From McDonalds

Hi everyone,

I'm typing this on my phone in the McDonalds at Deniliquin before I begin the drive back to Shepparton.

I've now had my second interview for the country job - this time in a pub over a few beers to the strains of a four piece band cranking out AC/DC covers. The interview went, you may say, well.

On the short drive this far I took a photo of the Boer War memorial (I usually do take pictures of those monuments) [pictures below] and find myself, as usual, struck by the thought of young men travelling all the way from these dusty plains in order to export death and violence in the name of the sovereign and emperor.

What is history to make of these people, who travelled so far to take part in an unarguably unnecessary war of conquest so far away?  The ethics of our time tell us to condemn them, and since we have the arguments in Hansard and the like to give their side of the story, we:re surely not being unfair on them.  And yet... de mortius nil nisi bonum.

I always thought my role as a historian was to understand, and not to condemn. But, maybe, sometimes to understand and not condemn is a sign that you have lost your way.

I have a few things to think about, I guess.