About a hundred and ten years ago, a young Russian revolutionary doing some time in Siberia, name of Vladimir Lenin – the last name was taken from the river Lena, so the name actually translates as David Murray, which sounds less impressive, where was I ah yes – Lenin had a blinding flash of inspiration.

Instead of socialist parties running sprawling newspapers with open-ended debate going off in all sorts of tangents, they should have one which expounded their line and their line only. Over and over again. From a million different angles. Until people were bored out of their brains and bludgeoned into submission. Thus was Pravda born.

Which brings us to the op-ed page of The Australian.

Today’s essay on the curriculum, by a recent school-leaver “from one of Queensland’s best private schools” named Hilary Martin, has its moments. But its central premise – that education authorities are to blame for the fact that he learnt about Vietnam, but not the Holocaust, Chinese foot binding, but not classical Athens etc – is deeply confused.

One of the main problems with the current curriculum is that it’s too much of a multiple choice menu. If Martin didn’t get a chance to study any of those things, that’s the “best private” school’s fault for not offering them, or his for not choosing them.

We know this because The Oz has been running stories on this thing ad nauseum. Ad nauseum. Ad nauseum. From a thousand different angles. Until we’re all bored out of our brains.

In a big newspaper market this wouldn’t matter – you could simply step around it, as one does the UK Daily Mail, the country’s largest selling and most foam-flecked serious paper. But Australia only has three serious de facto national broadsheet papers. News junkies are reading the high and low tide times by 9.30am. I don’t care if it’s right, left or the last British Israelite Douglas Credit advocate on the books.

It was boring during the Brezhn-Howard years but it had a reason. Pretty sleazy, but a reason. Now it’s just rip-own-head-off tedious.

Please god, Swiss Tom, (ФОМА ШВЕЙЦАРСКИЙ) stop the Pravda treatment. Give us something challenging.

If you know how.