2 weeks Ago By Peter O'Brien
W riting recently in the Monthly , David Marr took Quadrant to task for its campaign against the Orwellian concept of truth-telling: From America they’ve learnt the art of word flipping. It takes talent, time and money, but words can be turned on their head. “Elite” is now a pejorative in political discourse.
So is “progressive”. Even “educated” has a bit of a smell these days. But the Coalition and its backers set out to do something more ambitious: to turn truth to muck—“truth” as in “truth-telling”.
It is not “truth” that is anathema to conservatives but “truth-telling”. The irony is that in the Aboriginal industry “truth” is a rare commodity or, more accurately, non-truths abound. Take your pick from the “oldest culture on Earth”, “First Nations”, “guardians of the environment”, “Stolen Generations”, “colonial wars”, “intergenerational trauma”, “first astronomers” and the grandaddy of them all, “deeply spiritual.
...
