Why an Uncommonwealth (or Donald Horne was a giant douche)

Hi, thanks for reading this, the first post on Uncommonwealth. So why have I decided to write Uncommonwealth – well it is because I think Donald Horne was a douche. Not to hack on one of the pre-eminent thinkers and social critics of Australian public life in the 1960s – but he was well out of order.

Don’t know what I am blagging on about? Have you heard of the “Lucky Country”? This is Horne’s most famous quote (and title of his 1964 book- newsflash: not exactly a page turner). You may have heard this expression, only about a billion times if you have ever followed politics in Australia.

Not a Recommended Read

What most people don’t realise is that Horne was being ironic.

The quote in full is:

“Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck”.

Horne believed that while other industrialised nations created wealth using “clever” means such as technology and other innovations, Australia did not. Rather, Australia’s  prosperity derived from its rich natural resources (Resources Boom ring a bell?). Horne said that Australia “showed less enterprise than almost any other prosperous industrial society.”

Australia has always, and still today, brings to bear more innovation, intellectual firepower and disregard for conventional limiting beliefs than almost any other people in the world.

So why am I writing this blog, today, in 2011? Because I don’t want to see Horne proven right. In the most affluent, enterprising and prosperous nation in the southern hemisphere, we are getting  a daily diet of fear, mediocrity and small picture vision for Australia.

This blog seeks to restore the balance and point out where we are going RIGHT! It is time that Australia had a positive debate, about the challenges and massive opportunities that it finds itself presented with.

If you think Australia has potential. If you don’t want to live in a country with a bright future behind it, then please, join with me, enter the debate; agree, disagree – I don’t care. Left, right or inside out I want to hear your vision, your voice for the future of this truly lucky country. Lets make this UNCOMMONWEALTH of ours really renowned.

Thank you for reading – I hope to connect with you in the fight for the Uncommonwealth of Australia.