Reflections upon Australian & Western Culture - 12.09.08

Our culture claims to be in support of “the little person”, supporting the individual, our culture is no doubt an individualistic based culture, this is emphasized by the simple recent example of the government telling the community that we are in an economic boom and that if you cannot make it happen and be successful or reap the benefits economically and financially from this boom then you are lazy, or there is something wrong with you. This automatically and directly represents an individualistic attitude of how society should function; it does not represent a collectivist approach or attitude towards how people function. So in analyzing this, looking deeply at the structure of our society, at how our society operates, to one’s understanding, it is known that we support the “little man” and support individualism, success and perseverance of that individual to be able to achieve whatever they please, the sky is not the limit, there is no limit.
Now I understand we are not as extreme as other nations, perhaps the most extreme nation of this mentality and culture is the USA, where individualism and self driven success is even promoted highly within their legislations, laws and governing regulations, you need not look further than the structure of the health plans, the structure of their welfare plans, it supports individualism, and that each person is responsible highly for themselves, if you require an ambulance it will cost you, out of pocket $3000 USD, if you lose your job, the government may support you and compensate you economically for approximately 6 weeks, then you are on your own. This culture promotes competition, promotes an individual to rely on themselves, to fend for themselves, to be innovative, to desire, to chase, to be persistant, especially economically. Desires? Mmm, that subject is for another paper. Back to where we were; now this is not necessarily a negative concept, but anything in its extreme form is detrimental to anyone and any institution. Their health plans are tailored to force individuals to work and work hard, at all costs, again there seems to lack compassion here, there seems to lack support from government institutions that are instilled to help individuals and groups of individuals. There seems to lack balance.
Back to the original point of our government advocating always helping “the little person”, I don’t see this. What I see and what I feel is the discrimination at highly subtle levels towards minority groups. Within our culture aren’t minority groups the little people? In a culture dominated highly by white persons, are minority groups not considered “the little person”, minority groups in our culture include anyone who is not socially or culturally accepted by the dominant group, this discrimination is not always made obvious or even made public or is expressed loudly with voice. It is observed and felt at its subtle levels, it is not even understood through laws and legislation, it is a feeling that is felt strongly amongst all people that are open to it, and most of all amongst the people being discriminated against. When a building is built and disabled access is denied, that is discrimination against a minority group, when advertising is created and geared up, that appeals to the dominant group within society, is this not discrimination? Especially when the product is one that would appeal to all human persons. Why is that openly and through established laws the majority of persons detest racism and discrimination, but covertly we are still racist, by our thoughts, our unconscious actions, just because we do not intend racism, that does not mean we are not being hurtful and racist.
Is it because of our racist past? Throughout history dominant groups have constantly oppressed the minority groups, in our country, we have programs such as ABSTUDY, this in itself is racist, it says that aboriginals are not capable of helping themselves so we not only will provide them with all they need, but we will also segregate them and put them under their own category? What is the purpose can they not simply be included with other teenagers? This would not be harmful, not at all! The situation in the rural areas of Australia, where many aboriginals are suffering, they were first left there to suffer and ignored as part of Australia, the government and its people swept the situation under the carpet, until it got to intense, and then they intervened and acted as if they were angels sent down from heaven to cure the hell infested world that people have created for each other. If the government had done its job accordingly and efficiently by acting in time, and foreseeing events, as properly allocated governments do, and in this situation simply treat all people as equals and not segregate them based on their color of skin, or ethnicity, there wouldn’t have been any problem. Aboriginals disagreeing with each other are not only an Aboriginal issue, it is a people issue, people do not disagree with each other. This is the problem, how we perceive issues and circumstance, plays a large role in how we then interpret and act upon that interpretation, whether it’s with a racist slur or whether it’s with openness and equality, and we judge people not on their color of skin and typify them but by simply their actions as persons. But again this is problematic in itself, as our past experiences dictate how we deal with people now, today, and unfortunately we must acknowledge our racist past and influences on our unconscious state of being before we face the world for perhaps how it really is, and that is free of color, free of ethnicity and the only diversity in culture that is observed is one of simply accepting that people are different, different is not bad. This now leads us to attempt to understand to why people are scared to break their old habits?
A possible explanation could be our fear breaking away from old values and what we think to be right in life, but also breaking away from the group mentality and being different from the majority. The conformity individuals hold when it comes to groups, the fear of being ostracized, judged vs. the intrinsically right thing to do. People today still do not accept inter racial mixing of most kinds, we claim to be multi cultural, but are we? Are we really? I feel not. Because I see it on the street every day, different groups stay with whom and what they know, yes different races mix, but are they all comfortable? What happens in extreme cases, where individuals are pushed to their maximum, what happens to individuals then? A though experiment; people stick to what and who they know, they stay with familiarity, and this familiarity is forced upon us as individuals from a young age, there is difficulty at times with cross culture relationships and integration, because of history, our history is very powerful and holds much expectation, it carries the expectations of all those before us and the interwoven embededness within individuals to protect themselves, “their kind”. Survival is crucial, and to identify with family and those “alike” and never go against that. How do you go against all that you have been bought up with? This issue was seen strongly on the movie freedom writers, where people were dissected internally in to sects, groups, they were not treated as people, they were treated as hierarchy, and each group had themselves at the top of the “food chain”, the divisions in themselves were very painful, the degree of discrimination was easy to point out, if you were of diverse ethnicity you were with “your kind” and no one else’s. How can the human race progress morally and with intelligence and logic if segregations and divisions are created by all persons, all the time? It can’t happen, not in that manner. Why is the need to be connected to something to familiarity so powerful to the psyche? That emotional attachment is so powerful, emotions play a large part. But what if we all had a mental shift and attached ourselves to persons, and the familiarity was not of color or culture, but by simply being alive, and living, now, as individuals our scope of justice has increased, now more is allowed in, therefore the emotional aspect of attachment has just been opened to more. This is a positive step, not easy, as it is difficult to break all that past experiences have created but it is a starting point to work from. There is much work to be done, from many areas, from parents, to the role education must play, to the assumptions we make which must be eliminated. Our culture allows much room for selfishness which is shown by the culture itself in which we live in, self sacrifice must be respected more and deep cultural stigmas removed from our understanding. I do not have concrete solutions, as my own experiences are limited in themselves, but I do have options that could be put in to practice. This is a start; we can only make beginnings in order for change to occur…