tanhaRe-inventing Respect
October 20th 2006 03:37
Authority
So Ned Kelly’s a hero. He laughed at authority and set a precedent for the Australian community of the future. Not that it did him a lot of good! What is it with us that we must verbally shred every authoritative structure in our society. Do we realise what we have in Australia?
Let’s see now!
1. We have Centrelink. All our elders receive a pension to make certain they can spend reclining years with dignity and self-respect, a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. If they spend it all on the pokies that is not Centrelink’s fault!
2. We have fall-back allowances for the times when people are out of work and very professionally run facilities to find work again, often including training for a specific job.
3. When we are sick and unable to work, or disabled, there is also financial assistance on a long term basis.
4. When father will not support the mothers of their children, or mothers will not accept the fathers, there is government assistance for the rearing of the children.
5. There are childcare facilities supported by government financing.
6. hospitals, schools, and assistance for private schools with their own value systems to teach, support for farmers in drought years, infrastructure,
7. Temporary accommodation for homeless and abused people, plus counsel to get rolling agin.
There seems no end to the amazing support that our government gives its people for times of stress. In all the world there is no place like Australia. Isn’t this why so many wish to migrate here from other countries.
Yet the best we can do is to buck authority at every opportunity, complain that the police are only ….to raise funds, that Centrelink demands a couple of hours of our time to attend to its requirements, that illegal immigrants are apprehended, and so on. Children in schools are taught to threaten parents with reporting for abuse if they so much as dare to discipline them. Doctors are leaving the profession because of the high cost of insurance against (and great likelihood of ) being sued. People are actively looking for opportunities to sue and receive a great payout. Marriage as an institution is under huge attack both from trivialising it (putting it on an equal footing with de facto and homosexual relationships) and from within by divorce.
The legal systems are becoming a joke as the wealthy or knowledgeable get away with their crimes through technicalities of law. The general populace has (with good reason) lost respect for the law.
We elect a prime minister and then proceed to tear him apart at every step of the way, and pay journalists, cartoonists and a parliamentary opposition to make a mockery of him..
We have the best country in the world down here, down under! It’s high time we taught our children to honour it instead of burning its flag, and to honour its institutions and authorities. It’s time they learned to honour their parents and teachers and learn by obedience as has every generation before them. All they learn by their disrespect is to go their own way and create various forms of anarchy, to de-stabilise society, to be non-co-operative with anything and everything., to be cynical, even to plan obsolescence into their marriages (what a horrible inheritance for the children of that marriage!)
Parents, stand by teachers if your child is disciplined. Citizens, stand by the police as they perform all their duties – we could not possibly do without them. (Oh yes, I’ve had to pay my share of fines, but that was nobody’s fault but my own!) Give thanks for the Centrelink support you receive when it’s needed and do your best to give something back to the community (maybe a voluntary service?) as a thank you for that support..
Fellow citizens of Australia, let us be most thankful for all the hard-won benefits we have in this country, and let us now defend it and its institution with vigour, joy and determination. People have shed blood to give us what we have. Mockery is not the right response. The anti-authority fetish is way past its use-by date.
You know, our soldiers were known for their so-called lack of respect for authority. It was the bushman’s code that led this. But I suspect that what was behind this is simply that they demanded to have leaders whom they could respect. Out there in the bush it’s an essential life and death matter! Weary Dunlop would have to be the prime example of a man who held the respect, and do-or-die loyalty of his team. Let us reward integrity in our valuable leaders with strong, outspoken support, be they national or local. Let us value our inheritance that has been accumulated in blood, sweat and tears. Let us honour our teachers, police and other authorities, and rebuild respect, with its great community strengths, in our damaged but magnificent nation.
So Ned Kelly’s a hero. He laughed at authority and set a precedent for the Australian community of the future. Not that it did him a lot of good! What is it with us that we must verbally shred every authoritative structure in our society. Do we realise what we have in Australia?
Let’s see now!
1. We have Centrelink. All our elders receive a pension to make certain they can spend reclining years with dignity and self-respect, a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. If they spend it all on the pokies that is not Centrelink’s fault!
2. We have fall-back allowances for the times when people are out of work and very professionally run facilities to find work again, often including training for a specific job.
4. When father will not support the mothers of their children, or mothers will not accept the fathers, there is government assistance for the rearing of the children.
5. There are childcare facilities supported by government financing.
6. hospitals, schools, and assistance for private schools with their own value systems to teach, support for farmers in drought years, infrastructure,
7. Temporary accommodation for homeless and abused people, plus counsel to get rolling agin.
There seems no end to the amazing support that our government gives its people for times of stress. In all the world there is no place like Australia. Isn’t this why so many wish to migrate here from other countries.
Yet the best we can do is to buck authority at every opportunity, complain that the police are only ….to raise funds, that Centrelink demands a couple of hours of our time to attend to its requirements, that illegal immigrants are apprehended, and so on. Children in schools are taught to threaten parents with reporting for abuse if they so much as dare to discipline them. Doctors are leaving the profession because of the high cost of insurance against (and great likelihood of ) being sued. People are actively looking for opportunities to sue and receive a great payout. Marriage as an institution is under huge attack both from trivialising it (putting it on an equal footing with de facto and homosexual relationships) and from within by divorce.
The legal systems are becoming a joke as the wealthy or knowledgeable get away with their crimes through technicalities of law. The general populace has (with good reason) lost respect for the law.
We elect a prime minister and then proceed to tear him apart at every step of the way, and pay journalists, cartoonists and a parliamentary opposition to make a mockery of him..
We have the best country in the world down here, down under! It’s high time we taught our children to honour it instead of burning its flag, and to honour its institutions and authorities. It’s time they learned to honour their parents and teachers and learn by obedience as has every generation before them. All they learn by their disrespect is to go their own way and create various forms of anarchy, to de-stabilise society, to be non-co-operative with anything and everything., to be cynical, even to plan obsolescence into their marriages (what a horrible inheritance for the children of that marriage!)
Parents, stand by teachers if your child is disciplined. Citizens, stand by the police as they perform all their duties – we could not possibly do without them. (Oh yes, I’ve had to pay my share of fines, but that was nobody’s fault but my own!) Give thanks for the Centrelink support you receive when it’s needed and do your best to give something back to the community (maybe a voluntary service?) as a thank you for that support..
Fellow citizens of Australia, let us be most thankful for all the hard-won benefits we have in this country, and let us now defend it and its institution with vigour, joy and determination. People have shed blood to give us what we have. Mockery is not the right response. The anti-authority fetish is way past its use-by date.
You know, our soldiers were known for their so-called lack of respect for authority. It was the bushman’s code that led this. But I suspect that what was behind this is simply that they demanded to have leaders whom they could respect. Out there in the bush it’s an essential life and death matter! Weary Dunlop would have to be the prime example of a man who held the respect, and do-or-die loyalty of his team. Let us reward integrity in our valuable leaders with strong, outspoken support, be they national or local. Let us value our inheritance that has been accumulated in blood, sweat and tears. Let us honour our teachers, police and other authorities, and rebuild respect, with its great community strengths, in our damaged but magnificent nation.
| 74 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Chantal
Centrelink will give some people obscene amounts of money eg. I know of a single parent getting $600 per week from Centrelink on top of $800 a week child support but they give only a small amount to the students who are working to better our economy.
Australia is a fantastic place to live but there are both sides to every story.
Comment by Brenton
Dr Spin
Tales From The Other Side
Blip Blog
Gadget Museum
Comment by Helen's House
I agree there's abuse of the systems and in the systems, but where would we be without them? Therefore our basic attitude needs to value them highly and commend where possible. Even though we rightly want to correct abuses, what we have is very valuable.
Hallo Brenton,
You are right. As I said, we demand leaders worthy of our loyalty. We have the privilege of doing that and we value very highly the system that gives us that privilege. That's probably why we're keen to promote democracy all over the wolrd, because "kings" have let people down.
It's respect in general I want to see re-built. In law courts the lawyers have llimits of respect in dealing with each other's arguments. I'd like to see similar llimits of respect in parliamentary debates. I want children to respect and obey teachers and people in general to respect police on principle. Yes, you get the odd one that doesn't do it right, but overall, respect is the appropriate attitude and builds a tight-knit community with confidence in the institutions that we, democratically, have put in place. Challenging leaders can still be done without dis-respect. That's what the principles of good debating are all about.