If the average Australian....

....put as much effort and enthusiasm as they do bowing down and licking the flashy icons of the Clipsal 500, the AFL, the Grand Prix, the Commonwealth Games and VB as they did in ensuring that all forms of education are fair, balanced and affordable, that ALL workers have rights, that the precious animals we brand as mascots still have a home to live in, that the leaders of our nation are held accountable, that we remain informed and socially concious and that democracy is truly upheld...

....then I would have a real reason to be proud other than that I was born here.

 

i hear that...we need a revolution guys

 

"and his mother cries...."

 

SO TRUE, i hate this "man-ly man vb drinking afl drunken buffoon" that everyone seems to think is cool and "australian

 

I just see a lot of enthusiasm and blind patriotism going into frivelous things.

What if everyone contributed something to be proud of instead of leaving it to the politicians and hoping for the best while they piss their liver and their mind away on booze.

 

I wish John Howard would give me a headjob! NO I dont, what am i talking about......

 

i remember the tv series "monkey"!!
at the end of one show there was the comment that has always stuck in my mind
"whatever you do - you do to yourself"
after examining this statement i have found that this is totally true. the problem is that most people don't understand this, they don't make the connection between their actions and the consequences that ultimately makes its way back to them. this is why so much misery is in the world. people think that by putting their heads down and their mouths shut everything will work out but it won't, things just get worse and worse. with the new rules in the work place only people with useful trades will be able to survive - the rest? well they will be crushed

 

i dunno.. looks like no one here knows what is going on. maybe im included.

for one, youre implying that the majority of people in any country DONT blindly follow some sort of enthuse

 

where in sydney do u live bill?

 

Don't take too many implications from what i have said. Ultimately its inevitable that a "mass" culture will " blindly follow some sort of enthuse". I just think its sad, its kind of an objective note on reality. Have you been to an AFL game and seen the kind of enthusiasm among the crowds? Imagine if such energy was put into saving our democracy from being raped......or into what you so value, learning?

 

yeh.....i always notive that when i watch sports.....it disgusts me how those people in the corwd are actually ADULTS. Obviously not all of them are idiots. I just mean people who go to those games liek very week and its their life

 

Again, i have nothing against that,

Its just when blind sports fanaticism and patriotism are accompanied by a lack of awareness or eagerness to question what is actualy happening to our beloved country.

 

when the australian army was training and supporting the indonesian army to kill 1 third of the east timorese population do you think anyone cared? do you think anyone sat down watching football on sat or sun cared - no. the australian army and the government changed its policy over the last 5 years because they wanted a piece of the gas fields surrounding east timor because indonesians were too inept to exploit them. do you think anyone cares that australia was supporting a middle eastern dictator and trucking him money so we could ship wheat to iraq? no. the average joe that goes out and votes for mentally unstable people to make his life a misery doesn't care. he cares about his mortgage and when that goes belly up because he didn't care about anything else except for his own selfish interest he usually becomes an alcoholic or sticks his head in a gas oven wondering "why me".

 

that sums up this thread

 

of course that would be good, but thats an impractical utopic vision; its not like australia is below par on having bad democracy

 

Actually in my opinion we are below par.

You can argue that we're better off than say, The United States.

But we can do BETTER.

 

I agree, we are below par, in my opinion we are below every Western nation in the world exept the US of course and probably England

 

Thats so fucking funny for reasons half the people here will never know

On a serious note, your drunkeness posesses great wisdom. Its not like I can't get off my arse and do something.

 

1. Living in a commune would get nothing achived. ALthough, I have nothing against people who do.

2. I dont know what relevance a utopia has to me thinking im better than the rest of the countr.

3. Its ironic how I and many others here, are just sitting here and discussing this and not forcing people to having the same opinions as us, unlike a propotion of people

4. I find the fact that you ahve nothing better to do but come onto a website that is obviously a hippie website and do nothing but abuse us, quite depressing.

5. Of course you can change people, why else do political parties spend millions of dollars advertising themselves.

6. The ultimate irony is that you are calling someone who you originally stated to being a hippie. as being totalitarian, That is a paradox. Its governments imprementing totalitarian policies and the masses not doing anything about it is what we are discussing

 

Word of advice, don't take hc botanist seriously. Good answer though