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The Forum > Article Comments > History under Howard > Comments

History under Howard : Comments

By Edward Cavanagh, published 15/10/2007

History is not about memorising dates, names and places: it is about identifying themes, understanding contexts, and constantly probing 'how?'.

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I include ethnic cleansing by armies who invade a country from the outside in my above post as well. History spells it out very clearly. The poster who said you need dates in recording historical events is spot on. Just find an encylopedia and list all the dates of all the invasions(wars), civil wars,and ethnic cleansing massacres. When its all listed there in front of you, you wont have to interpret it, blind Freddy could see that the history of the past will overwhelmingly be the history of the future
Posted by sharkfin, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 11:04:29 PM
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History seems to be changing as the years go by.

As more information becomes available and communication improves, I find that many of the things I was taught in school have turned out to be one-sided propaganda or just plain wrong.

Even now I'm amazed at how short our memories are. Many political events only 10 years old are largely forgotten or reinterpreted to suit current arguments, with selective quotes without context.

I wonder how our time will be interpreted in another 100 years?
Posted by rache, Wednesday, 17 October 2007 1:16:11 AM
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CJ Morgan said: "Certainly, such a study would include a history of the development of democracy in Europe, the rise of mercantilism, colonialism and capitalism, their connections with the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, and all those factors that helped create the phenomenal mess the world's in now."

So, the West is responsible for the "phenomenal mess" the world's currently in? Gee, I bet the Islamic or East Asian Sinic civilisations would have done things much better, right?

CJ seems to object to Australia's identification with Western Civilisation. Truly bizarre, but typical of ol' CJ. S/He suffers from a most virulent form of the anti-Western pathology, a brain-disabling condition that inhibits rational thinking. It's all a bit absurd really, not to mention hypocritical. After all, such Westernophobes don't seem to want to live in anything but an advanced Western nation.
Posted by Dresdener, Wednesday, 17 October 2007 2:07:29 AM
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Dresdener: "So, the West is responsible for the "phenomenal mess" the world's currently in? Gee, I bet the Islamic or East Asian Sinic civilisations would have done things much better, right?"

I see that our Teutonic defender of all things Western is up again in the middle of the night, stressing about the decline of her/his antipodean "Outpost of the Occident".

If Dresdener had the benefit of the kind of education to which I alluded, s/he might have a somewhat less triumphalist version of world history. For one thing, unlike those that developed in Europe, "the Islamic or Eas Asian Sinic civilisations" managed to engage and trade with much of the world for millennia without exploitatively colonising it and carving its territory up the way that Europeans did.

While there were and are very many positive aspects of 'Western' cultures, no other civilisations have ever come close in terms of directly bringing about social and environmental destruction on a global scale - and there is probably no better example of that than in Australia.

A true appreciation of history would assist anachronistic dreamers like Dresdener in understanding that, like every other civilisation that has ever existed, his beloved "Occident's" era of world domination is waning fast. This is neither a good nor a bad thing - it's just history.
Posted by CJ Morgan, Wednesday, 17 October 2007 7:46:55 AM
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The politically correct history the Howard Government is attempting to force upon Australian children must be seen in context of Howards Cultural Revolution. What is proposed is a pop history to de-Australianise Australians in Howards Americanisation of our culture. What Howards Cultural Revolution delivers is a history in line with Tv Game Shows, one word answers. As a result of the only connection to Australia the Howard Government has had with Australia is through commercial television which caters only to an Americanised audience.

On the other side of the Dividing range and the Howard Government has demonstrated they believe the world is flat and ends at the Dividing Range Indigenous History of tens of thousands of years are still evident , European History in the Great Australian Bight to the Gulf of Carpentaria go as far back as the early 1600's. Chinese and Mollacan History along the mid and western tropical coasts go back much further. Howards Cultural Revolution will not be mature enough to discuss the small Guerrilla wars between Europeans settlers around the Swan River, Kimberies, Flinders Ranges and Northern and Western Queensland. Nor will his Cultural Revolution discuss the competition between the colonies which began the imputus behind Federation, Tasmanians banned from landing in Victoria, the Eureka Stockade a Unionist rebellion, the Anzacs of WW1 inspired to join up by unions, Australia snubbing Britains concerns about Japanese expansionism and rejecting an offer to develop the Australian Navy as a protest against the cricket, the economic boom that was a result of the 8 hour day, inter-township violence and conflict because of railways and religion?

Australian social history must start at the coasts of the western Indian Ocean with all our shared ancestors and follow those earliest explorers who were the ancestors of Australia's Indigenous people, by year 12 Children should be up to Howard Governments disgraceful defeat at this years election and a matriculation question could be - On a scale of 1 to 10 how stupid was Howards Cultural Revolution?
Posted by West, Wednesday, 17 October 2007 11:04:20 AM
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Apologies for the pooly written text above, a product of editing back on the run.
When I said "Howards Cultural Revolution will not be mature enough to discuss the small Guerrilla wars between Europeans settlers around the Swan River...."
Obviously I meant to say Howards Cultural Revolution will not be mature enough to discuss the small Guerrilla wars between Europeans settlers and local Indigenous communities around the Swan River......." as I am sure any one with at least a basic awareness of Australian history will be quick to point out.

Additional to that, Howards Cultural revolution will most likely deny small Guerrilla warfare between land holders and squatters in NSW and Victoria or even autrocities commited by pirates, sealers and whalers based on offshore South Australian islands commited agains coastal indigenous people and amongst themselves. That there the first European settlers were Pirates, and not the lovable Johnny Depp or Errol Flynn type, but smelling like foxes and living like wild animals. That Australian society has always been heavily urbanised and industrialised and never truley the wild west of Hollywood standards. That most Australians are not decended from convicts but from business people, farmers and mechanics.

Where will Australia's art History fit into Howards Cultural Revolution? What about Feminism which has had a tradition here since the 1700's and is possibly the most profound movement in Austrlian society along side the industrial revolution? We are not the product of gallipoli we like to think ourselves as. We are afterall a society which seeks to build equity between the sexes and industrial relations. What has Captain Cook got to do with a female manager being paid less than her male counterpart? How did we get to that point? Children should be taught these things so they may understand the world in which they are to exist in. This is what history is for.
Posted by West, Wednesday, 17 October 2007 11:32:27 AM
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