The Traditional Australian

10 Feb 07

The traditional Australian is born to be a self-made individual, one who aspires to becoming a success story by digging for success in his own backyard.

This genetic temperament has an active interest in general knowledge. He wishes to be informed about what matters and keeps a tight sense of priorities.

This fellow does not merely pull his own weight, just for the sake of it, he takes pride in pulling his own weight, because the ability to be self-driven has always been regarded as a major breakthrough in the evolution of the species.

It is especially gratifying to find valuable resources at home; it is economical and you know it belongs to you. But it takes much faith to keep digging in your own backyard, only to find nothing after another year, so our fellow enjoys keeping what is his—not least because his faith often must last him 20 years.

Here is another mysterious observation a foreigner can't bypass:
The Traditional Australian enjoys keeping what is his, most of all—he lives and dies to protect it—yet he has a natural spirit of sharing what is most valuable to him, if it can help someone else.

This detail immediately destroys the cliché of a typical shark looking for self-interest. Some within the borders may be selfish. But despair is not a national symbol from anywhere in particular. What an outsider can't fail to notice is that the Australian has a typical preference for not being a shark.

The Essential Australian has a knowledge of how to endure, but also knows that he is not born just to put up with life. As it turns out, he does not put up with trash, for a preference to travel light. Oddly enough, he will carry those who can't quite pull their own weight—due to age or other reason, it does not make any difference to him:

The person who has a genuine Australian feeling accepts to help others as a condition of his being what he is, and to keep being what he is, which he prefers to any other way of being.

Club version sample

Australiana Links:

Australian Incentives

What is Australian or un-Australian?

Background and graphics created with Gimp