I am, you're not!
Jan. 26th, 2010 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
passionpopwhats it mean to be 'stralyian anyways? I know what it means to me after seeing much of the shit this country has to offer like the towns of indented head and bogangate, seeing the UFO capital of 'stalyia (wycliffe well) and swimming in a croc infested river (not for long though, I am not as stupid as your average tourist who sunbake meters from said river), but seriously why are we so special as a people?
my dad has made the comment that nationalism is the same as racism. it is nationalism that brought the Nazis to power and looks at what a fuss that caused
are we really nationalistic? it all seems too commercial for me. here we are waving our Australian flags that were made in china. do we even know what the flag means? do we even care? why are we flying the tatty flag with the ratty edges anyway... it is poor form you know...
there has been this swell of national pride over the past few years, but there is something wrong with it. it smells funny. where did it come from and why?
I love 'Stralyian cultural history and one of the things that interests me is what we have been proud of over the years. Baladonia, the most interesting place on the Nullarbor is only interesting because SkyLab crashed near by in the 1970s. an american satellite crashed there so it draws mad tourists. similarly with many things in australia that were are meant to be proud of, we are only interested in it because people from outside our country have told us it is cool.
we have spent decades ashamed of things that are overtly australian (except in sport). under the whitlam government in the 1970s, the austrlian music quota was introduced. before this radio stations didnt have to play any australian music, afterwards it was 5%. in bringing this in, radio stations were up in arms (partially because of the kickbacks they got from the american owned record companies when they played their music). but 5%? now that would be equivilant to only hearing guy sebastian ever 1.5 ours rather than every 5 fucken minutes!!!
the Australian music quota is set up to 25% depending on the genre of music that the radio station plays (jazz is 5% and the quota is tiered in 5% increments). we also have mandatory quotas for Australian content in TV (I blame that for koshies existence) and these quotas need to exist still because there are still some people that believe our TV isnt as good as theirs (like channel 9), that our music isnt as good as theirs (pick a commercial station here), that our writers arent as good as theirs... we are not as good as them. and nothing anyone can do or say will change our opinions in that because there is no unbiased international yard stick for us to put ourselves up against... except in sport.
this is why we love sport, because we know we rock at it, our teams win and we cannot deny that we are the best so we love our sport and we love our teams. for a clever country, we dont really think for ourselves, do we?
so what does it meant to be australian to me?
1) accepting everyone regardless of race, belief, capabilities, disabilities... everything, we are the country of the fair go after all
2) appreciating innovation and inventiveness and aspiring to it. remember: clever country
3) working, because we hate bludgers
4) watching the sport.
my dad has made the comment that nationalism is the same as racism. it is nationalism that brought the Nazis to power and looks at what a fuss that caused
are we really nationalistic? it all seems too commercial for me. here we are waving our Australian flags that were made in china. do we even know what the flag means? do we even care? why are we flying the tatty flag with the ratty edges anyway... it is poor form you know...
there has been this swell of national pride over the past few years, but there is something wrong with it. it smells funny. where did it come from and why?
I love 'Stralyian cultural history and one of the things that interests me is what we have been proud of over the years. Baladonia, the most interesting place on the Nullarbor is only interesting because SkyLab crashed near by in the 1970s. an american satellite crashed there so it draws mad tourists. similarly with many things in australia that were are meant to be proud of, we are only interested in it because people from outside our country have told us it is cool.
we have spent decades ashamed of things that are overtly australian (except in sport). under the whitlam government in the 1970s, the austrlian music quota was introduced. before this radio stations didnt have to play any australian music, afterwards it was 5%. in bringing this in, radio stations were up in arms (partially because of the kickbacks they got from the american owned record companies when they played their music). but 5%? now that would be equivilant to only hearing guy sebastian ever 1.5 ours rather than every 5 fucken minutes!!!
the Australian music quota is set up to 25% depending on the genre of music that the radio station plays (jazz is 5% and the quota is tiered in 5% increments). we also have mandatory quotas for Australian content in TV (I blame that for koshies existence) and these quotas need to exist still because there are still some people that believe our TV isnt as good as theirs (like channel 9), that our music isnt as good as theirs (pick a commercial station here), that our writers arent as good as theirs... we are not as good as them. and nothing anyone can do or say will change our opinions in that because there is no unbiased international yard stick for us to put ourselves up against... except in sport.
this is why we love sport, because we know we rock at it, our teams win and we cannot deny that we are the best so we love our sport and we love our teams. for a clever country, we dont really think for ourselves, do we?
so what does it meant to be australian to me?
1) accepting everyone regardless of race, belief, capabilities, disabilities... everything, we are the country of the fair go after all
2) appreciating innovation and inventiveness and aspiring to it. remember: clever country
3) working, because we hate bludgers
4) watching the sport.