- Banned
- #1
I've been living outside of Australia for a while.
But every time I go back, I'm shocked and disappointed by what I encounter in Australia.
Australia is one of the most prosperous, well-educated countries in the world – and it's perhaps the most desirable destination for would-be immigrants. The quality of life is through the roof, and the access to health care and higher education is something Americans (for example) could only dream about. And we basically live in peace with one another, without absurd sectarian or ethnic conflicts interfering with the great Australian project of just getting along. Some people may object to that characterisation but they should look abroad – Australian society is remarkably and brilliantly cohesive.*
However, when I go back to Australia, I'm stunned by the vapid commercial TV. It's not befitting of a civilised, well-educated country. For example, the way breakfast TV promotes inane human interest stories over real news, or how the commercial networks spend their budgets on horrific but cheap reality TV. People might say that commercial TV is a poor reflection, but it is actually a very real reflection. It's about volume. Enough Australians like this s**t to vindicate it.
But it doesn't stop there. I actually think Australians are becoming dumber and more incurious when the graph needs to be moving in the opposite direction.
People might accuse me of "cultural cringe" but I've actually been of the opinion for a while that Australian culture generally is among the most robust and decent in the world. We're just misfiring intellectually. Australia is one of the most successful immigrant societies of the past 100 years. We've been super successful in assimilating Greeks, Italians, Vietnamese, Thais, Chinese, Lebanese (with exceptions). Our model is a benchmark for many countries.
People might point to the US or the UK and provide horrific examples of rednecks who can't spell their own names or chavs who don't know what day it is. But those countries are no longer the salient benchmarks for Australia. Rather, Australians should monitor the comparisons with Japan and South Korea. Those are the most developed nations in our region, and Australia is a backward fool in comparison. Australia is not competitive when you look at it regionally.
Consider Australia's advantages: the state of Australian politics is actually pretty admirable (if uninspiring) when you cast an eye further afield. The centre holds, more or less. And the loser in elections accepts the legitimacy of the process. Australians might think that means SFA but it's actually something worth celebrating when you look at the region and the world generally.
The point I hope to make in the above paragraphs is that those who call Australia home have been born into strikingly good fortune. This vast yet small country of 25 million. Compared to whole swathes of the world that are just badly governed loops of poverty and ignorance and violence. But what do Australians do with that good fortune?
Whenever I visit Australia, I feel like Australians are becoming more incurious, more suspicious of intellect. And the token examples of intelligent conversation have become increasingly worthless. I've lived in some s**t holes - some chaotic, developing places - and when I compare those places to Australia, I find it harder and harder to forgive the dumb s**t complacency of Australians who are, in theory, better educated and more effectively incentivised to not be illiterate morons.
The best and most generous explanation I can offer is that Australia is a small market. It means that more challenging, more niche ideas face greater obstacles. There is an incentive for broad appeal.
A trivial example: if Monty Python had started in Australia, as opposed to the larger market of the UK, they simply wouldn't have found a large enough following to transition into something bigger. In the US, someone like Conan O'Brien is by no means the No.1 guy in his slot but manages to carve out a niche – in Australia, we get Rove McManus or The Project. So broad and so uninspired that no one cares. That's Australia.
Australia is this one-off experiment with all these advantages, and it could be the greatest country in the world. But there's this collective mass who are so intoxicated by their relative comfort that they just stopped trying? And now being unlettered and intellectually lazy is OK?
Yet, Australia still has so much to recommend it. But why is it so dumb?
* Generalisations acknowledged.
But every time I go back, I'm shocked and disappointed by what I encounter in Australia.
Australia is one of the most prosperous, well-educated countries in the world – and it's perhaps the most desirable destination for would-be immigrants. The quality of life is through the roof, and the access to health care and higher education is something Americans (for example) could only dream about. And we basically live in peace with one another, without absurd sectarian or ethnic conflicts interfering with the great Australian project of just getting along. Some people may object to that characterisation but they should look abroad – Australian society is remarkably and brilliantly cohesive.*
However, when I go back to Australia, I'm stunned by the vapid commercial TV. It's not befitting of a civilised, well-educated country. For example, the way breakfast TV promotes inane human interest stories over real news, or how the commercial networks spend their budgets on horrific but cheap reality TV. People might say that commercial TV is a poor reflection, but it is actually a very real reflection. It's about volume. Enough Australians like this s**t to vindicate it.
But it doesn't stop there. I actually think Australians are becoming dumber and more incurious when the graph needs to be moving in the opposite direction.
People might accuse me of "cultural cringe" but I've actually been of the opinion for a while that Australian culture generally is among the most robust and decent in the world. We're just misfiring intellectually. Australia is one of the most successful immigrant societies of the past 100 years. We've been super successful in assimilating Greeks, Italians, Vietnamese, Thais, Chinese, Lebanese (with exceptions). Our model is a benchmark for many countries.
People might point to the US or the UK and provide horrific examples of rednecks who can't spell their own names or chavs who don't know what day it is. But those countries are no longer the salient benchmarks for Australia. Rather, Australians should monitor the comparisons with Japan and South Korea. Those are the most developed nations in our region, and Australia is a backward fool in comparison. Australia is not competitive when you look at it regionally.
Consider Australia's advantages: the state of Australian politics is actually pretty admirable (if uninspiring) when you cast an eye further afield. The centre holds, more or less. And the loser in elections accepts the legitimacy of the process. Australians might think that means SFA but it's actually something worth celebrating when you look at the region and the world generally.
The point I hope to make in the above paragraphs is that those who call Australia home have been born into strikingly good fortune. This vast yet small country of 25 million. Compared to whole swathes of the world that are just badly governed loops of poverty and ignorance and violence. But what do Australians do with that good fortune?
Whenever I visit Australia, I feel like Australians are becoming more incurious, more suspicious of intellect. And the token examples of intelligent conversation have become increasingly worthless. I've lived in some s**t holes - some chaotic, developing places - and when I compare those places to Australia, I find it harder and harder to forgive the dumb s**t complacency of Australians who are, in theory, better educated and more effectively incentivised to not be illiterate morons.
The best and most generous explanation I can offer is that Australia is a small market. It means that more challenging, more niche ideas face greater obstacles. There is an incentive for broad appeal.
A trivial example: if Monty Python had started in Australia, as opposed to the larger market of the UK, they simply wouldn't have found a large enough following to transition into something bigger. In the US, someone like Conan O'Brien is by no means the No.1 guy in his slot but manages to carve out a niche – in Australia, we get Rove McManus or The Project. So broad and so uninspired that no one cares. That's Australia.
Australia is this one-off experiment with all these advantages, and it could be the greatest country in the world. But there's this collective mass who are so intoxicated by their relative comfort that they just stopped trying? And now being unlettered and intellectually lazy is OK?
Yet, Australia still has so much to recommend it. But why is it so dumb?
* Generalisations acknowledged.
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