Good heavens. I really hope that Australia becomes nothing like America in it's flag waving patriotism.

Australian Patrotism is subtle, and its history is there, but unlike America, not in your face. Australia does, have great outpourings on patriotism - ANZAC day and Australia day immediately come to mind. Stories of ANZAC are worth telling and listening to and becoming more popular. The tourism to Gallipoli has never been bigger.

Steve M, you mentioned Eureka Stockade - what about Vinegar Hill during the Rum Rebellion. Only Australia could have a Rebellion named after an intoxicating drink :)

Narcissist,

For heavens sake get your facts right. The Vinegar Hill rising, when the NSW Corps saw off the convict rebels in about 15 minutes, occurred in March 1804. The Rum Rebellion, when Governor Bligh was arrested by the Corps in a bloodless coup (the only resistance was from Mary Putnam, Bligh's daughter, and that was with her parasol), occurred on Anniversary Day, the 25th January, 1808.

It is obvious that we need an upgrade in the teaching of our very colorful history. Most of these interesting events are not taught as they should be, presumably as they are considered too threatening to authority. I can only hope that any such upgrade will include Captain De Groot, who totally humiliated Premier Jack Lang when De Groot opened the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Leigh, you're a proven malicious liar, so please don’t try con us into thinking your Israeli/Hezbollah like disregard for civilians is Australian.

Let's use your attitude for conflict resolution in your backyard.

Let’s say you have really pissed your neighbour off. He has been giving you the shieets for years but he usually settles down after the demons come round and give you all the drum and threaten to shop you all.

One day you two have a bit go over some of his garden gnomes that irritate you. There is a scuffle and you “imprison” one of his favourite garden gnomes that he had picked up to threaten you with. That night he comes around with his army of mates to liberate his gnomes. First he blows up your garden shed. This “ accidentally” kills your granny and two of your kids and totally ruins your backyard. The bombing also kills a few dozen of your close neighbours.

Some of your mates were around for Latte and they escape. Your neighbour then gets his mates to bomb the neighbourhood to flush them out.

Then a bunch of his” platoon” come and terrorise the neighbourhood to soften you a little more.

Now, some of the soldiers aren’t as moral as the others so they take it turns raping your spouse (according to Boaz that’s an unavoidable part of conflict and offhandedly waves aside the USA marines raping of a young girl as part of conflict ).

You go into hiding so they keep bombing in the hope that they will get you. The media come and start to televise the events. They blow them up so their mates in the wider community don’t hear about it.

They then get their mates in the media to blame you for taking your neighbours gnomes and being a pest for the last few years.

In this situation, from afar you, Leigh, you are supporting your idiot neighbour’s way of resolving a conflict. Of course, if your neighbour was Muslim, you’d reject the behaviour.

The Australian coat of arms has message opposite to Leigh's.

Narc

Of course you are correct, but the term Rum Rebellion was first used about 50 years later by a Quaker who blamed the demon drink for all the evils of the world. It was really a fight between Govt. and business, guess what business won. (same thing today).

Vinegar Hill was about oppressed Irish Convicts who were the first reviled minority in Australia (different ethnic group today).

A Patriot has totally different meaning in America, the "insurgents" fighting the British Govt. called themselves the Patriots others called them traitors. (same today)

As an aside America has a Patriot Act. A freind of mine has had her payment on Mastercard "intercepted" by homeland security (she works as a commissioned artist and lives on the card between cheques) they have held the payment for 14 days now and there is no mechanism to get the money, it is perfectly legal !!

Australia has nothing to learn from America and their Patriots.

plirdsuss,
Oh so we have a public servant libararian who dots eyes and crosses teas and looks up the calandar and watches the clock to the precise second.
Dates don't have to be right, maybe only to the paranoid.
Dates have nutrients like iron and potassium but real history has meaning about human beings not dates.
History is being changed by John Howard that all history is about dates.
Well munch on a date palm.
Real history is His Story, the story of man and woman on Earth and the passion and compassion and the blood and guts of those events.
Dates, Bah Humbug. Oh dear what date did Scrooge say that. It is so important.
Remember Henry Ford said "History is Bunk". It is bunk when all it is, is dates.

I think the article makes a good point, but does not go far enough. The cultural cringe that Australia exhibits is bizzarre. It seems that we are a nation of people who only define ourselves as Australian because we happen to find ourselves here. Everyone seems to yearn to be someone else and is always happy to ditch their allegience to Australia whenever convenient. Groups call themselves "Italian-Australians", "Greek-Australians", "Asian-Australians", etc.

While my parents were born overseas, I was born in Australia and call myself an Australian, and my parents, who became citizens of this country, also call themselves Australian. We are proud of this country, what it has achieved, and what it has allowed us, as individuals and as a family, to achieve. It annoys me when so-called Australians ask me where I'm from, and when I answer "Australia", they say, "No, where are you from originally?"

Multiculturalism is a structure used by Anglo-Australians and by certain self appointed ethnic "leaders" to create and foster an underclass of "ethnic Australians", which make them feel better about themselves. As economic distinctions have largely fallen away, multiculturalism has allowed certain segments of the community to institute a class system which is much more palatable, yet just as insidious. Multiculuralism enforces stereotypes, fuels false controversy and has fostered an entire industry of people who simultaneously foster an underclass while claiming to defend the underclass. The sooner we as a nation rid ourselves of multiculturalism and of the cultural cringe, the sooner we can get on with building a better and more cohesive society.