Good article Clifton.

It’s a pity you guys missed a few waves. Appraising each other's clothes is not what surfers do. Surfers surf, they don't admire each other's fashion statements, whether it’s a flag or a Prada handbag.

There is something about this whole Australia day thing with BDO, fashion statements like: "kiss my flag or we'll kick you in the head". They remind me of a bunch of leather queens on crystal meth.

Mincey, pouty, cruel, cowardly, ugly Australians that have never been hungry in their lives, have not experienced oppression and would be shocked if the tables ever turned.

This is what this is about: Australia day celebrates some convict boats that sailed in, and men in bondage were forced to land in chains. They where whipped, beaten, and punished. Kiss my flag! Oh yeah, baby! Am I supposed to turned-on by sadism as well as bondage?

One of my ancestors was one of those convicts. He didn't feel proud, and I am sure he was not proud of where he was and why he was there. The whole thing was in misery, pain and injustice. It is different when the whole day dances on their graves.

Some call it invasion day. In a sense, it is.

I get concerned when a bunch of heterosexual yobbos behave like leather queens on crystal meth in such a self-righteous way. No offence to leather queens. Many are decent people, but you much admit, they look kinda funny.

I can see the yobbo's saying in Pythonesqe camp "ooo, I don't like the brown ones" *shudder*. Or Mel Brookes in the History of the World Part 2 in the Spanish Inquisition: "Ham sandwich's anyone? Ham Sandwich? No? Why not? You're not...Jewish are you? Oh good, glad you changed your mind".

Kiss the flag? Why don't you kiss my bum? At least I know where it's been.

O.k. - the term Australian Youth may be simplistic - (if by that you mean it covers a lot of territory, Frank ?) but then I think that what Australian Youth want is pretty simplistic too: a fair go.

The analogy about surfing is valid: there is no Government regulation to cover the unwritten "rules" of surfing but every grommet knows that if he sticks to those rules he'll be o.k. just as every surfer knows not to take a local's ride if he wants to get out of the carpark without getting beaten up.

So no, perhaps a lot of younger people don't know of the deeper implications and ramifications of the issues you mentioned, but the older generation of parents, teachers etc. have brought them up to expect that they have certain freedoms that are inalienable and that if they behave in one way they can expect certain outcomes and if they behave in another a different set of outcomes will ensue. They also expect they have the freedom of choice when they choose which behaviour they will follow. Simple.

It has been my experience (in other words I am well aware that I am incapable of making broad generalisations on behalf of "Australian Youth") that dissatisfaction with the system and society sets in when they come to realise that they have been conned. Life is just not fair or simplistic.

When government then steps in and seeks to regularise unfairness this dissatisfaction is underpinned by the fact that they are not being allowed to make their own choices. Or so they see it.

Yeah, I agree with the writer: Government should listen more to the next generation of voters - and politicians. Their ideas may seem reductionist but it is the current generation who inculcated them.

Well said CJ. I stuck on a thread for a time and had two such gremlins following me. I don't mind a bait and response but such posters don't think and regurgiate venom. I spit back at them but they don't read the words. Just use the endless "you said" garbage.

One such nasty threatened me online which scared me not at all. Had a two week holiday and returned to dropp in again. Only to find him waiting.

I must warn all here that one or two of these may appear today as they track my posts.

You'll know them when they arrive. I refer to one as my blue heeler. He'll reveal himself to you so don't respond.

WebDiary has an excellent, intelligent and well edited item on this topic. Much nicer ground to try for a discussion but even there some similar more educated types hover. They only allow 5 posts a day so I try and bait themn to my posts to exhaust their daily access.

Plus WD have some good thoughts re political change, Labor tendency but accepting of any reasonable view.

saintfletcher, written with style and just the right amount of satirical cynicism.

If some tatooed 22 year old skin head asked me to do that he'd soon discover the size and wieght of my right boot.

They don't know convict or Aboriginal history and don't care to find out.

SO Kiss my bum too

My convict ancestor never had time to sit around whining, he just got on with making a life ,a good life, for his family and with sheer bloody hard work was quite successful. I applaud him.
In the past there was no need for national fervour, apart from war years.
We were Australians, newcomers eventually blended in and made a corner of this country for themselves. Then came the apologists who hated this country and everything it stood for so they imported people from countries who had never lived in peace,didn't know how to live in peace and told us we were racists because we could not see why these new comers could not blend in like the rest.
These new comers, the muslims, wanted everything changed so they could live a separate existance to the rest of us.Nothing pleased them and they have made vague threats to get their own way.They have abused the freedom given to them and allowed their leaders to insult us.
Aboriginal activists have had their fingers in the pie , so now instead of a united ,tolerant ,free country as we were, we now have three distinct tribes, Aboriginals, Australians and Muslims. All of whom distrust each other and peace is no more.
No wonder our youth are perplexed.

"He saw the attacks on anyone who appeared to be of Middle-Eastern descent as an endorsement of John Howard’s view that we needed to protect Australia from the “threats” of multiculturalism, immigration and the global war on terror."

Yair, we get 'em here too. Dogwhistle, anyone?