The Soviet Union's habit of rewriting the past always showed what a dishonest system it was, and one of the points of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four was that the "Ministry of Truth" was actually a Ministry of Lies. But apparently lots of us are now taking the same approach, according to a story in The New York Times. For example, you can delete your ex-spouse using Photoshop:
Like a Stalin-era technician in the Kremlin removing all traces of an out-of-favor official from state photos, the friend erased the husband from numerous cherished pictures taken on cruises and at Caribbean cottages, where he had been standing alongside Ms Horn, now 50, and other traveling companions.
"In my own reality, I know that these things did happen," Ms Horn said. But "without him in them, I can display them. I can look at those pictures and think of the laughter we were sharing, the places we went to."
"This new reality," she added, "is a lot more pleasant."
We are used to pictures being "prettied up" for use in the mass media, particularly in advertising and promotions, but also by reputable magazines. (And, of course, the subjects themselves may already have been "prettied up" by surgeons, dentists and make-up artists.) But it seems to me there's a difference between faking the past and fake boobs.
The story quotes Alan D Entin, a clinical psychologist, who regards family photos as documentary records:
To alter them is to invite self-deception, he said. "The value to accepting a photograph of yourself as you are is that you're accepting the reality of who you are, and how you look, and accepting yourself that way, warts and all. I think the pictures you hate say as much about you as pictures you love."
Reality-denial, fakery and lies are obviously common the Web, but have they really become acceptable in everyday life? If so, should we be worried about it?
