Columbus And Western Civilization Essay

Past, present and future, seen as distinct periods in time yet are far more interrelated than people assume. Without today there would be no tomorrow thus, no yesterday. In the piece “Columbus and Western Civilization” Howard Zinn begins with a quote by George Orwell “Who controls the past controls the future. And who controls the present controls the past” (Zinn 2009, 89). Those who dominate presently affect how individuals interpret the past, by writing their own versions of history, to serve the purpose of manipulating the future. This view is commonly shared and agreed upon in the works of McNeill, Marchak and of course, Zinn. Today our social realities are very far from our own, ideologies are moulded onto everyone. Thus, people are

Power surrounds individuals continuously and the relations it forms are constantly under its pressure. These unwritten conventions that society blindly follows are the deficit that stray us off the true path. What we perceive on a daily basis is automatically seen as reality, but we hardly ever question if this is truly so. The distinction is never made of whether or not we truly know something or just believe something. This problem is detrimental to every human being exposed to the external world and its accomplice ideology. “Ideology is the shared ideas, perceptions, values and beliefs through which members of a society interpret history and contemporary social events and which shape their expectation and wishes for the future” (Marchak 2011, 62). An analogy can be formed between Marchak’s definition of ideology and George Orwell’s quote. This comparison is significant because it shows that ideologies shape past present and future, just as adequately as those in power presently control the past henceforth controlling the future. Ideologies are sublimely used as a form of control; I believe that those in power have mastered this tool flawlessly. This is demonstrated in society today, we view