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The Forum > Article Comments > Everything Old is New Again > Comments

Everything Old is New Again : Comments

By John Töns, published 24/2/2011

Could disappointed graduates be the insurgents who lead revolt in Australia?

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Hahahahaha

Classic comment Clownfish!
Posted by Houellebecq, Thursday, 24 February 2011 1:06:41 PM
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Will graduates revolt?

Difficult to say.

Theoretically they should revolt. Many are being sold a pup by getting a university degree, when they would be earning much more money and eventually living a better lifestyle and retiring earlier by getting a trade.

They are also inheriting a country with no culture because it is too multicultural, where there is less and less countryside or natural bush left, where nearly everything is now imported, where families are not deemed important and are being wiped out by feminist policy.

In effect, many graduates have no identity or sense of belonging, so theoretically they should revolt.

But the problem is, so many have been raised without any real identity, they don’t know what identity is.
Posted by vanna, Thursday, 24 February 2011 6:24:41 PM
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Graduates in Australia won't revolt, as
1) we live in a democracy, not an autocratic dictatorship
2) street demonstrations are obsolete in modern western democracies; and
3) graduates are too busy working to pay back their HECS fees to be interested in revolting - most of them are pretty disengaged from politics.
No - the reformers in Australia are people like Get Up members - mostly well-off middle aged people that have less financial pressures and more leisure time for stuff like political activism...
...and by the way when is Tony Abbot going to give that surfing lesson to a refugee that Get Up purchased last year at a parliamentary charity fund raising auction?
Posted by Johnj, Thursday, 24 February 2011 8:39:54 PM
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I agree with you, Johnj.

A university degree does not bestow common sense or enlightenment, and it doesn't necessarily encourage political activism, either. The students who took considerable time off from their studies to blockade CHOGM when I was at uni - or, at least, those I knew - tended to be middle-of-the-road, uninspired students who drifted through courses (careful not to get too close to graduating) in an attempt to stall the real world from smacking them in their faces. Those who organised rallies tended to be the same. They were well-known around campus by the time I arrived, and were still drifting along when I left, four years later. They may have graduated by now, for all I know, but I would certainly say that their numbers are few enough that they don't represent the 'typical' graduate.

The rest of us have joined the world, worked hard to pay off our HECS and pose no greater risk of revolting than any other citizens.

One thing I'd like to mention before I go is that nobody I studied with (and still keep in touch with, anyway) believes that they were sold a lie. None of us were under the illusion that we were studying our way to prosperity. We just knew that, by studying something we were interested in, we would be likely to find employment in an area of our own interest. We knew that we would start at the bottom of the ladder and work our way up. We knew that our tradie friends would be buying investment properties before we bought our first homes. We made the choice because we wanted a particular lifestyle. Most of us have achieved that.
Posted by Otokonoko, Thursday, 24 February 2011 11:35:49 PM
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We made the choice because we wanted a particular lifestyle. Most of us have achieved that.
Otokonoko,
So how do you contribute to society if you are not in a trade or private enterprise ?
Posted by individual, Friday, 25 February 2011 5:33:04 AM
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Individual, By implying that those who don't work in trades or private enterprise are not doing something worthwhile, I gather you are trying to start some kind of graduate/public servant bashing. I have worked for private enterprise (small and large), for Federal, State and Local government (at a professional not managerial level), and been self-employed. I can personally attest that the majority of public servants are committed, hard-working people who care about their work and the results of their work.
The work of government is crucial in a modern democratic society - for example, would you trust private enterprise -without any government oversight - to clean up toxic waste off sites about to be developed for housing? Most people are completely unaware of the plethora of issues that the different levels of government have to deal with every day...
Posted by Johnj, Friday, 25 February 2011 6:24:21 AM
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