As John Howard once observed, “a conservative is someone who doesn’t assume that he is morally superior to his grandfather”. A conservative instinctively appreciates everything that shaped him, doesn’t lightly change anything, and, where change really is necessary, tries to ensure that it enshrines values that have stood the test of time. Conservatives are not against change, but they instinctively prefer restoration to reform.Bravo!
I believe that the current lack of respect for history in education is directly attributable to the desire by neo-Marxian activists to disparage the importance of the past and its ramifications in our lives today.
It is the trap that such people fall into believing that they are indeed more intelligent, more sophisticated, and more morally advanced than their grandfathers.
Neil Postman called it 'instantanaeity' meaning that what happens now is always superior to what happened in the past and is the by-product of the evolutionary perspective of continual improvement.
Personally I think the opposite is true and history appears to bear me out.
Tony Abbott's full address is available @ http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2012/6/living-large
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