One
thing that intrigues me about our Australian culture is this - we can
call someone a bastard and they'll turn around and buy us a beer. In
most, if not the rest of the world a broken nose is probably a good
outcome - many places we'd have our throat cut. Why?
While I have never been able to find anything to confirm my theory, I suspect it goes back to the First Fleet. If my memory is correct, there were 11 ships, one carried women. The women were there for one reason, and one reason only - the authorites in England believed there would be riots if there was no female company.
Unlike the Americans, whose first white settlers gave thanks to God for their new land when they first embarked, our forbears rolled out the keg and had a good old fashioned drunken orgy. The first white bastard concieved on our shores was probably conceived that night. And perhaps that's why we are so relaxed about the term. In our early days we may well have been a pack of bastards.
Now one would think that given the differences in our orgins - Australian and American - that America had the more enlightened origin and we would therefore expect that they would have developed a more enlightened society. Yet, from where I sit, I see us as having developed a more cohesive, fairer place to live and it concerns me now that we seem to be going down a different road.
If someone can correct my understanding of our history, please feel free to do so.
While I have never been able to find anything to confirm my theory, I suspect it goes back to the First Fleet. If my memory is correct, there were 11 ships, one carried women. The women were there for one reason, and one reason only - the authorites in England believed there would be riots if there was no female company.
Unlike the Americans, whose first white settlers gave thanks to God for their new land when they first embarked, our forbears rolled out the keg and had a good old fashioned drunken orgy. The first white bastard concieved on our shores was probably conceived that night. And perhaps that's why we are so relaxed about the term. In our early days we may well have been a pack of bastards.
Now one would think that given the differences in our orgins - Australian and American - that America had the more enlightened origin and we would therefore expect that they would have developed a more enlightened society. Yet, from where I sit, I see us as having developed a more cohesive, fairer place to live and it concerns me now that we seem to be going down a different road.
If someone can correct my understanding of our history, please feel free to do so.
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