Health services and media billionaire Paul Ramsay died three years ago, his money going to an umbrella foundation, which will be funding a Paul Ramsay Centre For Western Civilisation. The new centre got a full-court press in the meeja with chairman John Howard launching it in his usual whiny fashion — “Western civilisation had its faults, all civilisations do …” — and board member Bomber Beazley spruiking it in the AFR.
But it was another board member’s piece in the Oz that caught our eye. Tony Abbott (oh, it’s a very pluralist board) went out of his way to compare Paul Ramsay to … Cecil Rhodes. What were the similarities between Ramsay, whose other donations had been to science education funds and, erm, the Kevin Spacey Foundation? Well, they were both childless, and they both created scholarships. Ramsay, however, ran a hospitals corporation; Rhodes ran a brutal empire across southern Africa, murdering and enslaving millions of Africans, and formulated an Anglo-Saxon racialist ideology that influenced the Nazis.
Why would Tone mention in such context a man whom even his contemporaries thought to be a murderous thug? Because he doesn’t want a quiet little centre for Western civilisation bubbling away somewhere; he wants the campus war, and mentioning Rhodes — whose statues Oxford students are trying to bring down — will help to spark it. Abbott doesn’t want people to debate Western civilisation; he wants uncompromising loyalty to it. Rhodes’ lethal racism isn’t a barrier; it’s a test of your mettle.
And that’s what a Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation — currently looking for a university home — would be: a rigid propaganda unit. Lord knows, there is room to criticise the postmodern hall-of-mirrors of the contemporary humanities. But this is just an attempt to balkanise the university, and shield right-wing ideologues from academic scrutiny. It’s as sleazy as the failed Bjorn Lomborg centre, and deserves the same response: resistance and rejection. If Abbott wants a campus war, he should get one.
Count me in. This is big money
trying to buy our hearts and minds. It’s about turning around snd walking back to the past. Of course, the Shoppies are on the Board too, and no women. The question is whether we can unify our fragmented identity politics to provide a successful front on opposition. Or maybe, Guy, you can give Tony a good mind-butt.
I always suspected that Beasley was a CIA “asset”. Now they’ve dropped the pretense.
I’m reminded of the apocryphal Q&A with Ghandi:
“What Do You Think of Western Civilization?” “I Think It Would Be a Good Idea”
Dead white men for rich white kids, supervised by old white men on behalf of a rich, dead white man. How could anyone object?
Perhaps the Abbotrocity has brought back somme whizzer new ideas from his recent Benighted States tour when he spoke to a hatefest seeking to recriminalize homosexuality?
Not to mention what communicable mental diseases he might have contract talking to climate deniers in Blighty.
I wonder how many of the ALP power brokers were not CIA assets – Abib et al – whilst still pulling a Parliamentary salary?
Bumbler Beezelblub joining the Rodent – quell bloody surprise!
As for being a CIA plant, I can’t say. I do know that Professor Beazley did not join the National Tertiary Education Union while he was at UWA, nor did he return the invitional calls of the branch secretary (me). Doesn’t say much for his Labor credentials.
“Invitational calls”