BrainDrain, my next ones not a one worder either. Sorry about that.

- Personal responsibility tempered with compassion.

I think traditionally we have taken pride in standing on our own feet and in being there to give a hand when the chips are down.

We have had little sympathy for those who expect to be carried but we realise that sometimes crap happens and people need a hand.

Pretty much impossible to legistlate or test for but worth to aspiring to. Some crossover with the idea of a fair go.

R0bert

This is a joke right?

I clicked on this article thinking it was going to be about societies where religion dominates politics, yet the writer is talking about Australia, and the Christian west?

Are Muslims not even people?

Here we have Christian societies, with the most radical types being found in the U.S, who want Creationism taught in schools and abortions made illegal.

Very occasionally, repeat, very occasionally, there is a lone lunatic who murders an abortion doctor in the south. The entire community disowns him rather than calls him a martyr, and that is the worst of it.

Contrast this with societies where being non-Muslim is illegal, i.e, Saudi Arabia, and where churches don't exist, i.e, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, U.A.E, to name a few.

These societies are religious theocracies, where minority Christians have been run out of their own nations by Islamists who subject them to kidnappings, rapes, murders, all with government approval or at least ignorance, and all documented by human rights groups.

Muslim societies dominate their citizens lives from cradle to the grave, just like in Orwell's 1984.

That's right, information witheld (they are told democracy is evil), a constant enemy (the evil west, who is blamed for all their failures - such as rampant corruption, a cherished cultural value of the non-west) and an entire morality-immorality aspect to believers as opposed to non-believers (how Muslims consider infidels kaffir,a derogatory term used to describe inferirors, as well as the entire dhimmitude - master/ slave relationship with non-Muslims).

Surely, if one was going to write an article about religion in politics, one can't look past the middle-east?

Good gried. Some westerners world views really extend no further than Hollywood do they?

Sorry, wrong post.

This was meant to be posted under Noel Preston's "The troublesome Mix: Religion and Politics".

Now that I'm here, I have a few of my own Australian values, which really are western values, to include:

1. Loyalty to the constitution, not in an Australia sense, but rather to democracy, freedom of speech, tolerance, all of which grossly lack in our arrivals from non-western cultures, particularly Muslims.

2. Secularism, again, it's Muslims here that fail this test. That they subscribe to a belief that Sharia (an utterly barbaric, disgusting law code) must reign supreme will lead to a clash when there are more of them, just like what happened in Kosovo.

3. Tolerance, although written above, this needs it's own post. Tolerance is our main value, although leftists have gotten it all confused, as they think we should tolerate Muslim Nazi's, who want to overthrow the west and put a caliphate in it's place.

It ain't going to happen, by the way, but even if there were only Muslim radicals on the planet, eventually women would march for their rights just like they did in the west.

This is because ALL humans desire freedom, and given the west is the freest of all, it should impose such values, by whatever force is necessary, on all of humankind.

To force intolerant redneck cultures to tolerate women being educated, to not hunt ethnic minorities for sport, shouldn't need to be forced on anyone, although sadly, such values we hold dear are only shared by about 10% of the planet.

4. Military service, as living among the barbarians in this region, we must protect our superior values of tolerance, equality, from those who would enslave us because we aren't of their tribe.

Good day all.

G'Day benjamin,

Anyone can make a mistake or be mistaken. I've made the same one you have (misposting). In some (very few) aspects we are alike. In some important ones we are diametrically opposed.

I concede you have some similar desires to my own, to see Australia become a peaceful nation in a peaceful world. We approach that goal from incompatible directions and thus our goals, while seeming identical, cannot be mutually achieved. That is a pity.

Please - look up the term 'Confirmation Bias' and see if you can figure out what it means for you and for mankind, given the current level of misunderstanding between various groups of the human race ( the only race that genetically exists in humans).

Tolerance
c.1412, "endurance, fortitude" from O.Fr. tolerance (14c.), from L. tolerantia "endurance," from tolerans, "to bear, endure". Of authorities, in the sense of "permissive," 1539; of individuals, with the sense of "free from bigotry or severity," 1765. Meaning "allowable amount of variation" from 1868; Tolerant is recorded from 1784.

The entymology shows how we come to misunderstand the word today. It was first used in the sense of how much one could endure and equated with Strength. (my preference) Over 100 years later Authorities abused the word to mean what they would 'permit' (your preference). A more moderated approach meaning 'free from bigotry or severity' (on others) arose 2 centuries later.

Today you use it to engender intolerance of those you do not truly 'know' and who you equate with the OBVIOUS ill's within their society's. (Because they live in that society you feel they must all agree with the negative aspects of their society). Muslim bigots think you're evil because your society allows over-consumption of Alcohol which destroys your ability to know right from wrong).

I use tolerance in the sense Jesus and Ghandi expressed it. Being tolerant and doing good only to those you agree with is of NO value. You must do good (tolerate) to those who disagree with you to the extent they would kill you.

Tolerate does NOT equate with convert over to.

R0bert,
Responsibility (corporate, political and personal) is a superb Aussie Value. It definitely goes in!

Compassion is a True Value also.

Compassion, like tolerance, is not universally accpted by man in his present level of understanding (taken as a whole - some get it, some don't)

There are some (as seen elsewhere in OLO) who are very afraid of tolerance and compassion because they KNOW they do not all possess it, and are utterly afraid of what will happen to them if we 'force' tolerance and compassion into Australia (or wherever).

Fear and Force are indistinguishable - you can't have one without the other. (Force as in make, compel, not as in Force of Gravity or electrical force) Also indistinguishable are bigotry and fear, which is why bigots always want to use force or are afraid of being forced into something they hate. Bigots fail to understand how avoiding force could ever succeed over actual force of their enemy's.

They are incapable of understanding that avoidance of force is STRENGTH (tolerance in the initial sense) and believe instead it to be cowardice, appeasement and surrender as these are the only values they can possibly see.

I am in no Utopia of my own making. I well understand the murderous hateful intent of some who, on the surface, appear vastly different to myself and my beliefs. I am perfectly capable of being killed, like a few already have been, by a fanatic's bomb who hates me because he believes i am ungodly and he cannot tolerate anyone who does not think just like himself or supports, even only by not speaking out against, a society bent on his own society's destruction.

In spite of that tolerance, compassion and RESPECT for all people's are human values that i want instilled in EVERY Australian and enshrined in writing in my country's political and legal and educational and immigrational systems. Want but cannot Force! We can only understand and change one by one.

Current preferred list of Aussie Values stands at:

Courage, Strength, Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility, Fairness, Compassion, Equality, Mateship of the Anzac type, Allegiance to the sustenance and improvement of the Australian Nation. (Patriotism is a poor substitute for this. **My Country, Right or Wrong! When we are Wrong we should Admit It! Learn from our mistakes and make correction).

What, if anything, is missing from this list? or have we found consensus in the above?

Aspiration to the above as opposed to complete and enforced observance of, is acknowledged and will be incorporated into any statement of values.

I do not consider (although personally adopt) English as being an Australian 'Value'. I believe is has 'some considerable value' but is not what makes an Australian and so should not be given the honour of being described as A Value we should all aspire towards as those above are. It might be an English Value, (It isn't really a value here - it is an adopted 'custom', one that has undergone continuous change throughout centuries)it does not have to be an Australian one.

Anyone who wants to deprive themselves of the ability to communicate fully with fellow Australians by chosing not to learn English, in my opinion, only hurts themselves by living here. I am willing to tolerate them and not force them into doing so. I see no problem with enCouraging all Australians to speak in a common language and English (Aussie, not US) seems a logical choice. Just as the (Australian) Pound would have been the logical choice for a national currency 40 years ago, and God Save the Queen the National Anthem.

** War should be limited to last resort and only when our borders are about to be breached. Our troops should only be posted in other countries as peacekeepers under the UN control since we are signatories to the UN, or to help defend the country of an invaded ally we would rely upon to do the same for us. We have a 'Defence' force not an Invasive one.