I'm glad you correctly anticipated my amusement. I do love it when people accept an invitation to play.

'home improvement is about conspicuous consumption - something the whole of society thrives on - not just the ladies.'

Na, it's all about nesting. Women have already loved to decorate their surrounds inside, in their domain (and men have long accepted this), but now we have the artificial concept of the 'outdoor room'. It's all part of the vindictive and aggressive feminist assault on the only space men had in the traditional home:-) Men's ever shrinking domain,which now barely consists of The Shed, is but a trick to encourage men (by way of rationed solitude) to work (for women) in creating the back yard in her vision, to support her aims of social aggrandisement. For men meet at the pub, their back yard being for old car parts and junk that may come in useful one day.

Any notion men might have had of recreating their traditional, cultural and spiritual domain (the pub) in the back yard, with wonderfully ironic kitsch, it's cheezy 'pool room' decorations, is met with derisive ridicule at such 'immaturity'. Make no mistake, the back yard is now rendered women's domain. (apart from the BBQ, a covert instrument in domesticating men, the very instrument itself now being metrosexualised)

'you don't fit the template of someone who mindlessly sucks in ACA...you're entertained as you watch it all unfold around you...but you save your strongest vitriol for anyone who offers up any ideas for a seriously alternative paradigm'

Au contraire, I study it. It's actually quite sophisticated parody, ironic self-reference and absurdity. See what you 'thinkers' don't understand, is that the great joke is on you. You sit there imagining 'The Bogan' taking ACA in, but they are being entertained on a level above that which you anticipate. It's actually short-sightedness on your part to assume the bogan is being entertained by the text and not the subtext.

Au contraire, yerself, Houellie,

Tell me again about the superior level at which the average bogan is entertained (not as much as I am at the moment).

"It's actually short-sightedness on your part to assume the bogan is being entertained by the text and not the sub-text."

So, in your opinion, bogans are subliminally mindful of sophisticated parody, ironic self-reference and absurdity in a program like ACA.
Puhlease....next you'll be telling me they're tuned in to the Aeolian cadences in the background music.

The reality is that they are watching the lady with the shiny hair talking to them - and they believe everything she says.

I'm sure Houellebecq is right, Poirot, about the bogan audience I mean; they're a shrewd lot, and tasteful too; they just love having their teeth put on edge by the endless procession of cliched commentary over cliched news: dole bludgers, asylum seekers etc. It's all just so rich!
Same with Alan Jones et al; the bogans are actually rolling on the floor laughing at the political one-sidedness, the product-placing cronyism and the mock-serious gravity Jones intones over AGW and other leftist/feminist conspiracies afoot in the world. The bogans don't "believe" all this stuff; they're just comic cynics and enjoy a good laugh.
That's why they hate the ABC; it's just not entertaining.

Houlley you live up to your rebellious namesake.

We could get bogged down in philosophy, examining the concepts of determinism or free will, but what about time just spent living?

Many people find discussions about the meaning of life, politics, societies etc important. Yes, some people might call it navel gazing. Houlley I am surprised that you are telling people what they should and should not talk about. ;)

Reducing everything discussed to an assumption of "telling us how to live" is a furphy. It does not follow that thinking something implies an assumption that everyone should live that prescribed view. But fact is modern societies are not anarchies and there are rules - it is discussion around what those rules should be that determine the sorts of societies in which we live.

Adapting to one's environment is a luxury for well-to-do Westerners who might quibble about a proposed new tax, while supping at The Hyatt on a late Friday night deciding whether to go for the Bordeaux or the Beaujolais; but not so if you are living under a dictatorial regime, or when citizens are tortured for not conforming.

Conformity is all very well, but human beings are not robots, they feel compassion, hurt and pain for others. Conforming or adapting is not always courageous. Part of human adaption has been about using innovation to make change. It all depends on your view of human nature and in which situation it (conformity) is applied.

It might be fun or safe to treat the whole gamut of human behaviour as a TV Show for amusement, but that in itself implies an analytical mindset and a decision not to conform. Is choosing not to conform being conformist in some social settings. Like being a Goth but with the in-crowd you are just one of the same.

We could be here all night examining and probing the complexities of human behaviour but I reckon it is too hard.

There are times and places for thinking, doing and just living. Life is too short.

Glad you could join in pelican,

Someone once said 'Life is what happens while you're making other plans'. I for one agree. Humans are infinitely happier when they think less and do more. Thinking without action leads to depression.

It's a matter of outlook. The navel gazers wish and pine for people to be like this or that (like them), for the world to be 'better', but I revel in human nature, as it presents itself. I like humans, with their contradictions and their frailties. I have no wish to change them, and I have no pompous illusions that I have any more insight than others into their behaviour.

I am not projecting a personal, internal, existential crisis onto the rest of the world like your average humanist.

'Is choosing not to conform being conformist in some social settings'
As per squeers' and poirot's 'thinking outside the box' humanism? Yes, it is merely, as I said, the latest fad. It's a predominately arrogant fad too, which assumes it's disciples know what's best for the consumers. THERE IS NO TRAP. People enjoy worshipping at the church of Bunnings. Just because the humanist doesn't, he thinks the people are duped and that is an insult to their intelligence. See, humanists really believe they are smarter than the average Joe.

'Many people find discussions about the meaning of life, politics, societies etc important. '
This amuses me greatly. I can see how it is entertaining, but to think its important is cringe worthy. As you said, it's a luxury of those with too much time on their hands.

'it is discussion around what those rules should be that determine the sorts of societies in which we live. '

Not at all. Western Society is run by commercial reality. People by their economic behaviour will always triumph over some navel gazing idealist 'opinion leader'.

I'm not looking for an enemy, or a conspiracy, I see corporations made up of individual people like you and me, I see humans happily plodding along, and I enjoy the show.

Same as it ever was.

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself-Well...How did I get here ?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this ?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile ?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house !
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife !
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was..

Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean !

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house ?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go ?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right ?...Am I wrong ?
And you may tell yourself
MY GOD !...WHAT HAVE I DONE ?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

With thanks to David Byrne.

Humanism is nothing more than a personal existential crisis projected onto the world.