Cuckoos of cultural left caused Ramsay debacle

Cultural-left activists blame Tony Abbott for the ANU knocking back the Ramsay millions because he dared to suggest it’s time to say something positive about Western civilisation.

Wrong. The latest actions of union leaders at the University of Sydney reveal the real reason there is opposition to establishing a centre. The union argues that the university senate must not accept any funding until all academic staff have been consulted.

Judged by the manifesto signed by 150 of the university’s academic staff it’s obvious what the outcome will be. Even before the centre has been established, staff declare it will be guilty of promoting “Western essentialism”.

As a result of the dominance of neo-Marxist, postmodern and post-colonial theories the Sydney University academics justify their opposition on the basis it is wrong to suggest “the study of European cultural tradition warrants better educational circumstances than that of others”.

And the Sydney University academics are only the most recent example of a malaise that has infected the halls of academia since the cultural revolution of the late 60s. Donato Longo, when detailing the contribution of the historian Austin Gough, describes this period as one when “legitimate authority” was condemned as “hierarchical despotism”.

A revolutionary movement that attacked “the notions of impartial scholarship and objective truth as the prejudices of bourgeois civilisation and mandarin culture”.

Reality check. The only reason cultural-left academics, like cuckoos in a nest, are able to undermine Western civilisation is because they are employed by Western universities.

As so persuasively argued by Steven Pinker in Enlightenment Now: The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism And Progress, it’s also obvious that not all cultures are equal and that Western civilisation, for all its flaws, deserves special recognition.

Pinker argues that beginning with the Enlightenment and continuing with industrial, scientific and technological advances, Western civilisation has experienced an unprecedented period of prosperity and growth.

Whether measured by infant mortality, health and longevity, food production or liberty and freedom, those living in Western cultures are especially privileged. Pinker describes this as “the greatest story seldom told” and argues the “the ideals of the Enlightenment are in fact stirring, inspiring, noble — a reason to live”.

Kevin Donnelly is a senior research fellow at the Australian Catholic University and author of How Political Correctness Is Destroying Australia.