Millennium Watch

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Rudd’s Education Revolution—New Spin on Old Policy

February 22nd 2008 01:47

When Gough Whitlam took office in 1972, he stated Labor’s ‘three great aims’: egalitarianism, voter involvement in policy, and ‘to liberate the talents and uplift the horizons of the Australian people’ (Marginson, 1997, p.16). There is an only one way talent, and horizons can be lifted, and that is through education. One of the old appeals of the Australian Labor Party was their common-man policy focus—the worker, and his rights. Gough Whitlam’s charisma and intelligence personified the aspirations of the ordinary Australian. Here was a new breed of Labor politician—highly educated, and willing to put government money behind policy.

In Whitlam’s own words he outlines his laborist/socialist driven agenda: The (quality of life) ‘depends more and more on the things which the community provides for all its members from the combined resources of the community (Whitlam, 1985, p.3). Labor assumed full responsibility for higher education and put government funds behind that assumption, a total of $2.7billion a rise of 176% (Marginson, 1997, p.30). Underpinned by the human capital theory of the 1960s, the Martin Report’s recommendation of providing opportunity to develop talent, which in turn supplied the human capital needed to sustain economic growth, couldn’t be denied (Marginson, 1997, p.36). Here can be seen the symbiotic relationship between citizen training (education), and economic growth. The former feeding the latter.
Capitalism drives Western economies, the reality of which is the unequal distribution of wealth. Certainly, opportunity abounds, but the rich do get richer and the poor get poorer. Naturally, this doesn’t sit well with laborist/socialist policy. In Whitlam’s own words: ‘Education should be the great instrument for the promotion of equality’ (Whitlam, 1975, p.5) Enter the Karmel Report and its ‘radical egalitarianism’ as Marginson terms it: educational equity, equality of opportunity via needs based funding (Marginson, 1997, p.53). However, instead of creating a more level playing field, self-management emphasis had schools doctoring audits to suit their own economic ends. Although the Labor initialised Karmel Report gave more money to government schools (Marginson, 1997, p.69), the private-sector schools ended as the real beneficiaries and citizenship training grounds remained divided: those who could afford it (private school), and those who could not

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Saying "Sorry" to Indigenous Australia

February 11th 2008 01:28

With an apology to the Indigenous People soon to become a reality, we need to understand exactly what the government is saying ‘sorry’ for. As you will see, it’s much more than just the ‘stolen generation’, for we know the Aborigine became an inherent part of Australia’s political agenda when Captain James Cook wrongfully claimed Australia for the British Crown in 1788. The recording of their history began as Frontier reports of hostile savages reaching Parliament, to acts and decrees passed concerning the ‘Aboriginal problem’. By the late 1800s, the Frontier was tamed and resistance to invasion nullified. Aboriginal historiography, which is recorded as a story of dispossession, abuse, and death, was then wrapped in the comfortable blanket of Terra Nullius: the Aboriginal people were primitive nomads with no concept of land ownership. Hence, Australia was there for the taking. Aboriginal history then became invisible to all but the ardent researcher, and until the 1930s, considered unworthy of inclusion in history as taught to Australian school children.
This cloak of invisibility remained until the 70s, when after a number of discriminatory policies and practices by the States, Indigenous Policy was shifted to the Commonwealth by referendum and Aborigines were included in the national census. Aboriginal historiography was then revised. These revisionist histories and the people that wrote them changed the way Australians viewed their past, especially the wrongful treatment of Aborigines under European occupation.
Yet, are these revisionist histories truthful and unbiased accounts, or as some suggest, politically motivated, unsubstantiated, and at times fabricated? Journalist and former history teacher Keith Windshuttle levelled this serious charge at revisionist historians and asserts this has been the case for a century or more

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(1) The Reality Files—Transcript: ‘Hep C Miracle Cure?’

January 30th 2008 04:47

In 2005, L, a 44-year-old female from the South Coast of NSW, underwent interferon/ribavirin treatment for Type 3 Hepatitis C. Seven weeks later, L was virus free, a truly amazing result given the usual six to twelve-month treatment duration (genotype = duration), which even then may leave the virus intact and need to be repeated. Add to that the facts L had advanced fibrosis of the liver and stopped taking the drug for nine days during the seven weeks (continuous treatment critical to success) and you have the makings of something special.

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Before the Big Bang?

January 23rd 2008 00:14

The scientific community now widely accepts the Big Bang Theory as the origin of the universe. In short, a single force expanded outward separating on its way to form gravity, electromagnetism, a strong, and a weak nuclear force. As things cooled down, matter formed etc, etc (Google or Wiki if you desire more info). However, like the age-old conundrum of what came first the chicken or the egg, science cannot tell us what was before the Big Bang?
A look at the facts, a whole two of them, reveals naught. First, there was nothingness. Then a mysterious force goes ‘bang!’ As to the nature of this force or its origin, we know nothing. Like the other mysterious and extremely important cosmic force, science has termed ‘dark energy’, of which nothing is known only that without it, planets would spin out of orbit, and galaxies fly apart. Perhaps it should be called ‘light energy’?
In the search for answers, MW turned to the theory of Intelligent Design for an explanation of these two mysterious forces. The Big Bang is the moment of creation, God releasing the forces of life. The energy that holds the universe together is God’s. As to what was before the Big Bang, MW had to expand the search beyond ‘God created the heavens’ as stated in the Bible, to the esoteric religious movement of Gnosticism that flourished in the 2nd and 3rd Century. The Gnostic's claim there is an immortal realm called Barbelo, which is eternal, existing before the Big Bang. Obviously, acceptance of these explanations is a matter of Faith. Having said that, it’s not such a great leap when you consider science’s explanation of how life originated on Earth: A rock fell from space

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On the Contrary

January 16th 2008 23:03

What was it about 2007 and ironic situations? It started with dire warnings of a warming planet due to burning fossil fuels, yet little has been done in the way of reduction. In fact, China, India, and South East Asia are poised to enter a new era of industrial advancement, which we are now told the planet cannot sustain. We hear of economic growth and surplus budgets, amongst the reality of rising interest rates, the cost of living, and personal debt. We hear of local farmers and manufacturers going to the wall, while an endless supply of inferior imports flood the marketplace. I could go on.
Thankfully, it wasn’t all bad. Like the rich and famous taking time amongst all the parties and addiction battles to support charities and help underprivileged children. The irony of the battler (Bernie B.) taking on the giant (Hardies) and winning, giving us hope that positive outcomes can eventuate, contrary to what one would expect.
Of course, the bad irony outweighed the good—such is life. And the trend seems set to continue in 2008. For example, if we seen substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This would indeed be ironic given the current level of dithering? How about staving off a recession? Now that would be ironic, seeing we are all but in one. Iran and the USA friends? Extreme irony. Governments tackling corruption? Mind-bogglingly ironic. The media reporting only the truth and nothing but the truth? Now I’m getting ridiculous

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Nietzsche’s Challenge to Christianity Series (Final)

January 4th 2008 02:03

In the discourse Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche is emphasizing his belief in man’s ability to achieve excellence apart from God and subsequently, the falsity of Christianity. ‘From the start, the Christian faith is a sacrifice: a sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, and all self-confidence of the spirit, at the same time, enslavement and self-mockery, self-mutilation.’ This sentence from paragraph 46 leaves little room for argument. In short: to be a Christian is to be a weak-spirited slave.
Yet, one does not have to search far into the history books to find Christians who are anything but weak of spirit, the Knights Templar a case in point. Charlemagne another. The many Saints? Christians, who would have and did in many cases, give their life for Christianity. There are many more including contemporary examples. Nietzsche’s view then would seem to be a very narrow one indeed, biased, even belligerent. The question as to why: resentment of his father, the believe system he upheld? Such a determined and structured attack on Christianity appears to stem more from the heart than from the opposing philosophies of existentialism and transcendentalism?
The great Christian church father Saint Augustine (354-430) was of course before Nietzsche’s time. With particular relevance to this article and the question of Christian morality, Augustine devoted his life to the elemental question of good vs evil. His major work, City of God, a 22 book theological philosophy presents a stark counterargument to Nietzsche’s existential creed. Using Plato’s work, whom Nietzsche himself was an advocate, Augustine establishes God as the creator, arguing that God reveals himself through his creation, all that is tangible. The intangible being ‘divinity’ or ‘eternal power’, is perceived through/via the mind’s eye. He poses the question: why would man continually seek transcendence, if there were no God

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Nietzsche’s Challenge to Christianity Series (3)

November 14th 2007 19:53

Having undermined Christianity’s creationism, its belief system as a mere invention and the ‘weeds of error’ overgrowing the 10 Commandments, Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols and the Antichrist now proffers the English race as a metaphorical vessel of Christian morality. As opposed to the German philosopher’s ‘with us it’s different’ (Hollingdale 1968: 5). Nietzsche then systematically breaks this ‘vessel’ apart. The first blow a devastating one. He states that if the belief in God is removed, the whole system of Christian morality crumbles into an inconsequential heap. This claim has an element of truth, for remember God is the judge. The final blow is a jibe at the English themselves, posing the question that if they really know the difference between ‘what is good and evil’ (1968: 5), then they will no longer have the need for Christian morality. As a people, they will have risen above the confines of a belief system that in reality, Nietzsche claims, they had no need of in the first place: ‘For the Englishman morality is not yet a problem…’ (1968: 5).

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Nietzsche’s Challenge to Christianity Series (2)

October 26th 2007 00:57

Next discourse ‘The madman’, follows in a similar vein. Nietzsche tells the tale of a maniac running about yelling: ‘Where is God? We have killed him…God is dead! God remains dead’. Obviously, questions about the immortality of God are raised here. The following sentence emphatically qualifies the point Nietzsche is making: ‘What festivals of atonement, what holy games we will have to invent for ourselves’ (Williams 2001: 120)? The key word is ‘invent’. Nietzsche is stating the Christian faith, its belief system and moral code, is a mere invention of man.
The final coup de grace to Christian morality in Gay Science would have to be the discourse under the heading: Morality as a problem. ‘…that popular superstition of Christian Europe…that what is characteristic of morality is selflessness, self-denial, self-sacrifice or sympathy and compassion (Williams 2001: 203). To paraphrase the following section from Gay Science: Christians make the mistake of assuming the aforementioned characteristics are consensual worldwide, or conversely, that different races have different moral codes, and by this infer no morality is binding—except of course God’s. ‘Thou shalt…’ the precursor of all the Commandments is ‘overgrown’ with moral ‘weeds of error’ (Williams 2001: 203). Nietzsche again qualifies by using the comparison of the way a sick person would ponder medicines scientific value, compared to the pondering of an old woman on the value of medicine. In other words, using God’s Commandments as a moral-code for living life is like using water as a cure for cancer—of no discernible value.
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Nietzsche’s Challenge to Christianity Series (1)

October 8th 2007 23:22

The German philosopher Friedrich (Wilhelm) Nietzsche (1844-1900) was one of the most significant and contentious thinkers of his time. Born in Prussia, the son of a Lutheran minister, Nietzsche went on to study philology at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig. A close friend of the German composer, Richard Wagner, Nietzsche was influenced by the philosophers Schopenhauer, Plato, and Aristotle (Encarta 2000).
Although philosopher Aristotle’s concept of morality was humanistic, closely linked to virtue and the living of a virtuous life in the fullness of one’s being (Greene et al 1999: 84), it was Nietzsche’s advocacy of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution that underpinned his true challenge to Christian morality. He believed in man’s ability to achieve excellence apart from God, in natural selection and survival of the fittest. Of course, Christians believe that God created the universe. Man brought sin into the world, the result: God gave Moses a set of Ten Commandments. By adherence, the Christian would lead a moral and virtuous life. Jesus then compressed all the Commandments into two: First, love God. Second, love your neighbour as yourself (NIV, Math.Ch.22, V: 17) The defining point is: God is the judge. He alone determines who will be found moral, virtuous, or righteous.
One of Nietzsche’s most famous and well-worn phrases would have to be: ‘God is dead’, from Book Three of The Gay Science. He follows with a set of discourses as to why he believes ‘God is dead’, under a number of subheadings. The heading ‘Let us beware’, strikes a blow at the very roots of the Christian belief-system. In speaking about the creation of the universe, Nietzsche states ‘…it is certainly not constructed to one end (Williams 2001: 109). The universe according to Nietzsche then, was not created by God, which is the first precept of Christianity, as stated in Genesis 1:1. God the judge is not omnipotent; hence no deterrent against breaking a Commandment. For a contemporary construct, if a judicial system had only token punishments for serious crime, like small fines and community service that may or may not be completed, no doubt anarchy would soon result

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