5 ms·

This was written in 1964 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country , it still rings true today.

BLKNSLVR 5y ago
Have to quote this bit for those too lazy to follow the link: Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.
- api 5y ago
  Sounds like a weird slacker version of the resource curse.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    Yes - but also Arendt's concept of the colonist as the superfluous man, unnecessary and having no accommodation in European society, basically getting offloaded for resource extraction to remote parts of the world and falling into tribalism and illiterate degradation. Happy thought there.
    - mc32 5y ago
      How do you expect people react to something like that? There have been lots of people offloaded to far away places for resource extraction as you call it. People adapt to the demands. I think this is a borders on odd expectations of people. Going by this Irish and Chinese sent over for railroad building were superfluous people.
      - noduerme 5y ago
        No, the British and French, Belgians, Dutch and Germans who went off to find wealth in the colonies were poor-er than their elder brothers who joined the landed aristocracy or the Church, but they were nothing like the Irish or Chinese who were deported or forced out by starvation. They went to the colonies with full rights - beyond the rights they had at home - to do whatever they liked. And in Africa especially, mostly what they did was rape, drink and degenerate. Which was what they would have done back home; that's why they were given one-way boat rides. That and the fact that the empires had so much money, there was no way to spend it in the home country. And so many sons there weren't enough places for them all in the bureaucracy. But no, it's not expecting too much of people to think they might retain their civilization when they willingly and gleefully go take up ownership of a plantation in a colony. Frankly, the Irish and Chinese in America were far more civilized than the Boers ever were, because they had to be. The Boers just showed up somewhere they could act like petty gods over black people and they did, until they forgot civilization completely.
    - SuoDuanDao 5y ago
      I've seen the opinion that most of the world imagines Australians all descended from criminals, while in fact an influential portion was descended from wardens. Bit of a parallel there I imagine.
- tsujp 5y ago
  This genuinely describes the recent delta outbreak in Sydney both at the lack of action from the NSW Premier and our Prime Minister.
- noduerme 5y ago
  This reminds me of Hannah Arendt's criticism of the Boers - which was sometimes taken out of context. She was just pointing out they had become a tribe of bush-wandering savages living off, but not improving the land, themselves. They had no incentive to improve the land; labor was cheap and their own lives were cheap, and they still have made nothing of the country. When I lived in Australia I was really surprised, because I expected to find a country much more individualistic and hardy than the soft United States. All those Crocodile Dundee movies, I guess. I had the luck of moving there with a partner who was half-Filipina, and wow was there a lot of anti-Asian racism right off the bat. But that wouldn't have been such a big deal. What really struck me were the micro-restrictions on everything. I think local councils have a lot to do with this; in the Commonwealth model they seem to have totally arbitrary and uncontrolled power. If you squeal your wheels, they'll take your car and crush it. At least that's what I heard. If you work on roofs you have to spend an hour gearing up to have harnesses. I mean. I thought this was a frontier society, but it's not. Cameras everywhere and ...well, I lived in King's Cross, Sydney for a bit, but I heard they basically shut that down by fiat from end to end. And the NT. Just a word about that. We pulled up to a shop in the bush outside Tenant Creek and there were approximately 40 aboriginal ladies standing outside a closed window at 9am. We walked past this line, straight inside, and bought a couple cases of beer. Asked why they were all waiting there. "Waitin for the welfare window," said the store owner. Never been to the white side of a segregation window before, but that was something to see in a first world country.
  - audiometry 5y ago
    Wow, really suprised to see someone else speaking my mind. I went to Australia, from the US, with the perception that Australia was wild country where people were free and independent. Sort of like if I lived in rural Arizona or Idaho or something. But what I found was an ultra-tedious nitpicky rules and control mindset. Really turned me off. Just surprised to see someone else say similar.
    - noduerme 5y ago
      I totally expected Idaho, too. That's why the racism didn't seem out of place. But it's like everyone there is obsessed with these little rules and they're all nannys about reminding you of them all the time. Fucking annoying, I agree, and it doesn't even make sense. Wayyyyy out in the bush I did meet people who weren't like that. Met a French guy who was roasting a kangaroo and living out in nowhere with his teenage daughter, totally illegal immigrant on the land. There's some of that. But mostly, fuck, a lot of nitpicking.
- yawnxyz 5y ago
  I'm spending some time in Canada and I'm thinking Canada followed along the same lines...

BLKNSLVR 5y ago

Have to quote this bit for those too lazy to follow the link: Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.

api 5y ago
Sounds like a weird slacker version of the resource curse.
- noduerme 5y ago
  Yes - but also Arendt's concept of the colonist as the superfluous man, unnecessary and having no accommodation in European society, basically getting offloaded for resource extraction to remote parts of the world and falling into tribalism and illiterate degradation. Happy thought there.
  - mc32 5y ago
    How do you expect people react to something like that? There have been lots of people offloaded to far away places for resource extraction as you call it. People adapt to the demands. I think this is a borders on odd expectations of people. Going by this Irish and Chinese sent over for railroad building were superfluous people.
    - noduerme 5y ago
      No, the British and French, Belgians, Dutch and Germans who went off to find wealth in the colonies were poor-er than their elder brothers who joined the landed aristocracy or the Church, but they were nothing like the Irish or Chinese who were deported or forced out by starvation. They went to the colonies with full rights - beyond the rights they had at home - to do whatever they liked. And in Africa especially, mostly what they did was rape, drink and degenerate. Which was what they would have done back home; that's why they were given one-way boat rides. That and the fact that the empires had so much money, there was no way to spend it in the home country. And so many sons there weren't enough places for them all in the bureaucracy. But no, it's not expecting too much of people to think they might retain their civilization when they willingly and gleefully go take up ownership of a plantation in a colony. Frankly, the Irish and Chinese in America were far more civilized than the Boers ever were, because they had to be. The Boers just showed up somewhere they could act like petty gods over black people and they did, until they forgot civilization completely.
  - SuoDuanDao 5y ago
    I've seen the opinion that most of the world imagines Australians all descended from criminals, while in fact an influential portion was descended from wardens. Bit of a parallel there I imagine.
tsujp 5y ago
This genuinely describes the recent delta outbreak in Sydney both at the lack of action from the NSW Premier and our Prime Minister.
noduerme 5y ago
This reminds me of Hannah Arendt's criticism of the Boers - which was sometimes taken out of context. She was just pointing out they had become a tribe of bush-wandering savages living off, but not improving the land, themselves. They had no incentive to improve the land; labor was cheap and their own lives were cheap, and they still have made nothing of the country. When I lived in Australia I was really surprised, because I expected to find a country much more individualistic and hardy than the soft United States. All those Crocodile Dundee movies, I guess. I had the luck of moving there with a partner who was half-Filipina, and wow was there a lot of anti-Asian racism right off the bat. But that wouldn't have been such a big deal. What really struck me were the micro-restrictions on everything. I think local councils have a lot to do with this; in the Commonwealth model they seem to have totally arbitrary and uncontrolled power. If you squeal your wheels, they'll take your car and crush it. At least that's what I heard. If you work on roofs you have to spend an hour gearing up to have harnesses. I mean. I thought this was a frontier society, but it's not. Cameras everywhere and ...well, I lived in King's Cross, Sydney for a bit, but I heard they basically shut that down by fiat from end to end. And the NT. Just a word about that. We pulled up to a shop in the bush outside Tenant Creek and there were approximately 40 aboriginal ladies standing outside a closed window at 9am. We walked past this line, straight inside, and bought a couple cases of beer. Asked why they were all waiting there. "Waitin for the welfare window," said the store owner. Never been to the white side of a segregation window before, but that was something to see in a first world country.
- audiometry 5y ago
  Wow, really suprised to see someone else speaking my mind. I went to Australia, from the US, with the perception that Australia was wild country where people were free and independent. Sort of like if I lived in rural Arizona or Idaho or something. But what I found was an ultra-tedious nitpicky rules and control mindset. Really turned me off. Just surprised to see someone else say similar.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    I totally expected Idaho, too. That's why the racism didn't seem out of place. But it's like everyone there is obsessed with these little rules and they're all nannys about reminding you of them all the time. Fucking annoying, I agree, and it doesn't even make sense. Wayyyyy out in the bush I did meet people who weren't like that. Met a French guy who was roasting a kangaroo and living out in nowhere with his teenage daughter, totally illegal immigrant on the land. There's some of that. But mostly, fuck, a lot of nitpicking.
yawnxyz 5y ago
I'm spending some time in Canada and I'm thinking Canada followed along the same lines...