“Why a degree in Western civilisation failed”

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www.news.com.au...

IT IS the university degree so contentious that the Prime Minister has gotten involved. But this is why it’s become a laughing stock. OPINION THE Australian National University (ANU) has been in month-long talks with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation about creating a degree in Western civilisation. Last week, however, ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt announced the university had pulled out of discussions with the controversial think tank. Then on Thursday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull weighed in on the issue, announcing he would seek an explanation from Prof Schmidt….. “ I’m a student at the ANU and I can tell you that this controversy has divided politically active students at the university”

The degree quickly became a joke among students. Several memes were created about it, which is never a good sign. It looked like the political version of gender studies, but right-leaning

If the project went ahead, I’m confident that the so-called “students of Western civilisation” would have been mocked their entire undergraduate careers. The whole degree would have been ridiculed as brain training for budding conservative commentators and Liberal politicians. That’s simply untenable. An academic program that wants to survive can’t be plagued by accusations of political bias…… But over the past few days, a backlash to the backlash has happened. The ANU’s Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies was dragged into the debate, slammed for accepting donations from the governments of Dubai, Iran and Turkey. To many, the ANU’s rejection of the Ramsay Centre seemed hypocritical in light of these past donations. Is the ANU willing to accept donations from Islamic governments but not conservative Australian citizens?.... The virtues of Western civilisation are so contentious and heavily debated that if you’re going to create a degree in it, you have to portray some level of impartiality.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Cont

The Ramsay Centre needs to go back to the drawing board and rethink its strategy. I actually wish them luck. Because unlike my fellow students, I don’t think a degree in Western civilisation is necessarily a bad thing. And neither does Prof Schmidt. There are some radical students who hate the idea simply because they want to silence any pro-Western message. They actually share a lot in common with the Ramsay Centre: they’re not opposed to bias, they just want their own bias to reign supreme.

Heaven forbid we remind ourselves that there is some merit in studying our past and the benefits we accrued. How our ideas have been shaped down through the ages, sometimes for the worst but it is what it is.

In a milieu of white guilt studying our civilization is seen as enabling and by extension condoning the darker elements of colonialism and the pain inflicted on the other.

But in the topsy turvey world that Western Civilization finds itself in we must deny the history, pretend it didn’t happen and hold our heads in shame and allow a select minority to drive a wedge and stab their own peers in the back. Cultural Marxism. Its insidious and soul destroying.

gatesofvienna.net...

Interregnum We are currently living through an interregnum, a tragic historical moment when everything is in flames and everything, like a phoenix, might rise reborn from the ashes…the period of regeneration between chaos and post-chaos, the moment of tragedy, when everything is again possible…metamorphic in essence, European civilisation has known three distinct ages; Antiquity, the Middle Ages which rose from the ruins of Antiquity, and, beginning in the Sixteenth century, a Third Age of expansion, that of ‘modernity’, which is now coming to an end… …

The interregnum through which we are presently living is the most crucial and decisive period since the Persian and Punic wars. Either Europeans will unite in self-defence, expel the colonisers and regenerate themselves biologically and morally — or else their civilisation will disappear — forever…

…[essentially] The interregnum will give birth to the Fourth Age of European Civilisation — or else Europe will die, purely and simply. Everything is to be decided in the decisive period now beginning. And
[re]birth, if it occurs, will be painful, full of blood and tears — the fuels of history. For our civilisation, the twenty-first century is to be a trial of life or death with no possibility of appeal.”

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Don't stress out about it. It will be introduced as soon as "Western Civilization" becomes antiquity.

a reply to: surnamename57

I dont do stress. I'm willing to discuss it though.

"Antiquity?" Care to expand.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight
Do Australian universities not have degrees in History with the option of specialising in periods and areas? That would have been enough.
I studied History without needing to go beyond western civilisation.

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
a reply to: surnamename57

"Antiquity?" Care to expand.

an·tiq·ui·ty
anˈtikwədē/
noun
1.
the ancient past ...

a reply to: DISRAELI

Sure they'd have History degrees.

a reply to: surnamename57

Expanding does not equal definition

Cute but a fail

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Back in my day-when wheels were rocks-we were just taught history. No west, no east, no topsy turvy-just history.

Sure if you want to close the blinders and only look at history from a certain point of view, go ahead. However IMO you can only truly know history if you approach it in a broad spectrum.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Just my thinking but, these things run in cycles and I'd guess this cycle is peaking and that because for every action there's a reaction, the seeds of that reaction will be a rebirth of interest in the things that are the best by-products of Western Civ, i.e., the arts, literature, architecture, painting and music. Why?

The primary product of Cultural Marxism is aridity, boredom, faux art and really bad, sterile architecture. Look for example at the architecture of the USSR. Awful, sterile stuff. Nature presents better form than that.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

Sure it was the same in my time at high school, broad strokes. This is a dedicated degree in the study of Western Civilization. Those who take it know it is but a specialized study, so I don't see how "closing blinders" is relevant.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Just bumping an old thread of mine - Its ok to now study Western Civilization again

www.acu.edu.au...

The brightest minds exploring the biggest questions.
Study a Bachelor of Arts (Western Civilisation) with ACU – an exciting course opening up the intellectual tradition and culture of the West. Scholarships available.

It is a liberal arts degree that will give ambitious students a deep understanding of western literature, philosophy, art, politics, religion, science and history, and how these help us to understand our world and the dialogue between cultures.

Lib arts degree say no more