TOTW: the Memory Hole

Courtney Love from the band Hole

In Nineteen Eighty-Four the "memory hole" is a small chute leading to a large incinerator used for censorship.

Nineteen Eighty-Four's 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.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole

The Memory Hole, or “memory holed” has become a term for when powerful institutions censor inconvenient or embarrassing things about themselves. The implication is that those institutions do so intentionally and often, that some secret cabal has instructed them to do so. But even a conspiracy theorist can get some things correct. We know that inconvenient and/or embarrassing facts are regularly omitted, covered up, or allowed to perish from active discourse. But, how often do we look at our own spaces and inspect them for similar phenomenon?

Anarchist media may or may not memory hole anything intentionally, but in a passive way some things certainly do seem to fall down some sort of memory hole and never climb their way back out. There are significant events in our past that could still be relevant, but for some reason are rarely brought up now. What ever happened to the debate over Smack a White Boy Part I and Part II, for instance? How about all of the mischief Brandon Darby created? Have we already passively memory holeded Anarqxista Goldman …a candidate for the memory hole if there was one?

There are plenty of other examples, I am sure. That said, deleting your comments on here is not an example. Only something memorable to begin with can be memory holed.

What are we to make of this anarchist memory hole? Is it good to let some things slowly flicker out of our collective memories and discourses? Are important things going to somehow keep themselves in our minds, or do we need to make an effort to remember them from time to time? Is the present situation we are in made up only of events we remember, or are the events we don’t remember (and don’t want to remember) just as causal? Should there perhaps be guardians of the memory hole? Brave comrades willing to eat our collective shame… ???

Discuss ye!

Listen to the TOTW discussion here!

There are 28 Comments

i'm definitely a guardian of the memory hole, it's the burden of older anarchists

we remember all the would-be cult leaders and the last 100 times the lemmings hurled themselves in the ocean and all the stupid, pointless conflicts that destroyed fragile little social eco systems, usually because of somebody's ego or mental health

we remember and we're rolling our eyes pretty hard. decades of face palm!

This is a new concept to me but it makes me think about how many anarchists would prefer to forget the violent history of anarchism, like propaganda of the deed. This forgetting is done to appear more legitimate in the history books I guess. Those with a convenient memory around this topic reveal their preference for honorable liberalism as they pin their revolutionary program on assimilation with a progressive society rather than with its destruction.

I’m more worried about actual book burnings by the government, like the suppression of literature and information currently going on in Florida’s schools and colleges, and anarchist pressed being raided in Italy and anarchists being arrested for having anarchist pamphlets in their possession.

I’m not concerned that embarrassments to anarchists that already had their 15 minutes of fame were forgotten in a twitter minute and not committed to memory.

what's the difference between a "passive" memory hole and just forgetting? keep in mind I did a lot of whippets in high school

i assume "just forgetting" could be an example of a "passive memory hole," especially if the reason you forgot is because of the deluge of information typical of social media, or the pace of executing a project causing inconveniences and annoyances to slip through the cracks. but other examples might be choosing not to bring up relevant information to a discussion because it's embarassing or difficult or painful, or maybe going along with people who simply assert that a question has been answered or an issue resolved rather than staying critical and open to reinterpretation. my read on it anyway

Yes I'm an aged person and I've found the passive memory hole is freaking HUGE. I call it the Upper Level Incontinence Syndrome, I'm a Freudian.

"That said, deleting your comments on here is not an example. Only something memorable to begin with can be memory holed."

Fuck you for thinking you get to determine what is or is not "memorable" for the rest of us. The fucking narcissism and audacity to say such a thing amongst and to anarchists. You are everything that is wrong with anarchy. I hope you and this entire authoritarian project gets put in a hole.

"Only something memorable to begin with can be memory holed."

but i've had several quite memorable comments deleted. like the one about, uh, the, um, you know. or, no wait, my most memorable deleted comment, you know, the one about the thing with the whatchamacallit, the dodad thingamabob. c'mon you all remember, right?!

sigh.

anarchist media intentionally "memory holes" stuff all the time. From my observation, this certainly did it with almost everything prior to Aragorn's passing is magically gone. I know it was claimed there was an "server error" that, for unknown reasons was pretty selective with what was deleted. Even articles about Brian Darby and hundreds of other articles have disappeared from this site. Its similar to libcom and other media. Libcom has practically removed everything in association with 'Aufhebengate'. Deleting comments absolutely is an example of trying to remove information from the consciousness of others. Whoever wrote this doesn't get to pick and choose what is and isn't an example of memory holing something. It's deeply ironic to write this post and then proclaim to be the arbiter of what's an example of memory holed.

I seriously hope "Anarqxista" was a typo. Emma Goldman, assuming that is whose meant with 'Anarqxista Goldman' hasn't been memory holed. Maybe an attempt is being made in the anarchist/leftist bubble... Beats me, but outside of the anarchist/leftist bubble she has not. There have been at least two books regarding her role in the No-Conscription League and another in a book about jewish anarchists in the past 5 years.

servers do fail. especially when relying on the efforts of a single admin with free software.

Anarqxsta goldman is not emma goldman, but a twitter name of some notoriety from last year.

Still preying around here? Of course Thecollective and others will keep your shitty imposture antics in the database, and all the research made to expose you has been stored by several people. So if some outlets publish authors that haven't been vouched they're exposing themselves to ulterior ridicule or call-outs. It's been always the same deal with publishing and the culture of liability.

This is the author of the TOTW, popping in to respond to this:

“Deleting comments absolutely is an example of trying to remove information from the consciousness of others. Whoever wrote this doesn't get to pick and choose what is and isn't an example of memory holing something. It's deeply ironic to write this post and then proclaim to be the arbiter of what's an example of memory holed.”

The point I was making is that the memory hole isn’t simply censorship. The memory hole is when something people really do remember is hidden. Since a lot of comments that are deleted are never seen to begin with, they can’t be removed from the memory of those who never saw them.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Comments are deleted, giving X audience an impression of Y thing/person. It's the same example provided above.

Do you ever just step back for a second, and take an outside perspective on how much overthinking and misguided rationalization you're doing? I hope so.

I see you're making a huge drama out of the removal of regular asinine, pointleas comments, as well as full hate speech. Why are you defending this... FREE SPEECH!?

Different anon here.

Why is such an authoritarian writing topics for a supposed anarchist website defending authoritarian behavior and crying when people call their authoritarian hot takes 'authoritarian'? This has nothing to do with "free speech" it has everything to do with a group wielding power over others and thinking they know better than everyone else and that everyone must do as they say and to their liking or face deletion and erasure.

That other commenter was right when she asked "where's the anarchy?"

Re-think about what you're doing because it's strayed very far from what it claims to be: anarchy.

anarchy does not imply giving a fee pass to Neonazis and similar hateful bigots, btw.

So you got your notion of anarchy from Netflix? Great, but don't expect anarchists to fall for it, as at least some aren't your level of cereal box narratives.

You're projecting. Nobody is talking about neonazis or bigots or trolls/spammers. This is about the absurd statement in the Topic and the moderators deleting MUCH more comments than "spam" based on their whims and grudges.
Also Netflix? What are you twelve?

YOU implied that removing comments and moderating is anti-anarchy, by default.

To this I answered that anarchy doesn't mean giving a f(r)ee pass to hate speech on this site, as there are many hate speech, or just low-effort, comments being posted here on a regular basis. If the admins don't do shit about it because "anarchy" there will be very obvious consequences... like the very same surface scum who've been parasiting bigger websites will have a field day here, and eventually make it its platform, so that to the "view" of everybody else this site AND likely "anarchy" will increasingly become associated with CHUDs and other low-level bigots...

This is a non-sectarian anarchist website for anarchists, not your 4chan buddies. The admins at least are seeking to keep it that way. Where is the problem?

You are such a fucking noob it's embarrassing. Anarchy does not involve wielding power and authority over others. Periodt. You childish insults of everything that disagrees with you is 4chan or has learned from Netflix is further proof of your noobness. This is supposed to be an anarchist website and you're either a butthurt authoritarian collective member or a loser noob simping for them. Either way, the idea that controlling and wielding power and authority over others and controlling what they see and are allowed to think is NOT FUCKING ANARCHY. So GET OVER IT and go back to watching Netflix with your 4chan buddies (see I can be stupid too!).

there is, under your bullshit, a real question about anarchist thought. probably easiest to use foucault as the icon for this disagreement about power.

some anarchists agree with foucault to the extent that they agree that everyone has power all the time in various ways, and that the problem is when power becomes reified/stagnant/stops flowing between people.

other anarchists use power as a bad word only, and think that everyone should be treated as if they are the same.

ps: calling people noob doesn't make your argument stronger, by the way.

you get it, i like you

but i don't even want to concede that as a foucault thing, it's power. it's as old as human relationships?

"anarchists" that use power as a bad word, while pretending they never wield any power of their own... or worse, lead such sad little low-stakes, sheltered lives that they've never had to think about any of this in a serious way... have yet to show up to a real discussion.

I suppose there could be a CIA style psy-op too? where you spread the doctrine of power-always-bad so that fewer of your potential insurgents even realize they're losing a war they don't realize they're in?

anyway, get power and then use it with integrity or you haven't even learned where the steering wheel is in the car that is anarchy

Anarch uis a fuickiong suirfboared lumpoi thertes nio fyuckoing mioving paerts ion it stuipoid!

Hey, you're right! Next time some bigot from the sewers posts shit about thr Holocaust being a "LIES!" and anarchism beign the product of WOKE antifa while trying to look edgy using the N-word, then let's just allow their precious comment to STAY, coz Free Speech and anarchy n stuff. What a great idea,. dumbass!

Goin' to jack off to Jim Caviezel now.

Christianity is a PROVEN gay cult! We're working on banning it altogether in Florida and install a good manly man's religion in its place where you can at least rev your big engines in the churches all day long.

sometimes the facts are remembered, but the emotions attached to them change. intensity naturally fades over time, but also the emotions can be substituted with other ones, revalorizing the events.

examples are not limited to what falls under white-washing and santa clause-ification, but also how things which were once celebrated can later be vilified, and vice-versa.

there are subtle revalorizations that are just as important to pay attention to, not just examples of crude blatant propaganda, and censorship and memory suppression and erasure.

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