CraigHKeith Windschuttle speaks
November 9th 2006 11:49
Last night Keith Windschuttle addressed a Quadrant dinner and presented the Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture entitled: "The struggle for Western values in an age of deceit" His presentation was wide ranging, insightful and very well argued. Windschuttle came across as someone who is very well read and has the capacity to link his reading into a coherent, unified whole.
Unfortunately Keith didn't really outline how to defend Western values but rather told us about how these values were being undermined to various left wing intellectuals. His lecture touched on a number of points including:
1) The devastating effect postmodernism is having on the discipline of history. The denial of object truth is undermining the study of history. Historians who have been discredited continue to teach without any diminution of their reputation.
2) The use of atrocity myths to attack legitimate governments, in particular the myth of the SIEVX, which is being written into high school curricula as fact. The myth being that the Australian Navy knew the whereabouts of the ship and purposely let it sink – a despicable libel on the Navy.
3) The move by transnational progressives to undermine the legitimate authority of the nation state - a subject I have written on recently.
4) The fact that Australia is often described in a school text books as a racist society yet not one single official institution in Australia is racist. Australia is one of the most tolerant societies in the world. Subject to immigration guidelines, anyone can become an Australian so long as they obey the laws of the land. On this point I asked Keith if he had a view on the recent reexamination of the citizenship tests for people wishing to become Australians. How do you identify those who won't play by the rules? He agreed this is a hard question and that there are no easy answers.
Unfortunately Keith didn't really outline how to defend Western values but rather told us about how these values were being undermined to various left wing intellectuals. His lecture touched on a number of points including:
2) The use of atrocity myths to attack legitimate governments, in particular the myth of the SIEVX, which is being written into high school curricula as fact. The myth being that the Australian Navy knew the whereabouts of the ship and purposely let it sink – a despicable libel on the Navy.
3) The move by transnational progressives to undermine the legitimate authority of the nation state - a subject I have written on recently.
4) The fact that Australia is often described in a school text books as a racist society yet not one single official institution in Australia is racist. Australia is one of the most tolerant societies in the world. Subject to immigration guidelines, anyone can become an Australian so long as they obey the laws of the land. On this point I asked Keith if he had a view on the recent reexamination of the citizenship tests for people wishing to become Australians. How do you identify those who won't play by the rules? He agreed this is a hard question and that there are no easy answers.
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Comment by Peter Lloyd
#2: quote me a document that states this as fact in the curricula of any state. Compare SIEV-X with the 'children overboard' affair, when a committe of Dept of PM and Cabinet sat down to deliberately manufacture a lie. Proven. Fact. When questioned, the PM hid behind the 'libelling the Navy' line just as you do now. This incident is even still known as 'children overboard' when thet's proven to be NOT what happened.
#3: scholars of the age of reason (Jefferson, Voltaire) taught us to always question aythority. Reason is the key Western inheritance, you Keith and his fellow travellers seek in society an unquestioning, accept-whatever-the-govenment -says approach. In an age when lies are so frequent and so much money is devoted to spin and independent institutions are utterly politicised in a way that didn't happen becak when democracy was healthier and more often questioned by 'go gooders'*
#4: again, a footnote here would be good- a document or a citation. Otherwise it's just hot air, weak history, not rigorous, not scholarly. Are you denying the existence in the past of the White Australia policy? Or is it that, as people who argue (but claim as undispuatble fact) that multiculturalism is a failure, you are offended that kids might learn about Australia being built by migrants in the 1800s, and by more migrants after WW2, and by more migrants after Vietnam, and so on.
If Australia is racist, its because people like yourself deny the achievement of migrants and the success of our society, calling the Australia I love a 'failure'.
* What does that make Keith and co?