Aussie Values - Good Value???

I just saw an item on TV showing Fred Nile, under a huge banner with the Australian Flag and the words AUSSIE VALUES, calling for a halt to Muslim migration until it can be established that the existing 300,000 Australian Muslims can be vouched for as worthy Aussies. Stone the bloody crows!!! When jingoism, racism and Christian self
righteousness collide they make for a perverse mix.

Then there was the standard 60 Minutes piece which once again talked of Aussie Values being freedom, mateship, patriotism, resilience, optimism (the kind that begets ‘she’ll be right!’). The usual suspects were interviewed: the ex-convict (freedom); the soldier (mateship); the dynastic grazier (resilience and optimism); the migrant (the lot); the flag draped yobbo (patriotism to excess). Once again it was presented as if these values are the exclusive province of Australians. Somewhere in there I guess Aussie Values do reside but it is the misuse of them by anyone from politicians to ordinary people that really gets me. It’s such a copout to use Aussie Values as a weapon in any holier than thou attack on someone whose difference you can’t handle. When you look at the daily examples of ALL sorts of people behaving contrary to the Aussie Values that we all think identify us a Aussies then you realize they are more an ideal than a real thing. The unprovoked bashings, the corruption, the executive crime, the ridiculous salaries that company CEOs get paid, the preference for vested interests, the rip offs and exploitation, the road rage, the obscene defences lawyers mount for vermin, etc. etc etc. all have nothing to do with fair go and mateship and tolerance and all the rest that we think typically characterize Australians. Values are a very mixed bag and open to all sorts of interpretation, use and misuse. Some will think I'm guilty of all three right here.