Memory hole
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A memory hole is any mechanism for the deliberate alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts or other records, such as from a
website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...
or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened.Weinstein, Adam, ''Nevada Tea Partier's Memory Hole'', 9 June 2010
. Mother Jones.
The concept was first popularized by
George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...
's 1949 dystopian novel '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'', where the Party's Ministry of Truth systematically re-created all potentially embarrassing historical documents, in effect, re-writing all of history to match the often-changing state propaganda. These changes were complete and undetectable.


Origins

In ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'', the "memory hole" is a small chute leading to a large
incinerator Incineration is a list of solid waste treatment technologies, waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-ene ...
used for :censorship: ''Nineteen Eighty-Fours protagonist Winston Smith, who works in the Ministry of Truth, is routinely assigned the task of revising old newspaper articles in order to serve the propaganda interests of the government. In one instance, the weekly chocolate ration was decreased from 30 grams to 20. The next day the newspaper announced that the chocolate ration had not been reduced to 20 grams per week, but ''increased'' to 20 grams. Any previous mention of the ration having been 30 grams per week needed to be destroyed. The memory hole is referenced while O'Brien tortures Smith; O'Brien produces evidence of a coverup by the Party, exciting Smith that such documentation exists. However, O'Brien then destroys the evidence in the memory hole and denies not only the existence of the evidence but also any memory of his actions. Smith realizes that this is doublethink in action, as O'Brien has actively suppressed his memory of both a politically inconvenient fact and his action taken to destroy the evidence of it.


See also

* * * * * * * * * * De-commemoration * * , a website whose goal was to preserve documents which were in danger of being lost * Motivated forgetting * * Postcolonial amnesia * * Selective omission * * Truth-seeking


References

Notes * Phelps, Richard P. (2020, Summer
Down the Memory Hole: Evidence on Educational Testing
Academic Questions. Sources * George Orwell, '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'', first published by Martin Secker & Warburg, London, 1949. This reference,
Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
pocket edition, 1954.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Memory Hole Fictional elements introduced in 1949 English phrases Historical negationism Nineteen Eighty-Four Political catchphrases