13y agoI like the Confucius quote. There IS a certain danger in taking shortcuts in your thinking. It's probably best to use shortcuts anyway when in discovery mode, but then to check those shortcuts rigorously.
- raintrees 13y agoHa! Almost like "Trust, but verify" :)
- gbog 13y agoKudos for this accurate and relevant Confucius quote, it is rare nowadays. In fact, reading this guy's Analects, you'd find a mine of secular wisdom aphorism that sound obvious but are all the more urgent to remember by the times running.