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email the perth indmedia mob...
The Howard offensive: launches more vitriol at the left |
| by Elliot K - Perth Indymedia |
2006-10-04 1:01 AM +0800 |
October 04, 2006: Prime Minister John Howard has fired a tirade attack on Australia's lefties, questioning their loyalty to the nation. Howard named Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II as the "three towering figures" of the late 20th century.
He said their moral clarity "punctured the nonsense" of left-wing apologists. Howard attacked Australia's "intelligensia", which he says has a past of denigrating the nation and the West and is now doing the same with the war in Iraq.
Mr Howard gave a foaming speech last night in praise of the 50th anniversary of ultra-conservative right-wing magazine - Quadrant of which writer Paddy McGuinness is the editor. Quadrant was set up with funding from the CIA... |
Mr Howard blamed the left for "the incomprehensible sludge" in school curriculums and "the black armband view of Australian history" - his offensive term for those who pushed for white Australia to apologise to Aborigines over past wrongs.
He said the left had a history of denigrating the nation and was now doing the same with the war in Iraq.
He said Australian universities were still breeding leftists and described pro-communists of decades past as "opposed to Australia and its interests".
Mr Howard praised Quadrant - a journal "dedicated to opposing political correctness", for countering "stultifying orthodoxies and dangerous utopias that have, at times, gripped the Western intelligentsia".
He linked the great historical battle of ideas between communism and capitalist democracies to the modern-day struggle with Islamist terrorism, arguing that both clashes demanded "clear and unambiguous statements of belief and purpose".
Seeing a sinister threat in the left activism of the 1950s in Australia, Mr Howard said it was anything but an innocent ideological gambol.
He said publications such as Quadrant, which was set up with funding from the CIA, countered such views in "a noble and moral cause".
By contrast, Ronald Reagan branded the Soviet Union "the evil empire", the sort of talk "that sends diplomats the world over into panicked meltdown".
Margaret Thatcher "as well as anyone grasped and articulated the essential connection of personal, political and economic freedom". And the late pope "inspired millions" behind the Iron Curtain to dream.
Rejecting charges that the West was anti-Muslim, he said it was not the Arab League that went to war in the 1990s on behalf of Muslim minorities in the Balkans, and the person who probably killed more Muslims in history was Saddam Hussein.
An unapologetic and defiant Mr Howard praised his Government's successes over the "posses of the politically correct".
Quadrant, a magazine of small circulation and a conservative ranter rag, had been "Australia's home to all that is worth preserving in the Western cultural tradition", said the PM.
"Of the causes that Quadrant has taken up that are close to my heart, none is more important to me than the role it has played as counterforce to the black armband view of Australian history," Mr Howard said.
About 230 conservative intellectuals, judges, politicians, businessmen, churchmen and commentators arrived to pay homage at Sydney's Four Seasons hotel in The Rocks.
He sat at a power table that included his wife Janette, Catholic Archbishop George Pell, NSW Chief Justice Jim Spiegelman, revisionist historian and ABC board member Keith Windschuttle and former Liberal MP and Quadrant's longest-serving editor Peter Coleman.
Health Minister Tony Abbott was an enthusiastic wellwisher. Mr Howard's chief speech writer, John Kunkel.
So did senior staffer Brian Loughnane. Former head of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and arch-monarchist David Flint soaked up the atmosphere along with fellow traveller Kerry Jones.
So did High Court judge Ian Callinan, former Howard minister Jim Carlton, former Treasury chief and Nationals MP John Stone, academic John Paul and former ABC board member Maurice Newman. Think-tank chief John Roskam, who heads the Institute of Public Affairs, was in good spirits, as was Greg Lindsay, executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies. Attendees from the Labor camp included former NSW Supreme Court judge Jeff Shaw, former NSW Labor Council secretary Michael Easson and former Keating minister Gary Johns.
There was an impressive line-up of media commentators, including Piers Akerman, Christopher Pearson, Frank Devine, Miranda Devine and Sam Lipski.
---
[Quadrant Magazine was the brainchild of Richard Krygier, the founding secretary of the Australian branch of the Congress for Cultural Freedom which was established by the CIA in 1950 as a key element in their strategy to combat Soviet propaganda. In its first year the CIA outlay on the Congress for Cultural Freedom was $200,000.] |
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John Howard: Standard bearer in liberal culture
Howard names his three towering heroes - The Age
Howard attacks left intelligentsia - News Ltd
Howard rallies Right in culture war assault - The Australian
PM puts boot into left as soft on tyranny
CIA as Culture Vultures - Jacket
Black Armband History - ANTaR
scale pictures
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Australia must fight in global struggle for freedom and liberty |
| by John Howard |
2006-10-04 12:48 AM +0800 |
John Howard - October 4, 2006
WITH the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet communism, it became all too easy to pretend that the outcome of the Cold War was an inevitable result of large-scale, impersonal forces that ultimately left totalitarianism exhausted and democratic capitalism triumphant.
Nothing could be further from the truth. This was a struggle fought by individuals on behalf of the individual spirit.
It's worth recalling just some of the philo-communism that was once common in Australia in the 1950s and '60s:
- Manning Clark's book Meeting Soviet Man likened the ideals of Vladimir Lenin to Jesus Christ;
- John Burton, the former head of the External Affairs Department, argued Mao's China provided a model for the transformation of Australia;
- All those who did not simply oppose Australia's commitment in Vietnam but who actively supported the other side and fed the delusion that Ho Chi Minh was some sort of Jeffersonian Democrat intent on spreading liberty in Asia.
To quote George Orwell: One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.
There is a view that the pro-communist left in Australia in decades past was no more than a bunch of naive idealists, rather than what they were - ideological barrackers for regimes of oppression opposed to Australia and its interests.
In taking on the communist left and their fellow-travellers, people like Richard Krygier, James McAuley, Peter Coleman, Bob Santamaria, Heinz Arndt and Frank Knopfelmacher were not only right in practice. They were right in principle and part of a noble and moral cause.
In the eyes of the new left, the Cold War became a struggle defined by moral equivalence where the Soviet bloc and the American-led West were equally to blame, each possessing their own dominating ideologies.
It became the height of intellectual sophistication to believe that people in the West were no less oppressed than people under communist dictatorship.
In time, the world would luckily see the emergence of three remarkable individuals whose moral clarity punctured such nonsense: Ronald Reagan; Margaret Thatcher; and Pope John Paul II.
Of the causes Quadrant has taken up that are close to my heart none is more important to me than the role it has played as counterforce to the black armband view of Australian history.
Until recent times, it had become almost de rigueur in intellectual circles to regard Australian history as little more than a litany of sexism, racism and class warfare.
Again, it would take the brave voices of a few individuals to take a stand against the orthodoxies of the day. And again Quadrant has been an outpost of lively non-conformity in its willingness to defend Geoffrey Blainey and Keith Windschuttle against the posses of political correctness.
Nowhere were the fangs of the left so visibly on display in a campaign based on character assassination and intellectual dishonesty than in their efforts to trash the name and reputation of Blainey.
Despite a more diverse and lively intellectual environment in Australia compared with past decades, we should not underestimate the degree to which the soft left still holds sway, especially in Australia's universities.
Early this year I called for a root and branch renewal of Australian history in our schools, with a restoration of narrative instead of what I labelled the fragmented stew of themes and issues.
Armed with clear evidence of the decline of Australian history in our schools, the Government has made a start in our quest to ensure that the nation's history is an essential component of every Australian child's education, no longer an afterthought or an optional extra.
Having spoken earlier about Quadrant's role in the defining global struggle of the second half of the 20th century, let me say a few words about the global struggle we now face at the start of the 21st century.
Let me repeat what I have said before. This is not a struggle against Islam. It is a struggle against a perverted interpretation of Islam.
To those who want to portray the West as anti-Muslim I would say that it was not the Arab League who went to war in the 1990s on behalf of Muslim minorities in the Balkans. It was the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and their NATO allies.
Let me also remind people who now talk as if Iraq was some island of pro-Islamic tranquillity before 2003 that the person who probably killed more Muslims in history is Saddam Hussein.
There are, as Owen Harries reminds us, people who legitimately opposed the original action to oust Saddam Hussein, but it remains (to borrow a phrase) an inconvenient truth that if countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia simply abandon the people of Iraq this would be an enormous victory for the forces of terror and extremism around the world.
The fact is we are part of a global campaign for the very ideals that some people wistfully dreamed were unchallengeable after the Cold War.
No less than in that long, twilight struggle, this too will be a generational struggle for ideals of democratic freedom and liberty under law.
This is an extract from the Prime Minister's speech to Quadrant magazine's 50th anniversary dinner last night.
Link here
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For once I agree with Howard |
| by Freak Power |
2006-10-04 2:00 AM +0800 |
"No less than in that long, twilight struggle, this too will be a generational struggle for ideals of democratic freedom and liberty.."
Alas I do not think that he quite understands democracy and liberty as I do.
Link here
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Neo-Nazi |
| by john |
2006-10-04 9:36 PM +0800 |
The only black arm band John Howard would see is the one hidden under his pin striped suit, it has a swastika on it.
All the liars under one roof, it's a wonder their noses did not get in each others way - the pinnochio ball.
I hope I am there to see him stand before God and explain the blood on his hands.
reminds me of a song - Hotel California
"they stab it with their steely knives - but they just can't kill the 'beast'"
Love conquers evil, Howard, you blind gnat.
Link here
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Quadrant |
| by Mar Bucknell |
2006-10-05 1:34 AM +0800 |
The other thing that needs to be said is that almost every single thing that Howard says in the article is factually false.
It would take all day to type what's wrong with it.
Link here
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poets and quadrant |
| by John Kinsella |
2006-10-05 2:24 PM +0800 |
it has always amazed me that poets who would otherwise overtly oppose the politics of this fascist rag (literally, i'm afraid), don't hesitate to submit their poems for publication within its pages.
one would like to think it was to undermine the far right with their poems, but i fear at best it's apathy and/or eagerness for any form of showcasing...(?) -- in a country with admittedly few literary publishing opportunities.
at worst, well... maybe they share a desire for the particular brand of 'liberty' howard extols and convinces his eager public is for the good of their health, wealth, and (often undeclared) ideologies...
Link here
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ELECTION PREDICTION |
| by Brendan |
2006-10-05 9:17 PM +0800 |
I predict Howard will win with a LANDSLIDE VICTORY!!
What do others think?
Link here
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well |
| by shayne |
2006-10-06 12:56 AM +0800 |
I'd say whoever gets in, the government will still be in power.
*shrug* libor or laborals. Same shit different bucket.
Dunno about this whole Quadrant being funded by CIA tosh. Eh.. Just a boring slightly conservative journal. *shrug*
Link here
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predictions |
| by Freak Power |
2006-10-06 1:23 AM +0800 |
I predict revolution followed quickly by revolutionary firing squads with Brendan at the front of the line ;)
But alas my predictions will more than likely not come to fruition. Therefore unfortunately I think that Brendan is right - for once, as most Australians, like Brendan, are morons.
Link here
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| by Mar Bucknell |
2006-10-06 2:39 AM +0800 |
Shayne
It's well documented that Quadrant was funded by the CIA through one of their cultural fronts. Everyone on the right supporting Quadrant even admits it these days. It was mentioned in the Oz one day this week by one of the cheerleaders for the far right (I forget which), and shrugged off in the same tones as the 'necessary evil' that apologists for Stalin used to use.
Which brings me to Brendan.
Yes, Brendan, I also predict that Howard will win comfortably. I'm also the only person I know who correctly predicted the outcomes of the last elections in the USA, the UK, Australia and WA two years before the first of them happened. This is on the public record. Yet close to all those elections, conservatives and naive lefties were saying that they were all too close to call.
The catch is, though, Brendan: if you are going to support Howard BECAUSE he is popular, rather than because you agree with him, it places you in some very distasteful company.
Try this list for size of people who have been very popular:
Julius Caesar, Nero, Caligula, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Henry VIII, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Michael Jackson.
I prefer to base my politics on what I think is right, rather than what people like. If we all voted for what most people like, Kylie Minogue would have been Prime Minister for most of the last fifteen years.
Link here
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Land slide |
| by john |
2006-10-06 9:31 PM +0800 |
The only Landslide that Mr Howard will receive will be the one full of Uranium and Asbestos dust, a quick burial with no state funeral.
Link here
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"Therefore unfortunately I think that Brendan is right - for once, as most Australians, like Brendan, are morons. " |
| by Wt ever |
2006-10-07 8:14 AM +0800 |
Not like Freak Power. He is smarter than most.
Link here
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awareness |
| by 4 ever |
2006-10-08 12:56 AM +0800 |
It is not a matter of being 'smarter' the very idea of intelligence was conceived by some very scarey people indeed.
It is more about awareness and unfortunately Freak Power is right, most Australians are not very aware of what is happening to this country at the hands of fascists like Howard.
Link here
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4 EVER'S RASH GENERALISATION |
| by Brendan |
2006-10-08 8:16 PM +0800 |
4 ever - where do you come up with these idea's
"most Australians are not very aware of what is happening to this country at the hands of fascists like Howard"
People know what they want - hence why they vote - only a small percent dont know who or what they want so they vote invalid.
Most people ive spoken to agree with Howard Immigration policies - why do you think One Nation were so popular? Due to years of Labors politically correct regime - Keatings arrogance towards the Australian people.
We then have freak power who claim that Australians who support howard are Morons - well I say the same thing about those who support the Greens - difference of opinions make us truly democratic.
Link here
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| by |
2006-10-09 12:21 PM +0800 |
"I hope I am there to see him stand before God and explain the blood on his hands."
It'll be a fascinating day to be a fly on the wall at the great pearly gates John.
H
Link here
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There is no choice under Capitalism |
| by viva anarchy |
2006-10-09 3:34 PM +0800 |
"difference of opinions make us truly democratic"
What difference of opinions?
Where is the difference between the two major parties?
Ever heard of a guy called Milton Friedman?
He had this little idea called 'the golden straight jacket'.
Basically the idea was that corporations set up in a country and become the basis for that country's economy (for instance Coles Myer, Monsanto etc in Australia). This will lead to the homogenising of politics within that country as no matter the intention of the political party they will ultimately be a slave to big business interests.
Of course this is the nature of Capitalist democracy but the effects have been accentuated under the global free market.
Milton Friedman was one of the main thinkers behind the free market.
Link here
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Brendan and John Howard |
| by Mar Bucknell |
2006-10-10 2:49 AM +0800 |
Brendan
I'm glad you support John Howard, because according to him, you belong in Remedial English (along with the "Muslim terrorists" and the "Aboriginal savages").
"where do you come up with these idea's"
??
It's in your post.
How drunk or illiterate are you to use "idea's" as a plural?
Mate, you are just basically ILLITERATE.
If you are going to preach to IndyMedia about literacy, then firstly prove to me that you can read and write.
Until then you might do well to learn before you preach.
mar
Link here
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| by Brendan |
2006-10-10 6:55 PM +0800 |
Who said anything about being illiterate - and besides Howard never said anything about new migrants passing T.E.E english - what he is saying is that they need to speak and understand english. how can people live in Australia if they are unable to understand basic english.
Link here
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English |
| by Mar Bucknell |
2006-10-11 2:33 AM +0800 |
Most of the Muslims I know speak better English than you do.
Get out of MY country.
Link here
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How much noongar do you know Brendan? |
| by Ray |
2006-10-11 4:19 PM +0800 |
Maybe you should piss off back to england.
Link here
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Get a life Brendan - its all about attacking those who are not as white as you |
| by WA English Teacher |
2006-10-11 4:30 PM +0800 |
Brendan: "how can people live in Australia if they are unable to understand basic english..."
Seems you can.
Link here
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