"Almost 50 per cent of people believe getting drunk occasionally is part of being Australian, a survey suggests.
The study of more than 1500 Australians, by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, found one in 10 reported having a problem with alcohol at some point in their lives. Three in five said they knew a friend or family member who had experienced an alcohol problem.
Germany, on the other hand - with its own myriad of problems, to be sure - recently hosted the annual Frankfurt book fair, the largest in the world:
"The other pleasant discovery was the real seriousness with which the German media treat the fair. Almost every radio network in the country (they are state-based there) had a huge outside-broadcast van parked near one of the five huge exhibition halls; television interviews with authors, critics and publishers seemed to run non-stop; the newspapers treat it thoroughly."
Hard to imagine in Australia. After all, why celebrate an "elite" artform, when you can grab a beer or ten?
Australia's cultural immaturity lives on.
12 Comments:
Yeah alcoholism is a big problem in Australia. I remember going to my mates' 21sts where they get cheered on for sculling a yard glass. I reckon the stats you quote would be worse in regional Australia. Of course, there's a strong correlation between alcohol abuse and a range of other medical and social disorders. Nevertheless, I think the fundamental problem is a cultural one. The solution isn't to band alcohol. But for us Australians to take a serious look at ourselves (though Shab, you can keep drinking your ginger beers mate). Anyone who caught Australian Rules (the movie) on SBS last night would know what I mean. Often the only emotional outlet men have is their sport and when they drink with their mates. Not always the best way to foster critical thinking and debate.
Ant, your immaturity lives on. The embarrassingly weak logic you've shat out here is absolutely breathtaking in its incongruity, and your misplaced, elitist snobbery serves to highlight the finger-depth nature of your thought - as if any further confirmation was required. I mean, how could you possibly connect these two discrete and wholly unrelated pieces of information and come up with such a pathetically dated hypothesis - Australia is a cultural desert? Hello cringe, hello 1970s.
Firstly, the German book fair. You know what's really remarkable about a book fair to us knuckle dragging Aussies? They're so novel (pardon the pun) - we don't ever have book fairs in Australia! Hell, we don't even have books! Oh, those Germans, they're so cultured! You deadset idiot.
And then you hang your cultural ignorance out for all to see by making a judgement about Australia's unsophistication due to its alcohol - later you mention beer - consumption rates and habits. Words almost fail me. Almost. Let's go back to wonderfully cultured Germany for a second. Do you realise, you utter moron, that the Germans consume far, far more beer than we do per head of population? If I remember rightly, they're not far behind the Czechs, who consume the most in the world. We Aussies are some way down the list. If you had any idea about German culture you would realise how important beer is to that culture. Come on, even a stupid cultureless dimwitted Aussie has heard of Oktoberfest. As for alcoholism,
I'll even go so far to wager that there is a greater incidence of alcoholism in Germany compared to Australia, not least due to the wonderful communist rule in the East and the high rates of alcoholism experienced throughout the former Soviet bloc.
Here's a thought for you, Ant; imagine how much bigger the Frankfurt book fair would be if the Germans stopped drinking their beer and shut down all their breweries? Philistines!
Antony, I am simply agape that you would post something so remarkably muddleheaded, so obviously wrong, so stupidly foolish - just plain fucked up. The argument you've put forth is so flimsy it will collapse from the slipstream of a mosquito flying past. Dude, give the game up. You just don't have the brains to blog.
Incidentally, this is the last time I am posting or visiting this pile of turd. In case anyone's interested, let me answer the question Antony's posed from day one - the whole truth is that every time I read the idiocy spawned in the barren dunes between Ant's ears, I can feel my IQ shedding points.
And Ant, good luck trying to concoct a witty comeback to counter my last sentence.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Also, Antony, my dim-witted chum, don't you remember what happened the last time you tried to define "Austlaria"?
Waterton,
You'll be missed.
Enjoy those uni studies. Your life experience truly overwhelms me. Your blog is brilliant. In fact, you're brilliant.
I look forward to your life's work.
Tim 'please agree with my bigotry' Blair will welcome you with warm arms.
It's not as if him/you actually want to hear alternative views anyway...
DBO - please explain why alcoholism rates as a huge factor in an "immature culture". And why a book fair is a huge factor in an assumedly "mature culture". Let's flip the coin over, eh, DBO? It's probable that alcoholism rates in Germany are actually higher than in Australia. They certainly consume more alcohol per capita and their culture of binge beer drinking is famous throughout the world. Now, last time I had a look at the Times Higher Educational Supplement rankings, we had more universities higher up the list than Germany. Egads! Look at the barren cultural desert of Germany compared to educated, abstemious Australia!
Is that a fair conclusion to draw? No. Well, that's exactly the same kind of conclusion Loewenstein drew from his ridiculous juxtaposition.
Maybe you could name an Australian cultural event
And the stupidity continues. Why should I? Explain how our culture is measured in the prestige of a high profile event - of which there are many. Loewenstein's hypothesis was that "Australia's cultural immaturity lives on." Why is this proven by the response of the media? I know that Loewenstein - who I'm sure puts down "journalist" on his tax return, but from where I'm sitting it's highly debatable - is liable to overestimate the journalist's role in society. So I can understand his delusion but you have no such excuse, DBO. Ordinary folk create culture. Do you know why the dominant American culture has been so successful across the globe? Because it's the first and only dominant culture in the world that has been created by ordinary people, for ordinary people. It hasn't, like dominant European culture, been created by aristocrats and emulated by everyone else. American culture is mass participatory. Unlike - oh no, don't say it! - the Frankfurt book fair. Big as I'm sure it is relative to what it is, I don't think it will pull in (or evoke the interest of) the same numbers of Germans as the World Cup will, eh? And who are you to say one is more worthy than the other?
Talking about sport, I note your exclusion of it in your "major cultural event" criteria. This is revealing. Is sport not a cultural pursuit in Australia - or even in Germany? I suspect it's just not high brow enough for you. You know what, DBO, you're just as much of an elitist wanker as Loewenstein. And you have the cheek to call me narrow minded. I'm disappointed in you. You've become a Loewenstein shill. I hope you sold out for a good price.
you must attack beer and defend books.
Another dimwit. Reading comprehension isn't your strong point, huh? I wasn't defending beer and attacking books. I was defending Australian culture against ignorant and fallacious generalisations. If you can't understand the difference, then you're just as idiotic as the author.
And lastly, for the biggest drongo of them all:
Your life experience truly overwhelms me.
What do you know of my life experience, you goat? Hang on, why am I surprised at such a statement from you? Complete ignorance has never stopped you from rushing to judge before. Why should your perception of my life be any different?
It's not as if him/you actually want to hear alternative views anyway...
Oh, please! Don't flatter yourself by thinking you're providing "alternative" views. You just peddle the same old crap of a million other DailyKos branded bloggers. I happily listen to alternative views. What you provide is just more of the same old, same old. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but self perspective isn't your strong point.
I'm sure Tim will appreciate the oh-so-witty nickname you've bestowed on him. What marvellous cadence!
All in all, yours was a typical non-response from an intellectual welterweight. Like I said, Ant, give it up.
0 Chloë, have you heard it,
This news I sing to you?
It's true, my lovely bird, it
Is absolutely true!
A biochemist probing
Has caught without a doubt
The Queen of Love disrobing
And found her secret out.
What drives the Bombyx mori
To fly, intrepid male,
Lured by the old, old story
Six miles against the gale?
The formula, my Honey,
Is now in print to prove
What is, and no baloney,
The very stuff of love.
At Munich on the Isar
Those molecules were found
Which everyone agrees are
What makes the world go round;
What draws the male creation
To love, my darling doll,
Turns out, on trituration,
To be an alcohol.
Poem by A. D. Hope, Australian. Cultural enough for you, Antony?
The Arab's aren't bad at it, either:
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness,
And paradise were wealth enow."
Omar Khayyam (from Fitzgerald's translation)
Elsewhere, within the cultured and elite quarters, of the Internet (we have a secret handshake and wear funny costumes and everything), we have been unable to address any of the following matters.
Suggested answers and / or elucidated discourse are welcome from all and sundry, but most especially sundry, and, of course the peons may join in as well. Novel contributions to the normal lexicon will be given due and careful consideration (but don't call us, we'll call you).
“Notice how he ignores the fact that 61 Australian publishers attended the Book Fair, which by any per capita basis is a lot of representative publishers from one little country. Notice too how he fails to mention that Australia continues to defy all predictions of “the end of the book” by continuing to be a country of vociferous book buyers and book readers.
Notice that the defending commenters on his site seem to be ENTIRELY oblivious to the nature of the Frankfurt hosted annual Book Fair. One commenter even tries to mock Australia by mentioning the Adelaide Festival, etc, which, even though it, and others mentioned, are literary festivals, not publisher fairs. Ant’s little friends would seem to be as ignorant as the man himself. They don't even seem to be aware that the Frankfurt event is unique and global in nature.
Queries:
Why does this man persist in his asinine belief that Australia has no identity?
Why does this man persist in his dim-witted belief that Australia requires his help in obtaining an apparently absent identity?
Why does this man seemingly know nothing about Australia?
Is he a recent arrival to our shores?
Why does this man, who is culturally illiterate about Australia, persist with trying to write about Australian culture?
Why does this man only ever post vapid material on his own blog? (Surely one should save one’s worst material for lowering the tone on other people’s blogs?)”
BTW – there will be nothing but jeering and the naughty corner for the first bleedin’ obvious twit who tries to pick up on that last line. Do at least make the effort to use your own little synapses, rather than lamely appropriating from others.
I have nothing to add, except perhaps a resounding nicely put, Caz!
Over and out.
Anthony is right! Australians are such redneck scum.
We need our moral and intelectual betters -people like
Anthony- to whip us into shape!
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