http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PfDro1UGUo&feature=related

I came across an old clip from Barry McKenzie and it made me laugh. It spoke volumes about the value we once put on our nation. We had a straight talking way about us back then, migrants and first generation included. We didn’t see the offense in the parody as it was “just taking the piss” as they say in the colloquial. There were no pograms or civil disobedience in response to the Politically Incorrect parodies, we stated the obvious and moved on, probably to have the piss taken out of us from another, we were all mates, varied individuals and etnicities but collectively we thought we were all in the same boat.

OUG used a farewell line in a recent post that summed up Aussie humor…”See you later big ears”….This old Aussie slap on the way out reminded me of how we really did not take ourselves as seriously back then. But we did take the nation we lived in seriously, and guarded it from agricultural pests alien financial interests and political subversives.

Was that a positive or negative cultural trait
Is there such a thing as “Australian”?
What gives a nation its identity?
Is Australia still, football meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars?
Was it ever that way?
Are we a united people?
Are we diverse groups living under the same roof?
Is it hard being a migrant in Australia?
Is it hard being an old Aussie in this multicultural Australia?
Is it hard being an old Aussie in this evolving multi religious society?

sonofgloin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PfDro1UGUo&feature=related

I came across an old clip from Barry McKenzie and it made me laugh. It spoke volumes about the value we once put on our nation.

Sounds like a plan. A good one.

Yes sonofgloin

Back when we were know as THE LUCKY COUNTRY.

Now we are over governed, over coplienced, over regulated and heading south quickly.

Bring back the good old days.

rehctub,

"...THE LUCKY COUNTRY"

You mean this Lucky Country?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Country

"I've had to sit through the most appalling rubbish as successive generations misapplied this phrase."...so said Donald Horne.

The biggest change I've noticed is that more people nowadays are far more prudish, uptight and conservative than they were 30 or 40 years ago. A modern equivalent of a show like Number 96 most likely wouldn't go to air and the re make of Puberty Blues is actually pretty racy compared to most dramas on TV. I grew up near Bendigo and on trips down to Castlemaine or Daylesford in the 1970's it wasn't uncommon to see people walking about in various states of undress, I remember sitting in the car in Barker St Castlemaine waiting for my parents to return and watching a "rubenesque" hippie woman skip down the street wearing only a floppy felt hat and tootling away on a flute.

Poirot, thanks for reminding us of the “a luck country run by second rate people”. Never has it been as valid as it is today.

I accept that with time comes change so culture and social etiquette evolve. Thirty years ago we were a more homogeneous society regardless of root ethnicity or religious infighting such as the very real divisions that came from the Catholics vs the Protestants. Regardless we had one thing that bound us psychologically and that is this simple statement, “we are Aussies”.

Because we share no boarders and are geographically isolated the nations psyche grew an identity of self. The land that the British stole from the indigenous peoples evolved into an egalitarian society where formality and posture was seen as the pretense it is. A self determination evolved with isolation and the understanding that “we” are all we have got bound us as a nation.

I believe that self determination has gone from our society. We have lost the ability to self sustain and that has come about by the dropping of tariffs. We now struggle to see a positive in this country that is now just a mine with 22 million inhabitants.

The only identity we have left is in the sporting arena, and that took a beating in London this year. Who are we?