- A unique ‘Aussie’ trait seems to be an endless supply of self-congratulation. From Kevin Rudd down, the proclamation that the Aussie way is to pull together at times of tragedy and loss has a very clear subtext that these traits are not necessarily to be found elsewhere in the world. What do these people think other countries do when they are hit by such a catastrophe? Turn their backs, shrug their shoulders in indifference?
A comment on the Crikey piece today written by a survivor of the Marysville fires, well someone who fled in the nick of time.
This thought from ‘Gia’ pretty much sums up my misgivings about so much that we’ve heard these past two weeks, that somehow the response to this apalling thing was uniquely and wonderfully Australian. What tosh.
What we are celebrating here – if celebrating we are, and so much of the tabloid/TV press seem to be – what has been remarkable since the fires and through them has been the indomitability of some common, persistent, courageous humanity. Aint nothing aussie, aussie, aussie about it. How that drivel galls me. Sorry, but there it is. It diminishes us all.
Can’t we find a way to be Australian, even proudly so, without subscribing to all that rot?
3 Comments
I think generally Australians struggle to find some quality that they can claim is unique amongst humanity thus making themselves “special”. They struggle because in reality there isn’t much that’s special about us; after all apart from a select few we are really just bits of everybody from everywhere else. I wonder if with all the death and destruction these bushfires have caused it has really been shown that we are really just pretty ordinary people. You would think that the these fires would have been inevitable sooner or later. Yet despite this there seems to have been no planning for such an event; that such a thing could occur doesn’t appear to register. We still seem to have a false sense of confidence, or perhaps are in denial, as though it wouldn’t dare happen to us. We continue to think we are smarter than nature. Until this attitude changes I can see the same thing happening again. And again.
Precisely Jonathon. Everything remotely decent has to be hailed as the Aussie fighting spirit. Gallipoli, dying in battle to fight for the Brits and the Americans: footballers, hoons and heroes have fighting spirit-we don’t like hoons. They’re unAustralian, oh yeah? What about the much admired Cory Worthington?
It is another manifestation of our ghastly cultural cringe. John Howard’s little Aussie battlers. It travels in conjunction with our shonky, amateur nationalism.
I’d love to see how many Aussie battlers and heroes would volunteer to go underground, risking hideous torture, to fight an invader. Especially if that invader happened to be British or American.
Yes the CFA were heroic during the bushfires. Anyone remember the great Aussie apathy which helped to create the fires? Just so, Aussie, aussie, aussie oi, oi, oi. I rather think the arsonists were Aussies too. Bollocks and then some.
When a fellow Aussie wins the Nobel Prize, I can’t remember anyone calling their fighting spirit as Australian.
I keep forgetting brains happen to be a very un-Australian commodity.
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flights to perth–flights to perth