The Gaming Den

Well we got taught it, at both high school and primary like this...

The British cocked up and sent the Anzacs to the wrong beach. (no discussion of how it was still dumb at any beach and at best a vague mention that "it's not entirely clear" why we were at the war in the first place)

Where many died. Gunned down by the Germans with their well entrenched defences (well, Turks but they never really talk much about the Turks and pretty much treat them as "the faceless enemy" for the story, their role, Attaturk, etc...)

There was a hero guy with a donkey, or maybe more than one guy with multiple donkey's he may have been Simpson, or maybe Herman but we call him Simpson. And he totally wasn't British or Kiwi or nothin', and he was real, and stuff.

And then the ANZACs snuck off all tricky and heroic like and it was a great success! because once they did decide to run away they did it really really well with like less casualties than, well, it's entirely without comparison and over a narrow but unspecified period when there were less casualties, but STILL.

Then there is talk about how brave and heroic they were, and how well they managed under such terrible conditions if you are LUCKY there is talk about the actual meaning of the "Lest We Forget" motto and the events during the homecoming after the war and how massive the casualties were.

Then every god damn ANZAC day calls for an almost entire day off school activities. Sprigs of rosemary and junk are given out to be worn as badges. We all get sent to stand in ranks at assembly with the flag at half mast, that sad military trumpet plays, everyone blankly recites the lest we forget mantra, one minutes silence, and we go for a parade to place a wreath at the local memorial, maybe someone blankly reads of the names while we stand around again. At some point someone gives some talk about heroic sacrifice and how we should consider what they did for us, and maybe about donkeys. Additional class time is spent in the lead up to rehash the mythology again in brief.

There is certainly NOT going to be a mention of certain powerful and influential British officers and historians and how they manipulated and even fabricated the ANZAC myth and even the ANZACs themselves for the openly admitted goal of shaping Australian identity to their liking and creating immediate war propaganda. You'll need to watch obscure SBS war documentaries for that shit.

No way will there be discussion of the history of the RSL from its socialist roots to the conservative take over to the turfing out of leftist ANZACs to their rejection and mistreatment of Korean and Vietnam war vets. Let alone the RSL's role as a shady conservative lobbying agency and its wholesale take over of ANZAC ceremonies and sites.

There is sure as shit not going to be an open discussion of the use of the ANZAC mythology and the ANZAC cult by the RSL, governments and conservative figures to try and quash dissent and promote patriotic support of unjustified warfare in direct contradiction of the original pacifistic anti nationalist message of its founding. Remember John Howard, probably most notorious for getting us involved in an unnecessary war was the loudest to trumpet ANZAC pride and how much we should honour their "sacrifice for us". And he used it blatantly at every turn to support his stance on sending troops to Iraq. And most frighteningly it actually had some beneficial effect for him!

As a happy little ending let me remind you of this.

When he was Education Minister, Brendan Nelson said that if Muslim schools cannot accept and teach Australian values they should ‘clear off’ (ABC 2005). Asked for examples, he cited the story of Simpson and his donkey rescuing the wounded at Gallipoli. The Anzac tradition is a core element of the Government’s understanding of Australian values

Frank wrote:And you have to vote in a specific precinct which is assigned to you based on where you live, not on where you are going to be on election day. Seriously.

We vote by mail and have 20 days to do it. You can have your ballot sent to you, or pick it up in person, and you can drop it off at a ballot collection box anywhere in the county, or mail it in from anywhere.

Yes, some of our areas allow that as well. But because I usually don't get all the info about candidates (especially locally) before I'm supposed to mail it in, I don't do that.

At the same time we're allowing mailbox dropped ballots widely... We're not allowing elderly to vote in person because they were born before there were birth certificates. They probably could've voted by mail, though.

Argh.

-Crissa

PL, I only went to two schools. It wasn't a big production there. Also your history teachers were shit. Not that I'm disagreeing with everything you said, but I doubt your experience of schooling is any less anecdotal than mine.

Draco_Argentum wrote:Also your history teachers were shit.

Fuck yeah. In high school the head of the history department was still teaching the crusades as a genuine move by advanced and civilised Europe to rescue the holy lands from barbaric heathens.

Despite that my anecdote is one I've seen repeated by others all over and its a public school anecdote. The parade to the fucking park is a bit private school/1960 but we had a seriously retro principle and staff in my primary school.

And there have been many very genuine efforts to manipulate and alter the story of the ANZACs starting from the get go by a wide variety of groups and individuals. If you weren't taught at least the attempts by individuals like Monash to use the ANZAC troops as a propaganda tool you weren't taught half the truth.

And seriously a major aspect of the ANZAC myth taught in our schools is that fellow Simpson and his donkey. If you were taught accurately and without bias, What was his name? Where did he come from? Why did he do what he did? What did he actually do? Why the hell do they focus so much attention on his story, and a rather vague story at that?

No cheating on the net. Afterwards, here is a version of his story that gives a lot more details than they teach in schools, and touches on topics generally not, ah, focused on. I somewhat doubt the story you may remember from history class matches this one.

Behind the Story of Simpson and his Donkey

I concur with Dr. Brendan Nelson, the Federal Education Minister's call to invoke the story of Simpson and his donkey to inculcate Australian values among Australian students in Muslim schools.

John Simpson Kirkpatrick, an illegal immigrant, jumped ship when the ship he was working as a stoker on, docked in Fremantle. He changed his name to John Simpson to evade deportation. He worked his way around Australia taking on what work he could find. Simpson was sympathetic to the aims of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), a radical workers organisation that eschewed parliamentary politics and promoted direct action. The I.W.W. was at the forefront of the successful W.W.I. anti conscription struggle. For their troubles, the group was banned under the War Precautions Act. The I.W.W.'s assets were seized and its members were jailed and deported by the Billy Hughes government.

John Simpson was a strong union man and a socialist. In his letters to his parents in England, he called for a socialist revolution in Britain. He volunteered to join the Australian Armed forces thinking he would be able to score a free trip back to England, never imagining he would end up on the shores of Gallipoli. He became a stretcher bearer, believing this was the best way to avoid combat duties. When he arrived at Gallipoli he adopted a donkey which he called Abdul and for 40 days ferried soldiers who had been injured by flying shrapnel back to the beach for evacuation. He avoided going into the thick of battle to take out the wounded and concentrated on carrying out soldiers on his donkey who were not seriously injured.

John Simpson Kirkpatrick had no intentions of dying for God, King and Country in the senseless and pointless slaughter that was going on around him. Kirkpatrick was an internationalist and preferred the company of the Indian artillery at Gallipoli, sleeping with them at night rather than the Australian troops.

His life and death at Gallipoli was immortalised by a publicity machine that was keen to create an acceptable hero among a war weary public back home. Little regard was taken about the real John Simpson Kirkpatrick and a myth was spun to suit the propaganda needs of a government that was coming under increased pressure back home because of horrifying number of casualties that were occurring.

And this little additional highlight. From a discussion with a man talking about his grandfather's stories of Simpson.

Interviewer: He was the famous Simpson with the donkey? He did that for about a month or two didn’t he?

Alf: Yeah. He wouldn’t fight you see. Refused to work for the Australian army. He got involved with the Indians. They loved him for helping their wounded. It went to an Australian General they reckon who said just let him be.

Interviewer: He probably knew what would happen to him soon enough.

Alf: Maybe. Some say he was killed by the enemy, some even say it was an Australian bullet. No one knows really.

That is nothing like what they taught me in high school. And light years from what they taught in primary school. And yet both the propaganda versions from public schooling are much closer to the myth as recognized by the public, glorified by governments appealing to nationalistic fervor, worshipped by growing numbers of ANZAC pilgrims and recognised by any number of Cement Donkeys

Didn't know that. Thats really funny.

Thats awesome, I'd largely forgotten the Simpson story even existed. My high school history teacher treated Australian involvement as a sideline in the WW1 section of history. Private school though so I don't have any public school anecdotes.

This is one of the reasons I'm against private schools though. Only poor parents send their kids there and noone gives a shit about poor people. Public schools are just plain worse, they haven't got the funding or the ability to be selective with staff. Doubly so if you aren't in a decent sized city. Since so many students are in private school so many parents can afford to not care about the state of public schools too.