This originally appeared on my political blog at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/06/australians.html.
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Aussies used to be proud of a stereotype - that few went anywhere near, and was exclusively male - of being self reliant, laconic, bushies.
That stereotype got gradually replaced as we moved through the 20th Century with others - of being larrikins, then of being able to fix anything with a bit of "baling wire" and so on, and then - from the 70s on - with being multicultural and having gotten over the cultural cringe.
Again, none of them ever really fit reality.
Now we've got a range of stereotypes that people hold up when it suits them to show off not so much the reality of being an Australian, but what each person thinks - or thinks at that time - we should be holding up as an ideal.
The truth is we're a mix of around 25 million people - there's no one stereotype that can embrace the real mix of cultures in our nation.
But there are a few flaws we need to admit to, and then deal with - racism, classism (yes, it does exist in Australian society), small-minded bigotry and xenophobia, simple-minded "thinking", and wanting to be one of the rich - not even wanting to be one of the squattocracy, just one of the rich elites, which is another fatal flaw that the evil John Howard nurtured and polished in our collective psyche until it came to tarnish everything else.
