Here's some less than enlightened writing about chapters 3-6

"He tried to make her understand. ‘This was an exceptional case. It wasn’t just a question of somebody being killed. Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it’s in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost literally nothing about the Revolution and the years before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." (128).

I feel that Winston is in somewhat of a unique position. These past few chapters have been good in displaying while how Winston cares for the future and the past of the Party for all, Julia only cares about those factors of the party which come in direct contact with her life. While Julia seems to grasp and contemplates some major hoaxes she believes the Party to be involved in i.e. the war, she is bored of the other lies the Party tells, accepting that things are just like that. I wonder how much of it is a generational difference. Julia doesn't remember a time before the Party at all while Winston does, Winston can vaguely remember that things might have been better before, but Julia holds no such memory.

Winston's overall understanding that to the Party only the present exists is quite interesting. The past is simply rewritten and falsified and there is no truth to any of it. The public has a complete lack of knowledge beyond the Party. They are being kept in the dark about everything slowly as time goes on the Party can claim to be responsible for more and more history. Winston notes that during his time in school the Party claimed to have invented helicopters, while in Julia's time they claimed to have also invented airplanes. The Party's ultimate goal it seems to be erasing more and more of the past until nothing remains but the Party. There will be no mention or fleeting memory of the time before the Party, only 'knowledge' that it was a horribly awful time and things are getting better. Old artifacts and trinkets will slowly disappear even in the proles housing, and the notice of anything but the present will be useless. No knowledge of history will be needed because it changes, no explanations of the changes will need to be made because not only will no one notice, but no one will care about the differences because the present is the only thing that carries weight.

The idea of 'history repeating itself' or 'learning from history' will be completely irrelevant as time marches forward because the history everyone learns will be the present. The only mistakes that will be learned from are the 'capitalist in top hats' and even then history is dictated by what the government wants you to see. History as always will be dictated by the winners and the Party is always right, so the Party will always win. With the severe restriction on history, the restraint of public knowledge, and the shunning of individualism, it doesn't seem like Winston's time is far off from what the Party truly wants: a nation of 'good' people afraid stir the pot or ask any questions about the way things are.