Timeless western ideas

When I learned at school about the feudal and Georgian eras in England, I was relieved to be living in a nicer time. But no matter how much the world has changed in the last few hundred years or so, there are many western assumptions which have not changed over those years, for example:

·         Land is something which can be bought or sold but ultimately belongs to the Crown;

·         God told Adam and Eve they owned and should control plants and animals, and that they should be farmers;

·         Man is in charge of the landscape. It makes sense to drain swampland, divert rivers, or cut down forests (sometimes);

·         The law is English law;

·         Laws change;

·         Personal gain flows from personal effort;

·         A lack of personal gain must be caused by a lack of personal effort;

·         Personal success leads to a higher status;

·         We have to work hard both to survive and to save;

·         Our duty to ourselves is stronger than our duty to our community;

·         Saving is good; [Not saving is bad.]

·         Some goods are consumed instantly when we use them. Some things like land can be used repeatedly to increase wealth;

·         There are only four certainties in life: Birth, death, taxes and warfare.

Few of us, in Australia or anywhere else in the west, would have much trouble following the potted history above, whether we agree with its opinions or not. 
I doubt many early settlers questioned these assumptions which would make it difficult to ‘civilise’ Australia’s indigenous people. Beyond curiosity or fear, many seem to have given little thought to Australia’s first people at all. 
Certainly, none of these ideas we take for granted would have made any sense to Aboriginal Australians: Many Aboriginal Australians today still have no frame of reference which could help them follow these ideas. But when Australia was colonised, these ideas were neither questioned nor negotiable.