Rewriting history in the digital age

“By the year 2050, the past will have been completely rewritten.” George Orwell was correct but he could not have anticipated that the digital era would make that happen by 2025.

Examples include removing the Enola Gay, Jackie Robinson, changing climate data, changing labor statistics, removing exhibits from the Smithsonian (like impeachments), calling Capitol rioters “average tourists,” renaming military bases after Confederate generals and “they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs.”

Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 saw this coming where books were burned by firemen, thus people memorized books to preserve them. Today, classic books are banned in libraries and classrooms across the United States.

Kurt Vonnegut took this to absurdity in his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” where people were required to wear buzzers in their ears based on their level of intelligence. This diminished all independent thinking.

History books rewrote the past many times on how American Indians were treated. Archives and witnesses altered our viewpoints of American Indians as “savages.” Today, we use artificial intelligence and the delete key to rewrite the past.

Charles Elwert

Addison