Anti-Australian
Oct 12th 2010, 8:03 am
#77
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 1,412
Re: Anti-Australian
I'd also like to add to this thread that as residents of Australia you act on Australian culture whether you like it or not. Cultures adapt through the continued reinforcement of old practices or the adaptation of new practices. Actors in the culture influence the changing culture by either accepting these new or old practices or rejecting them. You can attempt to be an active agent of change but there's no guarantee that you will be either successful or unsuccessful.
Whinging POMS as we/they are sometimes known (used against us Irish too sometimes
and not necessarily historically inaccurate I might add) would probably like certain aspects of Australian culture to be the same as home. Other Australians react to this by either rejecting this cultural adaptation or accepting it. Sometimes sub-cultures form where a subset of the population espouse a certain belief, value or norm.
The important thing is to live and let live. Australia will never be the UK, Ireland, Canada, India, Germany, Croatia, Greek, Italian or whatever other culture acts upon it. There maybe sub-cultures influenced by these other cultures and there may be aspects of them adapted by the general populus but the important thing is tolerance and not inflicting your own beliefs, values or norms on others. There are checks and measures in society to safeguard people rights and I think there should be the same in this forum. I appreciate that this may have been a little deep for an internet forum but it's a comment on Australian life too, probably equally applicable to other cultures.
Whinging POMS as we/they are sometimes known (used against us Irish too sometimes
and not necessarily historically inaccurate I might add) would probably like certain aspects of Australian culture to be the same as home. Other Australians react to this by either rejecting this cultural adaptation or accepting it. Sometimes sub-cultures form where a subset of the population espouse a certain belief, value or norm.The important thing is to live and let live. Australia will never be the UK, Ireland, Canada, India, Germany, Croatia, Greek, Italian or whatever other culture acts upon it. There maybe sub-cultures influenced by these other cultures and there may be aspects of them adapted by the general populus but the important thing is tolerance and not inflicting your own beliefs, values or norms on others. There are checks and measures in society to safeguard people rights and I think there should be the same in this forum. I appreciate that this may have been a little deep for an internet forum but it's a comment on Australian life too, probably equally applicable to other cultures.
Last edited by Steve2009; Oct 12th 2010 at 8:06 am.
Oct 12th 2010, 8:28 am
#79
Chan eil aon chànan gu le
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: On the ning nang nong
Posts: 22,437
have you been talking to my husband?
Oct 12th 2010, 8:38 am
#80
Demi-God
Joined: Oct 2008
Location: Far North Queensland
Posts: 2,812
Re: Anti-Australian
Of course, if you hate everyone in the world, Australia is nice and far away from most of them.
Oct 12th 2010, 8:39 am
#81
Account Closed
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 14,188
Re: Anti-Australian
Yes love.. of course we will be going home... errm on Wednesday, which Wednesday, mmmm not sure about that. Let me have a think about it, but yeah, honest, I promise, defo going back one day... soon. Honest.
Last edited by iamthecreaturefromuranus; Oct 12th 2010 at 8:43 am.
Oct 12th 2010, 8:53 am
#82
Chan eil aon chànan gu le
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: On the ning nang nong
Posts: 22,437
Re: Anti-Australian
Mmmm... Sounds about right!
Oct 12th 2010, 9:26 am
#83
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 9,397
Re: Anti-Australian
I'd also like to add to this thread that as residents of Australia you act on Australian culture whether you like it or not. Cultures adapt through the continued reinforcement of old practices or the adaptation of new practices. Actors in the culture influence the changing culture by either accepting these new or old practices or rejecting them. You can attempt to be an active agent of change but there's no guarantee that you will be either successful or unsuccessful.
Whinging POMS as we/they are sometimes known (used against us Irish too sometimes and not necessarily historically inaccurate I might add) would probably like certain aspects of Australian culture to be the same as home. Other Australians react to this by either rejecting this cultural adaptation or accepting it. Sometimes sub-cultures form where a subset of the population espouse a certain belief, value or norm.
The important thing is to live and let live. Australia will never be the UK, Ireland, Canada, India, Germany, Croatia, Greek, Italian or whatever other culture acts upon it. There maybe sub-cultures influenced by these other cultures and there may be aspects of them adapted by the general populus but the important thing is tolerance and not inflicting your own beliefs, values or norms on others. There are checks and measures in society to safeguard people rights and I think there should be the same in this forum. I appreciate that this may have been a little deep for an internet forum but it's a comment on Australian life too, probably equally applicable to other cultures.
Whinging POMS as we/they are sometimes known (used against us Irish too sometimes
and not necessarily historically inaccurate I might add) would probably like certain aspects of Australian culture to be the same as home. Other Australians react to this by either rejecting this cultural adaptation or accepting it. Sometimes sub-cultures form where a subset of the population espouse a certain belief, value or norm.The important thing is to live and let live. Australia will never be the UK, Ireland, Canada, India, Germany, Croatia, Greek, Italian or whatever other culture acts upon it. There maybe sub-cultures influenced by these other cultures and there may be aspects of them adapted by the general populus but the important thing is tolerance and not inflicting your own beliefs, values or norms on others. There are checks and measures in society to safeguard people rights and I think there should be the same in this forum. I appreciate that this may have been a little deep for an internet forum but it's a comment on Australian life too, probably equally applicable to other cultures.
Every country has different ways of doing things, different "cultures" (small "c"). You either fit in with them or you don't. I don't particularly like being called "mate" for example but it's what they do and I'm not going to bang on about that, or the price of - say, lettuce.
What *are* legitimate whinges, IMHO, are things which are wrong, antisocial or whatever in *any* country and which one notices are particularly prevalent in Australia. Things like the almost universal habit of throwing the car door open without even a cursory glance behind, tailgating and so on.
The same subjects appear time and again in threads: there must be something to the whinges!
Oct 12th 2010, 9:34 am
#84
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 1,412
Re: Anti-Australian
Every country has different ways of doing things, different "cultures" (small "c"). You either fit in with them or you don't. I don't particularly like being called "mate" for example but it's what they do and I'm not going to bang on about that, or the price of - say, lettuce.
While we're on the topic of aspects of culture we disagree with, I disagree with the use of the term 'un-australian' as a sledgehammer to stifle debate. It's abused in a similar fashion to the way the terms 'communist', 'terror' and 'extremist' among others are abused.
Last edited by Steve2009; Oct 12th 2010 at 9:36 am.
Oct 12th 2010, 9:42 am
#85
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,566
Re: Anti-Australian
People are entitled to whinge or respectively rave about whatever they like in my opinion. I don't see why others should limit their free speech. I don't think anyone is going to change the fact that Aussies use the word 'mate', but that doesn't meant they shouldn't be allowed express their dislike for the word or choose to not use it themselves. Similarly if they choose to use that word themselves then why should anyone stop them. I'm perhaps more liberal than others but I think free speech is valued in Australian culture generally if I'm not mistaken.
While we're on the topic of aspects of culture we disagree with, I disagree with the use of the term 'un-australian' as a sledgehammer to stifle debate. It's abused in a similar fashion to the way the terms 'communist', 'terror' and 'extremist' among others are abused.
While we're on the topic of aspects of culture we disagree with, I disagree with the use of the term 'un-australian' as a sledgehammer to stifle debate. It's abused in a similar fashion to the way the terms 'communist', 'terror' and 'extremist' among others are abused.
Oct 12th 2010, 9:52 am
#86
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Hill overlooking the SE Melbourne suburbs
Posts: 16,622
Re: Anti-Australian
With respect, I think you're tilting at the wrong windmill here.
Every country has different ways of doing things, different "cultures" (small "c"). You either fit in with them or you don't. I don't particularly like being called "mate" for example but it's what they do and I'm not going to bang on about that, or the price of - say, lettuce.
What *are* legitimate whinges, IMHO, are things which are wrong, antisocial or whatever in *any* country and which one notices are particularly prevalent in Australia. Things like the almost universal habit of throwing the car door open without even a cursory glance behind, tailgating and so on.
The same subjects appear time and again in threads: there must be something to the whinges!
Every country has different ways of doing things, different "cultures" (small "c"). You either fit in with them or you don't. I don't particularly like being called "mate" for example but it's what they do and I'm not going to bang on about that, or the price of - say, lettuce.
What *are* legitimate whinges, IMHO, are things which are wrong, antisocial or whatever in *any* country and which one notices are particularly prevalent in Australia. Things like the almost universal habit of throwing the car door open without even a cursory glance behind, tailgating and so on.
The same subjects appear time and again in threads: there must be something to the whinges!
Manners are OK.
Actually, not liking being called mate in a country like Australia I think is a little wet...I'm surprised, Wol.
Oct 12th 2010, 10:21 am
#87
Home and Happy
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Keep true friends and puppets close, trust no-one else...
Posts: 93,820
Re: Anti-Australian
With respect, I think you're tilting at the wrong windmill here.
Every country has different ways of doing things, different "cultures" (small "c"). You either fit in with them or you don't. I don't particularly like being called "mate" for example but it's what they do and I'm not going to bang on about that, or the price of - say, lettuce.
What *are* legitimate whinges, IMHO, are things which are wrong, antisocial or whatever in *any* country and which one notices are particularly prevalent in Australia. Things like the almost universal habit of throwing the car door open without even a cursory glance behind, tailgating and so on.
The same subjects appear time and again in threads: there must be something to the whinges!
Every country has different ways of doing things, different "cultures" (small "c"). You either fit in with them or you don't. I don't particularly like being called "mate" for example but it's what they do and I'm not going to bang on about that, or the price of - say, lettuce.
What *are* legitimate whinges, IMHO, are things which are wrong, antisocial or whatever in *any* country and which one notices are particularly prevalent in Australia. Things like the almost universal habit of throwing the car door open without even a cursory glance behind, tailgating and so on.
The same subjects appear time and again in threads: there must be something to the whinges!
Oct 12th 2010, 10:29 am
#88
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Hill overlooking the SE Melbourne suburbs
Posts: 16,622
Re: Anti-Australian
I'm with Wol on this one, I don't particularly like the way that Aussies call everyone "mate". For me it has lost its real meaning - how can someone you've never encountered before call you "mate"and mean it genuinely? The last bloke to use it was the guy here today checking the smoke alarm - never seen him before, never will again, so on what basis can he refer to me as "mate"? I make a conscious effort now to avoid the word and to use "friend"or "pal" instead as I don"t regard "mate" as having any deep meaning anymore. I used to think it was a sign of Aussie friendliness, but now I think its just one of those words that has left its real meaning far behind, and if someone here calls me "mate" now I generally just ignore the use of the word.
It is nothing other than a token nod. Just like mate in London, or 'duck' up north, or just 'Thanks' in countries that do not have an object. What is your opinon on the usage in London?
Oct 12th 2010, 10:43 am
#89
Home and Happy
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Keep true friends and puppets close, trust no-one else...
Posts: 93,820
Re: Anti-Australian
hmmm..most people know it does not mean you are claiming that someone is your bestest friend, or a friend, or less than a friend.
It is nothing other than a token nod. Just like mate in London, or 'duck' up north, or just 'Thanks' in countries that do not have an object. What is your opinon on the usage in London?
It is nothing other than a token nod. Just like mate in London, or 'duck' up north, or just 'Thanks' in countries that do not have an object. What is your opinon on the usage in London?
Oct 12th 2010, 10:44 am
#90
Anything,Anytime,Anywhere
Joined: Jan 2004
Location: The Magic Roundabout
Posts: 8,141
Re: Anti-Australian
