This selection from Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 underlines the fundamental evil of Ben Shapiro’s attempt to redefine Western Civilization by rewriting Christianity and the European nations out of it.
“Do you have the book you were talking about with the Professor,” Fuka-Eri asked. “The one with Big Brother.”
“1984? I don’t have that one.”
“What kind of story is it.”
Tengo tried to recall the plot. “I read it once a long time ago in the school library, so I don’t remember the details too well. It was published in 1949, when 1984 seemed like a time far in the future.”
“That’s this year.”
“Yes, by coincidence. At some point the future becomes reality. And then it quickly becomes the past. In his novel, George Orwell depicted the future as a dark society dominated by totalitarianism. People are rigidly controlled by a dictator named Big Brother. Information is restricted, and history is constantly being rewritten. The protagonist works in a government office, and I’m pretty sure his job is to rewrite words. Whenever a new history is written, the old histories all have to be thrown out. In the process, words are remade, and the meanings of current words are changed. What with history being rewritten so often, nobody knows what is true anymore. They lose track of who is an enemy and who an ally. It’s that kind of story.”
“They rewrite history.”
“Robbing people of their actual history is the same as robbing them of part of themselves. It’s a crime.”
Fuka-Eri thought about that for a moment.
Tengo went on, “Our memory is made up of our individual memories and our collective memories. The two are intimately linked. And history is our collective memory. If our collective memory is taken from us—is rewritten—we lose the ability to sustain our true selves.”