Australia - The Discussion (5 Viewers)

[davin]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

We laugh at the fact that americans wanted to boycott australia being a tourist destination at all because they did not want images of blood being exposed to children.

When and how did i miss that?


Australia has a culture, just I think the key point thats been mentioned prior is that culture takes time to develop into something that seems truely unique. Europe, India, China, have all had the time for that. Newer countries that have populations primarily by people immigrating from different cultures aren't going to have something unique and defined yet.

 

[Iron]

Re: does australia have a culture?

Will culture exist in tomorrows globally integrated markets?

I concur with my esteemed friend. How can traditional notions of culture develop when states are so mixed together?
Australian culture is an off-shoot of Western Civilization - the best civilization to date and, incidentally, the winning team.
The cultural difference between us and others in the west is increasingly minute. Asia, India, Africa have, for all practical purposes, jumped onto the bandwagon too.
After the Middle-East smells the roses, we can start looking to space and my George Jetson fantasy becomes so much closer to reality.

 

[Silver Persian]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Culture will still exists - but it will be a globalised culture.

Culture isnt something that has to be defines in terms of national borders - being heavily influenced by another areas culture doesnt mean you dont have a culture, it just means youve 'borrowed' some of it.

 

[loquasagacious]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

At what point does it become one culture though?

eg melbourne and sydney have arguably differing cultures however differences are generally considered quite small and hence they are both part of a broader Australian culture. At what point is Australian culture so similar to american and british that we are viewed as having a general western culture? In fact are we already?

Seeing that we are busy pondering this question I would like to tender some general notes re: culture and national identity.

I believe culture and the associated concepts of national and ethnic identity (including patriotism) as to be shaped by the outsider not the insider eg it is not shaped by warm notions of who we are but by virulent statements of who we are not.

Culture/etc evolves in opposition to other cultures etc. eg to be english is to hate the french, to be american is to distrust canadians, to be free was to fight nazi's and then communists. Now to be western is to not be fundamentalist muslims or over-populating indians/chinese.

Globalisation by its nature decreases these differences promoting free markets and free societies across the globe. The free flow of labour and capital defies nation-state boundaries and growing interdependence makes an autarkial state of war increasingly difficult.

As a rsult of decreased global differences I think that culture too will become increasingly global as countries become increasingly cosmopolitan and even interwoven culturally eg even as it is our culture in australia is inextricably linked to britain, america and japan. These links will grow, spread and accelerate as an increasingly global culture emerges.

This global culture will be primarily (at least initially) western because western culture and business has won. This global culture will be shaped by opposition to those who do not adhere eg protectionists, communists, nationalists, the backward, etc.

And will also continue to be marked by a developed and developing divide - however that divide will also continue to narrow.

 

[Generator]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Relevant:
9am tomorrow on Sunday program ch9.
A Geoffrey Robertson's Hypothetical on Multiculturalism.
I implore you all to watch.

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/feature_stories/article_1969.asp

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/feature_stories/article_1973.asp - the transcript.

 

[loquasagacious]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

I missed the first half however rate the later half as officially top notch, not quite as good as previous hypotheticals I've seen though.

 

[sparkl3z]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

i'd say australia is just new..countries with defined cultures have been around for many centuries hence have developed their own thing....here well we do have the aboriginals, we do have anzac..although this aint a big deal in turkey, cos it had many other wars etc, it's a big deal for aus, cos it was like their first major war, other than that....it's pretty much whatever now, theres christians muslims jews etc...and even though there is rough stuff from time to time, many of these people here can live in peace, it's not as big as a deal it is in other countries...people can just do whatever and generally nobody will care.

 

[loquasagacious]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

My contention is conflict has been progressively decreasing as countries develop therefore older countries have a more defined culture because they've had more conflict to define it.

eg the cultures of europe have been formed from hundreds and hundreds of years of inter-european and extra-european conflict.

Given Australia's relatively late emergence and relative lack of conflict we have in this way 'failed' to develop a strong culture.

A contrasting example being Israelis and Palestinians whose national identities only began in 1948 (for israelis) and arguable 1967 (for palestinians) however continuous conflict has shaped strong cultural concepts of the two nations.

 

[Iron]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/feature_stories/article_1973.asp - the transcript.

The transcript is nothing w/o the prancing.

Not as good as some eps [eg ended on terrorism/torture, rather than multiculturalism], but he's still such a legend.

 

[leetom]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Culture will still exists - but it will be a globalised culture.

Culture isnt something that has to be defines in terms of national borders - being heavily influenced by another areas culture doesnt mean you dont have a culture, it just means youve 'borrowed' some of it.

Absolutely correct. If your culture does not exist in the neighboring lands, unite the Greek cities and wage a victorious campaign into the Persian Empire, suppressing their culture and enforcing Greek Hellenist culture.

 

[Nesty]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

i think australia does have a culture. as a kid coming to australia from h.k. i learnt about the australian way of life and learnt to love it as well.

the rugby, the footy, the love of sport, the beer, anzac sprite - i think it's all australian's culture.

yes it might not be as strong as other older civilisation but it's definitely there

 

[HotShot]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

if you want to know if australia has a culture, dont ask australians, ask an indina, japanese, italian etc? and they will tellyou.

 

[Nesty]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

if you want to know if australia has a culture, dont ask australians, ask an indina, japanese, italian etc? and they will tellyou.

uhuh.. try asking my dad.. typical chinese.. who i dun enjoy talking to him about aussie cultures.. he thinks:

• best aussie food is meat pie (which in his opinion taste really shit) and vegemite (yes eww)

• rugby is for apemen

• beer tastes real shit

• anzac day is just another day off work (and crowded shopping centres afterwards) along with christmas and easter

and yep that's about it..

now you see why i dun like talking to him

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Australia has a fine culture, I just think people like to look for silly gimmicks like you see on tv (if we were a bunch of slack-jawed yokles like on the simpsons we'd be considered to have a culture). Anyway, Australia has its own bunch of celebrities, it's own laws, it's own celebrations, it's own traditions, it's own accent - I find it hard to imagine Australians not having a culture, at the very least perhaps our culture isn't as 'unique' as some might want it to be?

Personally, I don't see the point in being unique for the sake of it. I think Australia does well taking the parts of various cultures that we think work well and incorporating them into our own. I think it's one of the best aspects of Australian culture, we've often felt iscolated so we've had this desire to learn about the rest of the world.

if you want to know if australia has a culture, dont ask australians, ask an indina, japanese, italian etc? and they will tellyou.

Why should that matter? Just because you're ignorant of a culture doesn't mean it isn't there.

 

[HotShot]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Why should that matter? Just because you're ignorant of a culture doesn't mean it isn't there.

NO. I meant they cna identify our culture.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Why can only people outside of a culture identify it? They most likely know very little about it.

 

[Comrade nathan]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Why can only people outside of a culture identify it? They most likely know very little about it.

I think he means and outsider will notice what the culture is. I agree with this.

When we look at other cultures we often notice alot of things, things which are normally subtle in their culture, but seem obvious and wierd from our point of view.

Someone said earlier

Over here if you want to say hello, you don't have to kiss anyone on the cheeks, start chanting, bow your head a million times or start wanking. All you have to do here in Australia is say "G'day mate" or "Wheres the BBQ?" and that's it.

With greetings there are many subtle things that the Australian wouldn't notice. This subtle things often change with the person you are talking. For instance you may kiss a relative, touch a girlfriend, speak about sport first, speak about buisness first, give an order. The pitch and tone may be different regarding the meaning of the meeting. Your stance may be different, stances are often different between genders and sexes.

There are alot of subtle things that occur when greeting. To an outsider ( i mean a real outside, ie someone straight from Iran who speaks little English, not someone with olive skin who has a slight accent and came to Australia when they were a baby) who is used to a different style of greeting may pick up on the differences.

Though Hotshot wasn't really refering to such subtle things, as shown by his reference to meat pies and football.

That's where alot of people have problem, when they can only refer to 3 things "footy", meatpies and Anzac. As if we took these 3 things away, then Australians would be simply robots who move about their daily buisness with no interaction of the environment around them.

Culture is alot deeper then sport, one style of food and one holiday/worship day that we have. Culture is an environment that has rules and regulates the actions of individuals to a certian extent. To not have a culture you have to be non human. Maybe the question should be a "distinct culture" as someone noted before. Which i would agree yes, though we are part of a english speaking pan Western culture which is dependant on imperialism/globalism.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

I think he means and outsider will notice what the culture is. I agree with this.

I disagree, I think outsiders can never understood the culture as much as those experiencing it. Perhaps if they went ahead and experienced it for themselves, instead of just observing then I'd agree. I'm just thinking of how wrong sociologists have been in the past when examining the culture of other groups.

That's where alot of people have problem, when they can only refer to 3 things "footy", meatpies and Anzac. As if we took these 3 things away, then Australians would be simply robots who move about their daily buisness with no interaction of the environment around them.

Culture is alot deeper then sport, one style of food and one holiday/worship day that we have. Culture is an environment that has rules and regulates the actions of individuals to a certian extent. To not have a culture you have to be non human. Maybe the question should be a "distinct culture" as someone noted before. Which i would agree yes, though we are part of a english speaking pan Western culture which is dependant on imperialism/globalism.

Yea I think people are confused about culture, and instead are looking for some sort of stereotype to work with.

 

[Enlightened_One]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Yea I think people are confused about culture, and instead are looking for some sort of stereotype to work with.

Culture is, when it is broken down, a form of stereotyping. Often stereotypes arise out of an outsiders perception of their culture.

And Australia does have a culture. A culture is everything that seperates one socity from another. We have a unique form of speaking and a manner that differs from other Western cultures. Our humour and tastes differ slightly. Just as the Japanese are different from the Chinese who in turn are different from the Chinese, we are different from the English and the Americans.

The fact that Australia is perceived to be 'cultureless' is a negative effect of multiculturalism. In defining Australian culture, sociologists try to include everyone, despite the fact that, since we have a policy of integration, migrants are not becoming 'Australian' (culturally) and thus, experts in trying to broaden their approach, find too general a category that is referred to as our culture.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Re: Does Australia have a culture?

Culture is, when it is broken down, a form of stereotyping. Often stereotypes arise out of an outsiders perception of their culture.

Err... I think you're taking the definition of stereotyping and stretching it a little far there.