Where to now, Modern Man and Woman?

The dark dawn of our modern day is upon us when we need to endure our vices or face the remedies needed to cure them.

The Australian federal election is now over. The Liberal Party might be languishing in a state of perpetual self-loathing but at least they have now solved their perceived “woman problem” by installing Sussan Ley as their new leader.

Ms Ley is now on a mission to drag Australia kicking and screaming into a “modern” world.

“The Liberal Party must respect modern Australia, reflect modern Australia, and represent modern Australia…we will listen, we will step up, we’ll modernise, and we will rebuild.”

She said that voters had sent them a clear message. But why does she think that message is to become more modern? And how will “modern” be applied?

The word ‘modern’ means that which relates to the here and now or very recent past – new; fledgling; contemporary; upstart.

Striving to be modern is mankind’s persistent attempt to prove itself superior to what came before. The thing we fail to remember is that the past informs the future. Any generation which ignores the past to placate a future not yet known is on its way to a veritable quicksand of troubles.

English writer and philosopher, Roger Scruton, summed up brilliantly the obsession with going all in with modernity:

“The strange superstition has arisen in the Western world that we can start all over again, remaking human nature, human society, and the possibilities of happiness; as though the knowledge and experience of our ancestors were now entirely irrelevant.”

Being a historian, I have a vested interest in the past. It informs me of what occurred back then, how it links to the present, and what can be learned so the same mistakes are not repeated.

We were gifted with warnings from many great figures from antiquity, none better than Titus Livius (Livy) who wrote The Early History of Rome:

“The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid.”

Forgetting atrocities or mistakes of the past is grave indeed. Warnings abound throughout history. Two examples from the recent past can serve as reminders as to how governments can promise the world in the name of safety or for what is best for one’s country, and deliver something much more sinister.

Stalin’s labour camps during the first half of the twentieth century have become infamously known through the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago. This shameful period saw the elimination of millions of people in the most cruel and brutal fashion. His book has been credited with triggering the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990. Solhenitsyn’s warning to the world in the aftermath of this horror show was:

“Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.”

We got to see what the power of government and the lackeys that attach themselves to it can unleash upon its citizens. But we don’t even need to go back that far to find more modern government overreach.

Four years ago in Australia, the state of Victoria unleashed hell upon its own citizens when the police, at the behest of the inglorious leadership of Daniel Andrews, fired rubber bullets on people for the audacity of protesting mandates and lockdowns during the Covid 19 period.

The horrors of these two historical episodes cannot be compared, but the principle upon which the punishment was administered is the same – a deeply held hatred for anyone who questions authority. That point is worth heeding when a political leader attempts to convince us that we need to come along on the ride to newness.

The question must be asked by the people: What will be different?

Moderns love to gloat about being advanced, caring and tolerant. Yet here we are in Australia, about to send our once prosperous economy and society to the wall with net zero delusions, erosion of free speech, and a hollowing out of our own culture due to unfettered immigration. And all of this, we are being told, is for the betterment of our country.

Again, the question remains – what have we learned from a mere four years ago? And how will becoming modern prevent anything resembling that carnage from happening again?

Or is it that Ms Ley prefers that we put all the negative behind us because that is now ancient history?

Solzhenitsyn writes of when the gulag guards, administrators, and interrogators who, after the camps were closed, wanted to let bygones be bygones and quoted an old Russian proverb: “Dwell on the past and you’ll lose an eye.” He noted that they omitted the rest of the proverb: “Forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.”

The lesson here is that by restoring the past – as in a restoration project – we can give sight to the eyes of others, and in doing so, enable a plan to mitigate any reoccurrence.

Modernity’s Achilles Heel is its persistence to distance itself from the past as if that time is inconsequential.

Celebrating modernism for the sake of it is a mistake no political leader should make if the aim is to create harmony and prosperity for their citizens.

If it is Australia’s destiny to become Modern, then let us first understand where we came from, acknowledge that our oft good intentions can result in dire consequences if not carefully studied, and give greater credence to those who gifted us the foundations upon which we live today, even if our guardianship of it is left wanting.

Let us not commit the act of “unpardonable historical ignorance” that Jordan Peterson describes of the horrors of Stalin’s camps in his Forward to The Gulag Archipelago.

And let us be reminded by what Cicero says on the importance of valuing an inheritance so important that society cannot survive without its structures and fortifications:

For it is through our own faults, not by any accident, that we retain only the form of the commonwealth, but have long since lost its substance.

Let us consider the substance before we rush headlong into becoming that which we are not even sure of merely for its own sake.