Where has the author of this plagiarised, regurgiated parody been all these years ? Me thinks, he should have stayed with expatriate Germaine Greer - quintessent godmother of sybaritic goths; bogus anglophile who derides everything Oz, and despite her grass-roots, takes every opportunity to sledge her country of origin.

JS anti-howard invectives betrays his quasi-politico-academic stance. Outwardly professing a liberal bourgeois tongue-in-cheek persona, it's manifestly clear he's another red-necked Union pawn. Unlike Julia Gillard, JS preamble is parroting an awful stench of Labor dichonomy and marxist ideology.

Citing the late Charles Manning Clark as an authority on cultural attitudes, one would question why anybody would resurrect ghost's of yesterday's communist enigma ? Imminent historian : 6 volumes of the History of Australia, prolific subscriber to the National Archives. His legacy pales beside Dymphna Clark. Loyal, long suffering spouse who put up with his egotistical tantrums, pantomines and blusterings. No slouch, she was a fluent linguist in 7 languages, cogerent in 5. She often bore the brunt of his colic petulance and turpitude.

Interestingly, Prof Clark was awarded the ex Soviet Union's highest award, the Order of Lenin. It remains a conundrum why an unlikely Academic from Keating's euphemistic ' anus of the antipodes ' should merit such a prodigious award ? The fact he was lavishly feted in Moscow, and the Canberra Embassy sprouting his gong intensified speculation only the ' spooks/spies ' can conjure up ?

Paradoxically, his personal views often overlapped tenous research. His grand themes, ideas, frustrations interwoven into his monumental work. Govt grants notwithstanding.

Like Bradman, Horne and Packer, he never served in the Military, even though there was a War threatening Aust's shores.

In another flight of fancy, JS recalls Donald Horne's ' lucky country ' which still resonates on many dinky-di's. Quote: ' life is good, but the spark of creativity, imagination and flair has not burned brightly for a long time : gone is the sense of crafting a unique enviornment characterised bu cultural diversity, openess, inclusiveness ".

What pray can JWH do. Hold your hand. Lead you by the nose ? Would

Madarin spruiking Rudd and his backroom Union organised cabal lead you to the marijuana dreams of an Utopian Disneyland ?

The savvy electorate are quite capable of dodging Labor's hustlenomics, despite baby-boomers who contribute little Nationally, venture abroad - presumably to seek ' enlightenment ', and whinge on their return, Oz is on the slippery road to Damascus ?

Fittingly, we have grown of age. We are not the cowering, introverted culturalist of the 60-90's. Like the ugly duckling, we have emerged a dazzling cygnet - cygnus atratus. Bereft of all that superfluous baggage. NBT.

In hind-sight the LC was a satirical lampooning of our history and lay-back lifestyle. Describing the nation's good fortune, from gold rushes to economic booms; demography; cultural cringe etc, resolutely shackled to the past.

Whilst US, Germany and Japan etc were reaping the benefits of technological, economic, social and political innovations being ' clever '. Oz was simply lucky. Pure and simple.

Quixotically, most of the indulgent public were blissfully unaware of the nuanced biting wit. Horne, decry's : " I had to sit through the moast appalling rubbish as successive generations misapplied this phrase" His argument, as a nation, we were indeed lucky to develop at a time when we weren't being particularly clever.

There needed to be more innovation and proactive input. Making decisions in our national interest.These are issues (sic) debated by politicians and intellectuals today under the banner of a ' clever country '.

Prof Ian Lowe succintly adds : Aust has two options. Either we could continue our current economic strategies; this could be called ' steady-as-she-sinks ' approach, or " we could try seriously to become the clever country by investing in our future.

DH's words were meant as a ' wake up call 'but were widely interpreted as an affirmation of Oz way of life. Provocatively instead, it produced a greater relaxed approach and a ' she'll be right ' mentality.

Serendipity

Horne : ' after all, the alternative to being a clever country is to be a stupid country '. Has anything morphed in 40 years ?