the battle is only beginning

In an Australia Day eve address to the National Press Club, Mr Howard exhorted a "coalition of the willing" to promote changes to the teaching of history, which he said was neglected in schools and too often questioned or repudiated the nation's achievements.

[...]

"Too often, it is taught without any sense of structured narrative, replaced by a fragmented stew of 'themes' and 'issues'," Mr Howard said. "And too often, history, along with other subjects in the humanities, has succumbed to a postmodern culture of relativism where any objective record of achievement is questioned or repudiated.

-- in Howard claim's Victory in the Culture Wars.

Perhaps if students were taught 1984 they would see right through this [and that's not just a throw away reference, its quite serious]. Its stunning how Hegel-like [and in some ways, Marxist] his intentions and words are. He wants to reconstruct nationhood via a selective view of history.

The Grand Narrative of History? Wow. Talk about wanting to relive the glory days of the Empire.

As for the 'Invasion Day' thing... well, as someone who is descended from the First Fleet and has Aboriginal relatives - I'd like to point out that most of the 'invaders' came here unwillingly, shackled in chains, after enduring a tortuous voyage full of rape and scurvy. This isn't to excuse the hideous crimes that later occurred (sanctioned in silence) but I think people tend to forgot that a LOT of people - white and black - were fucked over by the invasion of Australia. Why is this forgotten? Because the political power of myth is used by all sides. History is never neutral.