tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post1782579354862347398..comments2023-09-06T22:30:02.061+10:00Comments on The Knight & Drummer: The Least-Racist Nation in the WorldAmfortashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07474382097575605017noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-52386243307359869042017-07-21T11:48:44.074+10:002017-07-21T11:48:44.074+10:00Sorry about whatever culture you think we imposed ...<em>Sorry about whatever culture you think we imposed on your society. </em><br /><br />I certainly didn't mean to imply that ordinary Americans wanted to impose their culture on other countries. Ordinary Americans are not to blame for the sins of their government or the sins of American corporations.<br /><br />Nonetheless American culture was imposed on us, and has been imposed on most of the world. It was partly accidental - it's just very difficult to compete with the sheer volume of American pop culture. It was also partly deliberate. For example the Australian film industry did not die a natural death in the 1940s, it was deliberately killed by the Hollywood studios. There's also no question that the US government has sought consciously and deliberately to impose American culture on the rest of the world.<br /><br />But I don't blame ordinary Americans for any of this. Toxic American pop culture has caused just as much harm to ordinary Americans as it has to the rest of the world. On the whole I like Americans a great deal.dfordoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306293859869179118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-24760302585372803692017-07-20T23:14:01.870+10:002017-07-20T23:14:01.870+10:00Welcome unknown stranger. I don't think I ment...Welcome unknown stranger. I don't think I mentioned anything about Americans 'imposing their culture' on Oz, although we see that dfordoom makes an aside or two. We do have a lot of dross sent our way but also some fine cultural wossnames too. On balance the American culture has been welcomed here, but I would agree with anyone who wanted to sday that it has inadvertently stifled Oz expression. Mind you, the current Oz culture leaves as much to be desired as yours does. And we do have Chinese, Indian, and a wide variety of other wog stuff all over the place here. I am pleased you enjoyed WA and please visit Tasmania next time you are down under. Amfortashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07474382097575605017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-87770819128741675592017-07-20T21:34:21.075+10:002017-07-20T21:34:21.075+10:00I'm an American who has visited Australia twic...I'm an American who has visited Australia twice, but only to Perth/Fremantle and albeit not since 1995. Sorry about whatever culture you think we imposed on your society. Personally I admire Australia and Australians, especially Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, ACDC, and my favorite, Chad Reed. For some reason they seem to have adjusted well to American culture...whatever that is. I felt extremely welcome the two times I visited Perth in 1993 and 1995. Hope it would be as nice again if I visit, even if the visit turns into an extended stay.McFleahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03879152211322135026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-59152782974184873002017-07-17T18:33:33.183+10:002017-07-17T18:33:33.183+10:00yet few Australians recognise the name of the Aust...<em>yet few Australians recognise the name of the Australian General who ran away. </em><br /><br />Gordon Bennett. A proponent of the Douglas MacArthur school of generalship - he who runs away lives to fight another day.dfordoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306293859869179118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-44257172135780456472017-07-17T01:02:51.607+10:002017-07-17T01:02:51.607+10:00It is a great pity that anti-british feeling was e...It is a great pity that anti-british feeling was encouraged by communists at that time. Britain's forces were stretched beyond any expectation of defence of Oz. When Singapore fell, Britain was blamed yet few Australians recognise the name of the Australian General who ran away. <br />Amfortashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07474382097575605017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-18720006656685669522017-07-16T23:30:18.437+10:002017-07-16T23:30:18.437+10:00We do have a weak identity, largely through being ...<em>We do have a weak identity, largely through being so officially anti-british. </em><br /><br />The extent to which Australians of the wartime generation rejected their British heritage is extraordinary. Judging by the things that I can recall my parents and other family members of that generation saying much of this rejection was driven by a deep-seated conviction that Britain betrayed Australia in the Second World War. The groveling obsequiousness towards the US was quite embarrassing.dfordoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306293859869179118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-9953434844468752692017-07-16T23:13:29.666+10:002017-07-16T23:13:29.666+10:00I agree with some of that. We do have a weak ident...I agree with some of that. We do have a weak identity, largely through being so officially anti-british. The future is up in the air at the moment and I doubt I shall see a resolution in my rapidly diminishing lifetime.Amfortashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07474382097575605017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776872662073607566.post-63013208414939115862017-07-16T21:40:28.814+10:002017-07-16T21:40:28.814+10:00Australians have a very weak sense of national ide...Australians have a very weak sense of national identity. We were in the process of developing such an identity when the Second World War came along. After that we were flooded by worthless American pop culture. The Americanisation of Australian culture has done more harm than any other single factor.<br /><br />Sadly most migrants will absorb this Americanised culture.<br /><br />Our greatest weakness is that we are fundamentally welcoming to migrants and foreign cultures because we have no pride in our own culture, because we don't have one.<br /><br />Australia is not a nation in any meaningful sense. We're a giant transit lounge. A nation of migrants is not a nation at all. Our destiny is to be either a colony of China, or a colony of the United States. Being a colony of China would be the less awful alternative.dfordoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306293859869179118noreply@blogger.com