I take it that this piece by a "Canberra Writer" is to be taken seriousy. But I wonder....I have not read such tendentious garbage since the'60s.

iudex.

Just goes to show that there is more than one version of HIS-story---
that is the story told according to the golden rule. Those that have the gold rule, and get to tell the "official" story, and thereby marginalise and erase from "official memory" any counter narratives and histories.

It wasnt so long ago that even OZ literature wasnt even taught in OZ universities. And as for the "aborigines"--they werent even considered human---just another species of flora and fauna.

The recent book What Orwell Didnt Know:Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics could have been written in 1916. Although of course instantaneous mass propaganda wasnt as sophisticated as it is today.

But even then the advent of the telegraph, which enabled the "news" to become rapidly available, lead to the development by governments and corporate interests, of manipulative lies and more lies.

You will get the usual responses from the usual suspects in the usual way. Its already started.

A brave little piece JP,- heaven forbid that we should EVER make such disrespectful assertions. You wicked wicked, thing, you!

I have NEVER had the slightest doubt that the rank and file (oooh! naughty me;-shocking phrase!), have been used throughout history as cannon fodder. And I agree that this is why Anzac Day evolved.

But........I come from a military family inclusive of myself, and I am more interested in todays Anzac Day.

I will NEVER, could NEVER, diminish the poor sods who were used in this way. I WILL continue to doff me' cap to all who went through the hell of the political violence that is war. To not do so, in my opinion is to dismiss and ignore the suffering of the very people that you are so concerned about!

I will not do it. Neither should you.

There is room in my life to pay tribute to those workers who are the backbone of ANY nation on Mayday.
And there is room in my life for the same people who went to war for their Governments,-so many never to return.

John Passant; you turn your back on Anzac Day-you are turning your back on people who have known a suffering that you and I are lucky to have never experienced.

Why Anzac Day was started is comtemptible;..that it has continued is to be applauded.

And yes;-I curse those in power who send decent human beings into conflicts to be maimed or killed,- for their own political gain.

I LOATHE the use of DEFENCE force personnel as an ATTACK force.

Thanks ginx.

You say:

"But........I come from a military family inclusive of myself, and I am more interested in todays Anzac Day.

"I will NEVER, could NEVER, diminish the poor sods who were used in this way. I WILL continue to doff me' cap to all who went through the hell of the political violence that is war. To not do so, in my opinion is to dismiss and ignore the suffering of the very people that you are so concerned about!

"I will not do it. Neither should you.

"There is room in my life to pay tribute to those workers who are the backbone of ANY nation on Mayday.
"And there is room in my life for the same people who went to war for their Governments,-so many never to return."

Can I just say I am not ignoring the suffering of those who went to war. Part of the article raised the idea that Anzac Day was about using that suffering and mourning to tie working people to Capitalism.

War is inherently part of capitalism. To get rid of the pain and suffering requires a new society based on democracy in all sectors of society and production for people, not profit. I think the Bolsheviks' slogan of bread, land and peace is as relevant now as it was in 1917.

As to iudex, yes of course the article is tendentious. Just like every bloody article on OLO, in every newspaper, in every TV report and on every radio. The difference is this article takes a different view to the usual tendentious nonsense.

This is the same kind of the necessary "revisionist" history, speaking to the lies of Power, that Howard Zinn wrote in The Peoples History of the USA and now The American Empire.

John Passmore

Are you really Dirk Moses?

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7253