Conform to the mainstream - best suggestion yet.

Then we could all conform to the mainstream every time it changed its mind about what we're supposed to be conforming to.

It would require constant opinion polling to determine what the mainstream is currently conforming to, but we've got that pretty well covered already.

Apparently Australians are far more concerned about our lap dog attitude to the US and participation in Iraq than they are with either terrorism or Muslim extremism. Huge majorities are concerned about climate change and want us to sign Kyoto. Few want a nucular power station in their neighbourhood.

Yep, I'll conform to the mainstream any day. The real mainstream, not the one the media and politicians fondly imagine.

Rob51...,
Apologies, i got the wrong 'feeling' from your Scot and Irish quote originally. Getting the topic back on thread, I am in complete agreement about the difficulty of ensuring 'conformity' with the set of values I am asking Australians to put forth as the ones they wish to confirm as being uniquely representative of a 'True' Australian or for 'all' Australians. (I recognise the difficulty of ever locating such a Magnificent Beast in this continent).

If i wanted negativity i would have sought the Opinion of my Ancient Aunt, she is capable of nagging God and telling Him all his faults and why his dumb ideas can't possibly work.

Instead I came to this place of intelligent people seeking positive suggestions. At least more positive and better ones than our current under-performing crop of Politicians are capable of giving us leadership in.

Some here choose to denigrate other's rather than inspire to great visionary heights, something they share with today's leaders. Frankly I'm sick of it and want to do something better.

Anyone else besides the one or two who have been able to make positive suggestions able to contribute something?

Australia's Values should be: Honesty, Respect, Courage, Strength ( through diversity?), Integrity, Responsibility, Fairness, Compassion, Equality, Mateship of the Anzac Spirit, Allegiance to the sustenance and improvement of the Australian Nation.

We are to refer to and aspire to these Values equally (as humanly possible)in all endeavours we put our Will towards.

This is not a 'test' by which we kick applicants out a-la-Big Brother or Idol.

Although our Justice System is designed to 'reflect' many, if not all these, I want them made CRYSTAL, not just 'implied'.

I want to try and define a simple, complete, written set of Aussie Values to teach our kids and new immigrants, as well as current occupants, by rote, if necessary, and make sure ALL Australians understand and even discuss them at party's instead of comparing house prices.

I do NOT want to indulge in the kind of populist vote-catching crap i get from party politicos.

Am I being clear here,now?

Hang on chainsmoker - you're not advocating actual democracy, are you?

BrainDrain - a commendable effort which I've no doubt is made with the very best of intentions. However, once you start prescribing aspirational values that ought to be made 'crystal clear', you've lost me. When you include "Mateship of the Anzac Spirit, Allegiance to the sustenance and improvement of the Australian Nation" in these compulsory values, then I'm not even quite sure what you're describing - probably because they're more correctly termed 'ideologies' than 'values'.

Compulsory ideologies - even if made more explicit - equate in my book to totalitarianism. While I'm none too sure about what constitutes Australian values, I'm pretty bloody sure that a strong aversion to totalitarianism would have to be included.

In my opinion, this manufactured 'debate' about our so-called national values functions as a smokescreen to obscure the real issues that emanate from the fact that we have no Bill of Rights in this country. Give me the latter anyday.

Fair Comments CJ.

Correct me if I'm wrong... but doesn't the US have a Bill of Rights?

You think their politics/society/intolerance/injustice/inequity is in any way superior (or inferior) to ours because of it??

I cannot see how exactly, myself.

I defined Mateship with the Anzacs to keep it separate from John Howard's recent association with that mainly 'Aussie' term and also to separate it from the Croneyism of people like Brian Burke in WA who called the politician he had basically 'bought' 'Mate' about 20 times in a five minute CCC secretly-taped phone call.

Mateship is about selfless sacrifice, not 'what's in it for me and my mates?' This may not be obvious to some who read Aussie Values for the first time and so the need for public discussion to keep clarifying the point that any Value is open to abuse and we all bear Responsibility (another Value) to keep telling each other the Whole Truth so we don't fall into the traps of the past.

I limited the Australian Nation the way I did to prevent the Value from being hijacked by any one group who might want to improve Australia their way and by kicking out anyone who does not measure up to THEIR standards as opposed to Aussie ones (Totalitarianism). It could have been replaced by the Value 'Loyalty' but i rejected that as Muslim extremists are no doubt also 'loyal' to their causes.

The difference between my intent and totalitariansim is: I seek to include all Australian's views 'in toto' in determining a set of values we can all look up to for guidance in, and measure the actions of, our daily lives instead of indoctrinating everyone and forcing them to believe in something that denies something within themselves. (other than mischief or evil). I seek agreement on something WE can IMpel ourselves towards, not something somone ELSE COMpels us all to adopt.

Do you support this plan? Or will you find fault with it in order to prevent it coming into reality??

The government's smokescreen should be denounced far more for what it is.

The best Australian value that we have is encapsulated within the coat of arms with a Kangaroo on one side and an Emu on the other. Since neither of these animals can take a step backwards there is an inherent value enshrined within the symbolism.

Unfortunately there is a down side to this Aussie value - a Prime Minister who wants to "stay the course" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then again we have another Australian icon which is called "Bush bashing" which of course refers to our inability to stay out of our own back yard and which requires that we go in four wheel drives tearing up the country.

Of course there is a positive side to this activity these days when "Bush bashing" has come to mean something completely different, namely meting out a good belting to our friend and neighbour George W.

Garpet1,
Well put!

I do think that if we ever end up in a blind alley with only one way out it is a good idea to retrace your steps back to the point where better options are able to be taken for your long term survival and future direction.

The biggest problem I see with our current leader is that he 'leads' while always looking backwards to 'better' times, keeping his eyes firmly on the Monarchy during the Republic issue. Depends upon maintaining coal's prime century-long position as an energy source by putting more into geosequestration research than into renewable energy development. When a chance for new ideas to supply our future energy needs presents itself he prefers a 50 year old technology in favour of developing ideas better suited to Australia's Unique geographic position. Fines people for bringing electric powered cars into the country that threaten the Oil Company's monopoly on transport. Ties us into backwards thinking Good-vs-Evil politics of GW Bush instead of leading us towards a safer future through an independent minded ability to choose who to take sides with in, or better yet to refuse to fall into the Bush trap of, 'the War on Terror'. Any War IS terror, ask anyone who has been on the front line of one.

I hope that Australia never has to face the terror of a war on our soil and believe if it should ever happen we should be strong enough to do what is right and defend the values I am attmpting to define and raise support of here.

I hope that by uniting under these values, by expressing them in all areas of our lives as individuals and as a nation we can then develop ways to make them universal in all cultures and export them around the world and become a world leader in Peace.

It is a Dream now, if enough people share it, it will become reality.

Can you support it or will you be one of the ones pulling it down?

All on-thread input welcomed.