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Peter Kurti: ‘Raging Against the Past’ The Problem with Historical Cancellation

Joining us on this episode of Afternoon Light is Peter Kurti, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, who has recently released a report, ‘Raging against the past: guilt, justice, and the postcolonial reformation’. A response to the recent trend of tearing down or vandalising statues of historical figures, the report deals with an issue which poses important questions related to historical memory and the nature of a progressive society.

As L.P. Hartley famously wrote, ‘the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there’. Social attitudes and norms have evolved immensely over the years, and even the most decorated figures from our past tend to have done or at least thought and said things that are abhorrent by today’s standards. Is the trend of retroactively ‘cancelling’ these figures a positive sign of a growing social conscience, or does this attempt to take retribution on the past risk destroying its lessons? Kurti’s report unpacks the contradictions that lay at the heart of the movement towards radical attempts at ‘decolonisation’, and the dangers that arise from the deliberate politicisation of the past.

Peter Kurti is the Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture at Charles Sturt University. He has written extensively about issues of religion, liberty, and civil society in Australia, and appears frequently as a commentator on television and radio. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an ordained minister in the Anglican Church of Australia.