Hi @Bunniekins
@Dimity @Abbz77 @Appleblossom @AlwaysMyself
I think that the power structure in our, and any, society is determined by the ruling class. That class determines the range of thought permissible in one's society.
Unfortunately, informing the lower masses is counter productive to their aim of controlling and maintaining this power structure, and hence we are not taught about world history and the controlling class' responsibility in the trajectory of our history. National identity and national narratives inform us of the expected line of thinking rather than enable independent/critical thinking. However, the disciplines of history and political science are dispersed through meaningful sources by people whose role is about investigating history and making sense of our time and place. It just will not be relayed through our 10 minute nightly news broadcasts, which have a different motive. The later's role is to inform the public of what the desired response and thinking is supposed to be. Which has a much more rhetorical motive.
So that leads to the question as to what is really going on? Is it a rogue group of radical terrorists going against a helpless minority in a fair amd just society such as Australia? That seems very simplistic, but would align with the national narrative that is projected through the public broadcasting system.
But, if the our motive is to be informed of why things are happening, then this complex subject should take into account the history of this conflict. And that is hundreds or thousand of years old. And we need to seek the counsel of political scientists and historians.
A good a place to start would be Roy Casagrande or Illan Pappe. The later is part of the "New Historian" group from Israel that happen to be working of their PhD at the time that the Israeli government released the official documents from the national archives that documented the actual plans and events at the creation of Israel prior to 1948. The former is an Amercian historian/political scientist who takes a much more broader perspective. But there are many others that also have their work based in historical political science and is framed in terms of historical materialism. The benefit of this approach is that it filters for idealism and ideology.
Australians have in general very little formal education in these topics. But they are important and now is as good a time to learn and understand our time and place.
Regards
J.
