Isnt that the image that John Howard has been promoting for the last 10 years with lots of help from his one-dimensional cronies at the IPA.
A systematic dumbing down of everything via the sophisticated use of "framing" button words and phrases which enclose the parameters of the "debate". Everything reduced to meaningless manipulative sound-bites and inoffensive blandness. All in the name of "freedom". No exercise of discriminative intelligence allowed.

See the work of George Lakoff at the Rockridge Institute.

Thanks. That's worthy of serious consideration I reckon.

You forgot "mums and dads" one of the most immature demeaning appellations from our PM the jingoistic jingler.

Enjoyed this piece Greg, particularly the observation regarding the social triangulation aspect of "mateship".

Indeed, how easily the term can be lifted by third-parties wishing to exploit others for whatever purpose, for better or for worse.

Prior to reading your piece, my preferred definition of a mate learnt during my teens and carried through until today was that a mate was "yourself in someone else's skin".

Perhaps it was just an overpaid copywriter who came up with that, or, some unknown academic however there's an unconditional steam within that defintion which could also be very easily abused.

To carry your analogy, perhaps the defintion of a mate being "yourself in someone else's skin" might touch on the super-ego of the infant.

Anyway Greggers, mate, enough of this poofter talk.
I've got hungry cattle to feed.

Simon Bedak
"Lorraine"
Wagga Wagga NSW 2650

simon wrote 'Anyway Greggers, mate, enough of this poofter talk.'

So, talking about ways to improve male bonding for a happier, selfsupportive, and street smart male population is 'pooftish'

simon...buddy, if you are married or in a relationship...if a major stress hits, your lady person now who is she going to turn to,... you?...yeah, maybe that what you will hear from her, but watch carefully and the usual is she will turn to her group of ' female-friends' she carefully keeps on the good side with her for all the support, advise and names of useful connections...if she comes to you it probably because you are needed to do something for her...so seems this then is women acting 'pooftish'

Well...I dont mind acting 'pooftish' if it will lead to what women have among themselves, happening with us men as men...I would like to think the proper word is being a 'brother', which is one good male soul recognizing the soul of another good male soul to link, bond and form a 'enlarging-supportive-family'...

Sam
Ps~I think a men obeying commands of women as a personal or group authority out of fear or benefit is what it really means to act 'pooftish'...

Dear Sam

Thank you for your kind instruction however if you re-read what I've written, possibly you'll come around to the idea that my final comment was entirely tounge-in-cheek and echoing the nature of Greg's fine observations.

Permit me to apologise to you Sam and anyone else overly keen to rip my head off if the humour was lost on you and if any offense was taken.

Yes, I am orgasmically happily married, thank you for asking, and spend every single working day with my wife/woman-person on our drought stricken farm where we deal with life and death problems each day.

And, before you ask, I also support Gay and Lesbian marriages whole-heartedly as well as the right to use the words "mate", "poofter" and "cattle" in the same ironic utterance.

I'll have the Bovine Republican Army after me next.

Simon Bedak
"Lorraine"
Wagga Wagga NSW 2650

Dear Simon,

Happy to hear of your good fortune with your partner.

Feel for you and your cattle, must be hard to see good animals suffer in this drought. Hope that good brothers hear and act to help ease the struggle through this period of unfavourable nature...I for one am not in the farming field and would not have a clue to assist on what would help on a day to day basis...

My comments were not intended to offend but focus on an area where we men of Australia are beginning to recognize this major deficiency in our lives. As one said to me that 'women just cannot fulfill our needs as men', he responded to our need for love of goodbrothers in our daily lives challenges, lot of us feel/made isolated in this area...one needs to take some time to reflect on this to truly understand what it means...

I agree with the article in that we men need our society of goodmen that helps us move from being boys to street smart men in action...

Sam

Every now and then I read something here on OLO that gives my view of the world a bit of a shake-up. In fact, that’s what I come here for – new and challenging angles on my world. This is one of those pieces.

It’s a very engaging idea: informal is associated with lack of responsibility, a formal view of ourselves and our country is accompanied by a sense of compassion and care for the world around us.

But perhaps this disregards the purposefulness in informality. It’s simply not possible to have the “How’s Karen?” kind of relationship with all one’s male acquaintances. “How’s the wife?” is indicative of an informal vernacular that keeps the particular relationship on track.

The richness of language (the fact that there are many different ways to say essentially the same thing) reveals a need to talk about things occasionally without being overly serious, so that we can simply keep going.

I guess the challenge is not to get rid of informality (“go Aussie go”), but to use it knowledgably. We need to be aware that when we name something with a diminutive we are actually making light of it, making serious things easier to think about. The answer is not to remove the informality, but to train ourselves to understand what we are doing when we use it.

Nevertheless thanks for this piece – it’s prompted me to think about how our language practices relate to our view of ourselves, both individually and as a nation.

Two days ago The Age published Mr. J.Howard’s speech on his vision of Australia-2020.

What really was to me interesting is PM’s mentioning of necessarily asserting the individual’s possibilities to “socially develop” on a very ground of employment opportunities.

Quite obvious practice of using males as originals for in-masse-reproduced adult-shop-dildos only, by growing the generations of feminized metrosexuals, predominantly unemployed, musicians, waiters and family service-oriented lackeys, while condemning de facto masculinity and healthy natural competitiveness on merits of personal skills and knowledge as a modernized “work choice” assumes no wage increases upon all term of employment at all, is a very realistic approach of conservationists-monarchists on a path to (check local media, please) a sure “part of Asia” on “Planet India” to the best.

You raise a lot of interesting issues Greg. For a while I wondered if what you were talking about was as much a “Western” (excuse the shorthand) phenomenon as a specifically Australian one. In most of these countries there is no clear demarcation between adolescence and manhood, which is the role of the elaborate initiation ceremony in for example traditional Aboriginal society, so I began looking for ways we do do things differently from other “Western” nations.

One comparison I would make with the United States, which supports your argument, is the immature way we engage in political debate – both in Parliament itself and in the media (and also very often in On Line Opinion) Yes the USA has its “Shock Jocks” – many of them far worse than ours – but something like the McNeil Lehrer News Hour (SBS 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Tuesday to Saturday) shows how there are people in the USA with quite opposing views who can sit down and discuss the issues so that after the interview one knows a lot more about the issue and is better able to make up one’s own mind. On the other hand in Australia Kerry O’Brien seems more interested in making every politician look stupid (yes I AM exaggerating, but only a little),

Ian Keese
Glenbrook NSW

Infantilism of the Australian-grown is, as mentioned in some above mentioned posts already, a logical outcome from colonial reality of political entity kept intensionally in a degenerative state of semi-colonial existence.

Interesting article Greg. Thanks.