Oh, that Australia could have the open free press and the quality investigative journalists of the US coupled with America's far more relaxed laws of libel and slander where a public official that puts himself on a pedestal is considered to have put himself up as a target for disparaging remarks and strong retaliatory arguments.

If Australia was a much more open society we would have far fewer of the Sydney RTA debacles and far more insight into the operations of our governments.

Nice piece Mr Bozic, but I predict it will fall - in both its message and its analysis - on deaf ears.

Isn't it so much more comforting to regurgitate someone else's thoughts, rather than have to think for yourself.

It is one of the consequences of the "news as entertainment" culture. We first lost the need, then the will, to concentrate. Having lost this ability, we then become attracted to the form, rather than the substance, of news and information.

With simplification comes loss of detail. With grandstanding on a catchphrase comes the destruction of shade, of nuance, and in its place we are left with a black-and-white bigotry based on... what? National Nine News?

Many of the questions on this forum suffer this treatment.

You're either with us or agin' us. If you're agin' us you're a dill. If you're with us you're smart.

Very few submissions - and I happily include myself in this number - take the trouble to comprehend the question, instead just roll ahead with a pat phrase they think they heard on Lateline, or a cute quote from wikipedia.

As Victor Frankl said "The last of the human freedoms [is] to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way".

I think we are well down the road to giving away that freedom.

Sex can count....

Well said Pericles

I've also noticed that the well thought out posts of others are generally disregarded by a blogmeister/meistress while he/she cobbles together his/her own profound contribution.

Regarding the US, I have fond memories off it as a place to live and nurture one's (oldest) profession. Two years in Fort Hood Texas and 3 months in Washington DC I luxuriated.

Its without doubt the center of the West in terms of power, thought and culture, if not taste (not).

I've found in the US and with visiting American gals in Australia that they're more assertive and sexually demanding than their Australian sisters.

In Texas as a 13 year old I was considered some sort of "British" sex object by 12 yo gals. Then, I just didn't know how to respond. American woman start way too young.

Now I'm not saying that sexual profiling defines a nation or its history completely, but its something all serious (personal) gigolos (PGs) should consider.

The weltschauung of the dedicated gigolo can indeed change the course of history.

One could put up an argument that Australia's own socio-sexual sophistication was "boosted" (so to speak) by Ameican serviceman, "overhere, oversexed and over her" in World War Two.

It wasn't only that Americans were paid more and better uniformed than their Australian comrades its just the these Yanks were able to hone their techniques far younger than their Australian brothers. They used charm rather than just "You wanna?"

Several books have been written on this subject but my profession demands more government funding.

Bruce wrote: Oh, that Australia could have the open free press and the quality investigative journalists of the US coupled with America's far more relaxed laws of libel and slander where a public official that puts himself on a pedestal is considered to have put himself up as a target for disparaging remarks and strong retaliatory arguments.

I lived in the USA for 3 1/2 years until a year ago, and in that time did not see any of the free press, open investigative journalism that was previously there. Since 9/11, journalism became very tame and its only in the last few months that they are once again, writing truth.
Any comment which appeared to be against the President was shouted down - shouting being the operative for many of the current affairs shows, the presenter/interviewers being so incredibly right wing, that any dissenting argument would be thown out. The current affairs shows I viewed were televised all over the country, not just in small states.

To get hold of good interviews and news, I had to source the Internet. Much of the news on American television is diluted and biased. A few good newspapers have hung in there with their reporting. How long ago did you live there Bruce? I fear that times have sorely changed.

I missed the good journalism and interviews in Australia, only to find that the same thing has happened here, weak, lacking in depth etc. The laws of libel and slander do mean that one can be publicly decried for deeds, and the main attacks were on those who did not agree with the Government.

It is so gratifying to see that a journalist as young as Mal Bozic has the wisdom to perceive the fundamental contradictions in the way that trendy lefties think. The inner city urban elites, desperate to display their social separation from the Great Unwashed, have adopted the pose of the eternal naysayers. They can always be relied upon to go into bat for any cause which is contrary to contemporary opinion just to prove that they are different.

This quest to display their presumed intellectual and moral superiority is rather amusing, coming from a caste of people who also unblinkingly maintain that everybody is equal. Their attitude is an amusing combination of social climbing superiority mixed with socialist Egalitarianism.

Unfortunately, too many of these witless people are prominent in the media and they therefore have the means to peddle their nonsense to our youngest generation. Young adults like Mahatma Sitting Duck or Scooper 9, who are desperate to display find a positive adult image for themselves, seize upon the trendy lefty slogans that are held up to them as the epitome of intellectual thought. They do this in the same way that pimply adolescent boys seize upon cigarettes as a means of displaying grown up masculinity.

The degree to which young people through “youth culture”are daily bombarded with anti western values can be appreciated by simply reading any youth oriented magazine available in any newsagent. These magazines consistently print articles conforming to the left wing Party line that emphasise anti establishment views, resentment against authority and a pro illegal drug agenda.

One recent copy of rock music magazine “REVOLVER” had a feature entitled “How a Cool Dude Knows When George Bush Is Lying to You.” The sort of body pierced, tattood, gun totin' "musicians" featured in this particular magazine seems to indicate that it is a magazine not directed towards young people who might be considered sophisticated.

But those young people do have a crying need to display that they are smart and sophisticated, and they are desperate for guidance from anyone who will show them how to be "cool."

Universities and coffee bars are always hotheads of dissent and limp leftie feelings. Chants for legalised dope and enforced unionism abound. Revolution fills the air and anti-establishment feeling pervades the atmosphere like cigarette smoke used to do in working mens clubs. It is always easier and cheaper to criticise the bloke in the Ferrari than to afford a Ferrari.

Mark is correct comparing Aus and USA, grass roots involvement in civic affairs is more common and encouraged in USA than Australia.

I wonder how many political decisions of the alternative superpower of the post WWII period were ever tested with the Soviet Public?

The challenge with contemporary society is not simply to view USA with objectivity but to find the balance when USA remains the only superpower.

The young will always rant and rave about the absolute beastliness of contemporary systems of civic and social order. It is because they do not understand how those systems function and how they need to function within those systems. The young expect the world to revolve around them and their every whim, just like their mothers did until recently.

Oh and questions of a free press – any nation which allows the unfettered receipt of ex-national internet news site can claim “a free press”, regardless of how its local news media might seem to appear “tame”. USA does not bar any off-shore news sites or newspapers. Australia does not bar any offshore news sites of newspapers. China does – if anyone wants to talk about freedom of the press – the current standard to measure against is “What happens here versus what happens in China or North Korea” (or USSR or Soviet block in years gone by).

The young will always revolt - as was (sort of) said -
a 20 year old who is not a socialist has not developed a sense of empathy and a 25 year old who is not conservative has not developed an intellect.

Having sympathy for the starving of Africa is one thing, having respect for the foremost supplier of aid to those hungry deserves greater consideration

Col and Redneck

Well said.

Plantagenet

Yes ,if the US was not in the Middle East securing the World's oil supplies we would be in a greater mess.The US is far from perfect but who would do a better job?I just hope that they can elect a more credible leader at their next elections.

Thank you COl for your insightful response to my post. Where can i learn to speak more proper good?

Aaron

Redneck since when was it anti western values to have left leaning politics?. Bruce the US media is heavily censored and partisan, redneck neck you can say what you like about Lateline or the 7.30 Report but I would rather watch them then Today Tonight or A Current Affair. The almost constant whining about the ABC is because when your on the extreme right everything else looks like lefty plo

Spot on Kenny, people like Redneck are so far to the right that everything looks like left to them.

I have problems with people who view anything humanitarian as left-wing. Malcolm Fraser works hard on humanitarian causes - is he left wing?

Back to the thread, I find Bozic's article an insult to my intelligence. No I do not think ALL Americans are bozos like Bush. Nor do many Australians. And as per article in Washington Post would attest many Americans are indeed concerned about Bush.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901223.html

Bozic - we are not as narrow minded as you seem to think.

Yeah Mal, not all Americans are bad. The nice ones who don't vote Republican are just fine.
Just like here in Australia where the only losers are the stupid majority who keep electing John Howard.
Simple logic really.

t.u.s

Its very easy to project negativity onto other governments, in this case American Capitalisim but infact our own government is supporting this insanity. Infact the Australian government may even enjoy this popluar American critique, as a great diversion upon their own actions, inorder that they are held in a better light. Once again perhaps we have to look locally at our won faults before projection non locally. DONT TAKE THE BATE.

I have problems, Mr Scout, with people presenting their left wing arguments dressed up in moral purity. Whenever somebody claims the high moral ground, it is usually because they can not present a reasoned argument to support their viewpoint. They then have to resort to using an argument which presupposes superior moral values in order to keep pushing the left wing party line.

As a redneck and a hunter, I know when my quarry is bleeding. And I know that when a trendy lefty tries putting on morally superior airs, that he or she is unable to support their argument using logic.

The funniest thing about people who try this approach is that they have to adopt the role of moral puritans, which is a role which is not only unattractive, it contradicts the very anti establishment ethos of the social progressives. Intellectuals have traditionally poked fun at finger waggers, and when intellectuals adopt the role of finger waggers themselves, they have obviously lost the plot.

Even better, pretending to be a Paragons of Virtue tends to leave the social regressives wide open to attack. They have to pretend that they are morally above reproach themselves, all the time, and that is a pose which is difficult to maintain. Especially when one of their fave causes is the promotion of illegal drug abuse.

So what we get are a bunch of Elmer Gantry's or Jimmie Swaggart's pretending to be oh, so morally pure, while at the same time merrily sinning away themselves and hoping that nobody will notice.

I just love popping their inflated ego's with my pen.

Has it ever occured to you that "causes" such as Multiculturalism are now Conservative dogma? And you are the Conservative who is trying to prop up a failed status quo ante while right wing people are the new revolutionaries and social progressives?

Red neck - Moral indignation is 2 per cent moral and 48 per cent indignation. The other half is made up of feeling superior and giving yourself a soapbox to bleat from. The anti-americanists fit nicely into this category.

Your comments about the finger waggers feeling morally superior is a good one.

I am not a big fan of George Bush, (he is a bit too folksy for me), but when you see actors and entertainers denigrating him for being a recovering alcoholic - when half of them are recovering and relapsing drug addicts, the hypocrisy of their indignation is beyond reproach.

Not that it is only a feature of the so called Left. Former MP Ross Cameron was a bit of a morals crusader only to be found out for adultery. It is just that the rabid anti-americanists get more media attention for it and seem to be more vocal in their pursuits. More time to be exposed for the non-thinking dills they are I suppose.

t.u.s

Redneck, tend to agree with you on the hypocrisy of a number of moral crusaders (on all sides), although it seems a little strange to me to include swaggart in a rant about the intellectual left, since he is neither intellectual or left. It would probably give even you a sore neck trying to look that far to the right.

anyway, I tend to agree with some of the points in this article, even if only to lament that the kind of 'pop anti-Americanism' gives commentators an easy opportunity to lump valid concerns and criticism in with the more idiotic kind as a way to discredit it. In the same way automatically dismissing any criticism is equally idiotic. It would probably better to say that extreme and exclusive positions on either side are counterproductive to any serious political discussion.

in fact I find most of the celebrity commentary acutely embarrassing, with the possible exception of a number of musicians who deliver their opinion within their music, such as Dylan, Neil young, the dead Kennedy’s and the clash. Bono just sh+ts me, but then I never liked u2 anyway.

The one thing I particularly admire about America is the robustness of the opposition, now im aware that at a federal level the dems are about as useless as labour is here, I’m referring to the level of independence and autonomy that the states, cities and even local councils enjoy. Contrary to our councils, who rarely extend themselves beyond rubbish collection, American councils appear to be the real first level of involvement in the political process, a situation that certainly appears to be more democratic than our current system, one of the benefits of the strong state rights built into their constitution.

the other good point in this article is that america's national broardcaster is a forum for very thorough critical analysis of the government, often devestatingly so, though rarelly in a way that resorts to easy biases or partisan positions

It is said that America is a 50-50-50 society: 50% republican, 50% democrat, and 50% who just don't care enough to vote.

First to Mr The Usual Suspect. I gave you a kick on the Sea of Sadness" topic because I got your name mixed up with somebody else who has a similar funny name. Whoops. Sorry about that.

To INEB. I used Jimmy Swaggard, my dear INEB, because regardless of political, social or religious conviction, people who preach moral absolutes all have fundamentally the same mental disorder. Psychologists used to call such people “Absolutist Personalities, although what the contemporary description on the DSV IV is I do not know.

Such personalities have characteristics displaying primarily a total lack of understanding moral ambiguities or moral priorities. In other words, the moral world is entirely black and white, there are no shades of grey. This human condition is a fascinating one and one which manifests itself among an amazing spectrum of political, religious and social views. It is found among fundamentalist Muslims, Christians, and just about every other religion on Earth including Environmentalism. It is found among the extreme left and the extreme right. Among Vegans and Animal Liberationists. Among Right to Lifers and Gun Nuts. One can not understand the litany of military catastrophes suffered by the British Army for 200 years unless the character defects of Absolutist Personality, British Army Generals is studied and appreciated.

Central to Absolutist Mindset is that they not only reject unpalatable truths, but even the faintest suggestion of the barest possibility of the most tangential reference to an unacceptable fact. Better that armies should perish or civilisations should fall than for them to consider that their sacred ideals should be found wanting.

I think that Kenny, Ant, Scooper9 and Mahatma Sitting Duck are four of the poor buggers.

Pericles alluded to it:

I dont really know what Mal expects: at the end of the day after being fed steady diet of limited journalism and freeze dried news the preponderance of witty sloganism is a predictable side effect.

And as Mal reported when he pointed out the limitations to the slogan all he got was a "so what?" - well......so what. The world is not populated with political scientists - most people are to busy getting on with it to care; or when they do they only have time to respond in the way Mal describes on the cafe wall.

If nothing else in your face assertions - whether right or wrong - at least give food for thought; In fact it gave rise to Mals article and a number of responses in these pages and he ought to give thanks for that.

When presented with a one dimensional image uncomplicated, cropped and edited for easy consumption it is no surpise pop culture develops stereotypes that might be considered uninformed and limited.

In many ways GW set himself up for criticism with his the stereotypes of his own making - his with us or agianst rhetoric when it came to Iraq and the broad Wild Wild Wet approach he took to international policing.

However it is somewhat arrogant to tag these views as masquerading as political thought. In the context of a large community it is a valid as any other type of comment.

There is no doubt our society is in serious decline and most would agree with David ,Redneck and myself that the terrorism is happening on a daily basis in our suburbs.No matter how they massage the statistics,crime in NSW is increasing.Crime is part of our terrorism problem.It is all part of the agenda to divide and destroy the present status quo.

If this is not the case ,why do certain groups live in denial and not admit or condemn this suruptitious undermining of our society?

Why?Because privately they condone it.

"Crime is part of our terrorism problem"

Er. Right.

So all societies, everywhere, at every time, clearly had a terrorist problem?

While having your purse stolen is clearly an unacceptable crime, not to mention highly annoying and frustrating, I think it a gross misrepresentation to say that such occurences should be grouped with flying planes into buildings or activating car bombs.

Anyway, I think this article gets it wrong that all young/innercity/lefty/educated people are anti-US. I would suggest that most people in this demographic (who are apparently always trying to take over the world, if you listen to these forums) are quite capable of distinguishing between disapproving of US Government actions and the personal qualities of President Bush, and disapproving of the average American person.

That said, people do stereotype. So long as you recognise that it is in fact a stereotype and that not everyone fits that image, then its not a problem.

Again I despair: Bozic argues that knee jerk resposnes to stereotypes fails to contribute anything of value to the politcal debate.

Yet arjay et al see another conspiracy where apparently dissident thinkers are trying to undermine "our society". And yet again the notion of terorrists gets inserted into the thread.

Mal could have used an example of being affronted by a brash assumption in another business house that lambasted stereotypes of leftist thinkers - possibly equally uninformed and stereotypical - ie latte drinking, chardonnay swilling elites.

So what might that suggest? Just the same thing. Far too many people from all segments of the politcal spectrum hold prejudicial and preconceived ideas with their genesis being in a relatively homogenous humdrum media.

SO where is the conspiracy? and so what if there are seditious groups out there? that is the way things are - why are there so many so terrified that any statement with a political reference becomes a springboard for nonsense about our bloody way of life and the attendant threats - it is the paranoid resposnes to the allusion of a threat that poses the biggest danger.

I like our way of life - it is dynamic, evolving and challenging: Opponents to it offer me no threat as I am confident we can sustain ourselves in the face of these "threats" ( such as they are) but we can do it with out running around saying the sky is falling

"Crime is part of our terrorism problem"

I think that is, in fact, the wrong way around.

It should read
Terrorism is part of the crime problem.

Terrorism is, for those with criminal intent, nothing more than an excuse to pursue their individual agendas regardless or their responsibility to other people.

Don't accept that any terrorist has some ordained right to blow up someone else - or as those pigs in Indonesia did, behead schoolgirls. Accept that when he tries - he is attempting murderer and treat him as such - the sooner we bring back with the death penalty for such heinous crimes, the sooner we will resolve the problem - oh and for all the limpwristed "death penalty don't work" advocates - it will sure stop that one terrorist - and news these days means his "martyrdom" will soon be forgotten.

Baeder Meinhoff and the Red Brigades were bunches of bankrobbers, kidnappers and murderers who also suffered from political delusions - but before the delusions of revolution set in they were just common criminals.

For those who allude to conspiracy theories in my seeing terrorism and certain aspects of crime in our society being linked ,let's do a quick analysis.Tim Priest who Mike Carlton and many others branded as a racist ratbag has been proven right.The rise of Middle Eastern crime on NSW has had enormous negative impact on our society.The sheer aggression and violence of this criminal culture has seen it overpower the Chinese and Vietnamese drug barons in but a few years.

While the Middle Eastern culture is complex and varied,there are underlying religious attitudes that permeates all of their culture.
Males are superior and dominate over females and Muslims are superior to the infidels.They are allowed to lie and be two faced to the infidels since we are the enemy to be subjugated or destroyed.

If you don't believe it,just go to the south west of Sydney and experience the hate and bile.It is not the small 1% that many would have us believe.When 9/11 happened there were reports of many dancing in the streets in delight.I'm tired of hearing criminals of Middle Eastern appearence be described in our media.

The left are in denial since their weak attitudes have been the conduit for the disintergration of our society.They will defend the indefensible since their power base will be erroded if they acknowledge the truth.