Memory between Reality and Science Fiction. Mechanisms of Control of the Masses

This essay reiterates mechanisms and characteristics of totalitarian regimes. The method is comparative analysis between three works of science fiction on one hand, and the Romanian Communist Party’s documents on the other hand. Following 1984 by George Orwell, A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and the reports written by the communist party in Romania in the early ’50, I draw attention on the concept of memory, as a tool to control and monitor the masses. Whether it is the permanent rewrite of the collective and individual memory, or the conditioning of the memory, or the destruction of any form of artificial memory, each one proves to be an effective tool in the annihilation of memory and hence of any identification of the individuals with the past. The key of reading involves understanding the control of memory as a mechanism of controlling the many. If this becomes obvious in the science fiction literature, in the Romanian Communist Party’s documents they are almost always only implied. Thus, both ways are harmful for the societies which have been forced into a totalitarian mode. Continuing the theme of totalitarian societies, in terms of science fiction literature and programmatic documents, the paper points out the subtle mechanism of control and ultimately of social redesign.