Ok, I've read this, and thank you for posting it.
if I look at this
He reminds us that a nation’s political life rests upon cultural foundations. Each society has its own way of seeing the world, its own basic assumptions about what is right and wrong, its own vision of a better world that gives national life direction and purpose.
and I think of Australia - my interest (my interests are Oz and France) -
I've said for ages that the problems etc for Australia, the behaviours and politics and dinner table talk, the way of life ------ all of it is from cultural foundation.
I have said it many times ''it's the culture''
Now if that is correct and if it is problematic - just how can one make changes (even if we understand that cultural change might take a while and is at all malleable)
the question becomes ----------- 'how' -- 'how can one change it'
now in the article - the article is about America - a very different animal to Oz -
and here is the suggested solution for America -
''The task, then, is to build a new cultural consensus that is democratic but also morally coherent. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that this work of cultural repair will be done by religious progressives, by a new generation of leaders who will build a modern social gospel around love of neighbor and hospitality for the marginalized.''
Now - for Oz, that is a not possible, because it's a vastly different story.
Where Oz and America do share what is highly likely is - ''.But the work of building that culture will take decades. Until then, we, as a democracy, are on thin ice."
Is there a potential mechanism for Australia? ----- I don't know if there is any workable mechanism. But, I've had some thoughts - which I think I've put up on here more than once.
Maybe it's a fantasy dream, maybe it's totally unworkable, maybe it's a bad idea.
But, I believe that the best place to begin is at the dinner table. Which can extend to the office wall, to a pledge taken before school every morning, to the speaking of a pledge at every sporting event and every opening or every conference, at the opening of every parliamentary sitting, every council meeting, every public gathering - a pledge that is said at every meal by every Ozzie we can get
like in the old days where people used to say the Lord's prayer, like where we would start school with the Lord's prayer and God save the queen, - ditto God save the Queen at the football. Like now we have the welcome to country thingy.
Like many nations have a pledge that they say ---------- well, why not Oz?
A pledge by the individual, the family, the child, the adult etc -
to make a nation, to make a society, to work, to live FOR a better society for ALL
to change that current mum and dad wish for the kids - which is that they wish the kids get an education (which means learn stuff to get a better job), to get a better job to earn more money so they can buy a better house, and a bigger house so they can fill it with more stuff. So they can buy a station wagon and have baby seats and a dog in the back.
That's Ozzie aspiration.
That - is the culture.
I suggest a cultural change - driven in by pledge - to something like this -
(ok, it's rough, and it's nothing and nowhere near complete)
but the CONCEPT - is that we live and work for ALL - a better society - not just a house, station wagon and dog
'On land and sea under starry skies, on desert sand and snow we rise, to take each day to higher thrive for all to come when we have done
we work and play and laugh and live, but we never shy from what we give, to those to come we make adil, we always give what we will
As one we move towards the sun and think about everyone, for it's our land and love for what we strive to live a life of no divide..................''
I'm buggered if I can think of anything else that might gain traction -
and of course - the concept would have to be driven by a great leader, who got many sectors of society to get behind it - to make it viral, to gain a thrust, a traction to become a habit and instilled in a character - to a destiny
in short ------------ a culture
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