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PEOPLE NICE
Social researcher Hugh Mackay has been banging on for years about how Australians are turning inward and becoming ever more selfish and materialistic. Factor this into your social research, Hugh:
The Salvation Army in Victoria had more offers of help than it knew what to do with this year as the state took the Christmas spirit to heart.
Hundreds of people called the charity organisation offering to help at the dozens of Christmas lunches held around the state.
“We were oversubscribed,” Salvation Army communications director Brad Halse said.
“Towards the end we have to turn volunteers away ...
Reverend Bill Crews reports similar generosity in New South Wales:
For well over 30 years now I have been involved in Christmas Day lunches for Sydney’s poor, needy and lonely ... but this year was different ...
We were literally bowled over by a tsunami of giving ...
Maybe it’s my post-Christmas tiredness, but I feel we could have looked after a million people with the number of potential volunteers who stepped forward.
Look for these views never to appear in a Hugh Mackay column. Ever.
From Mackay’s address to the Council of Churches: “At such a time, people don’t only become more prejudiced, they become less compassionate . . . They become much more self-absorbed, much more interested in attending to themselves and their own, their own families, their own street and suburb but not too concerned at what’s going on beyond that.”
So people are working to keep their own families off the dole, to create opportunities for their own children, to affect their own neighborhoods in positive, constructive ways - in short, they’re doing things on a scale that may seem small when looked at in the context of one individual, but when multiplied by thousands or hundreds of thousands, can really have a significant impact. Looks to me like MacKay, himself, has been “turning inwards”, and the barren landscape he sees is the atrophied moral imagination of his own mind.
Love it when the hometown makes the news :)
Slightly o/t but “Christmasy”.
Protester Lights Up Over Holiday Name
We got spirit!
Yes we do!
We got spirit!
How ‘bout you!To borrow from paco…I’m to lazy to look…:)
“At such a time, people don’t only become more prejudiced, they become less compassionate . . . They become much more self-absorbed, much more interested in attending to themselves and their own, their own families, their own street and suburb but not too concerned at what’s going on beyond that.”
Perfect description of suburbanite-sexual (as opposed to THE metro) Leftist OR in the words of one Spiro Agnew….
Ultra-liberalism today translates into a whimpering isolationism in foreign policy, a mulish obstructionism in domestic policy, and a pusillanimous pussyfooting on the critical issue of law and order.
In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.
More crudely put…I’ve got mine, now piss off.
#4 Grimmy: I saw a reference to this on another blog, along with a photo; the dude looked like they had dug him out of a pile of volcanic ash. He set fire to a Christmas tree, to an American flag and to himself. As suggested by your pep-rally verse, he is obviously a cheerleader for stupidity. Good thing he wasn’t carrying pom-poms; he’d never have had a chance.
Hey look…Felix Unger and Oscar Madison
Then there are some interesting facts about who is doing the giving.
I wonder when Hugh Mackay last gave blood. I’m sure I don’t agree with Hugh Mackay on a whole lot but he can have my blood when the time comes, if he needs it - if he wants blood from someone as selfish and materialistic as me, of course.
The thing the lefties never seem to grasp is how good it makes (decent) people feel to help someone else.
That’s something the Left will never understand. The only thing that makes them feel good it to tell
the prolesother people what to do.The Left takes great joy in forcing other people’s square boxes into their own round holes. :-(
Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2006 12 26 at 12:42 PM • permalinkThank you, Grimmy. I plan on massive intakes of hot tea and soup. Plus a turkey samwich. Perhaps my ‘tude will improve at some point. Or p’rhaps crawling back in bed is in order.
You know, I only had 3 Coors Lights yesterday, and I couldn’t understand why I felt so dizzy. “What a lightweight I’m becoming,” I thought, as I watched the children play with the poundy loud toy things…
Ushie: This is the remedy for you: a big cup of hot tea with a generous shot of Southern Comfort and a twist of lime. After three or four of those, you may still be sick, but you won’t care. My co-inventor of this remedy wanted to call it “The Gatrointestinal Delight of the Orient”, but I prefer the “Prescription Alcoholic Cold Obliterator”.
“Prescription Alcoholic Cold Obliterator”
LMAO! =^D
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 12 26 at 01:49 PM • permalinkOT: How much of a problem is this becoming?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20974393-2702,00.html
Ushie: Based on the theory that “laughter is the best medicine”, I offer the following .
Get well soon!
O/T, but here is the article on the old SAS guy that took on four muggers and caused them to retire in disorder (I’d been trying to find it and just stumbled across it again at RightWingDeathBogan - which, incidentally, is an awesome blog name).
Paco: I’m not laughing—I have to work with people just like that.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 12 26 at 04:13 PM • permalinkUshie, I’m a big fan of chicken soup when you aren’t feeling well, so please take lots of it and get well soon.
#20 Tiggy, I saw that over at AWH just before, and my blood is boiling. I’m just glad I’ve made it through Christmas and Boxing Day!
#23 Paco, thank you for the lovely compliment. It took me along time to think up that name. Must have been - what, 3.7 seconds? Cheers!
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 12 26 at 04:34 PM • permalink#26 Andrea: Well, maybe if you gave them some of those delicious cookies that I read about on your blog, they would have an incentive to be more smarter. Why, I bet if you distributed some of those cookies among commenters here, you’d see far less accidents with the italics jar. Cookies are brain food! Sure, MentalFloss and Michael Lonie don’t need any more cognition calories; but the rest of us could use an IQ booster.
spare a thought for david williamson
those selfish stupid aussie plebs are destroying his schtick on aid
won’t someone please think of the playwrights?
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 26 at 05:07 PM • permalinkHm. The person at the feelbetteraboutthings website (linked here) is apparently based in my part of the world. I… feel better about things because of that.
Paco: and my molasses cookies will keep them regular too.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 12 26 at 06:35 PM • permalinkAh, it must be those men of no appearance.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 12 26 at 06:44 PM • permalinkO/T, A happy? article about our friends to the north from todays Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20977254-2702,00.html
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 12 26 at 06:46 PM • permalink#35 1.618
::; ‘;;;’ ‘“::’; ‘’: “‘;”: “”” ;’
“santa snow” by 1.618 For sale $54,900
For sale for $54,900? I just used copy and paste.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 12 26 at 06:51 PM • permalinkAndrea
4. Make a habit of sitting on the toilet for five minutes right after breakfast. Your body will soon get in the habit of an early morning bowel movement.
Please remember to stock up on toilet tissue people, or your habit of sitting on the toilet for five minutes right after breakfast, could be longer.
#20 Tiggy, there are a lot of African immigrants in my neighbourhood. One was killed in a fight a couple of weeks ago. In this case an African gang met with a ME gang and an Islander gang. It was never going to be pretty.
I don’t think there will be any more problems with these immigrants than any other group. Or less.
The lefty narrative that we’re all becoming more selfish and cruel under Howard’s malign influence will never be shaken by anything as trivial as mere fact. Earlier this year, Radio National trumpeted a report which ‘proved’ we were becoming measurably more heartless. When Fran Kelly asked the commissioner of the report what comparative measure was being used to establish this increase, he blandly announced that, as no comparable study had in fact been done, the increase was simply his own ‘assumption’.
Tea, Maker’s Mark, honey and lemon. And I am fixing one up right now - not that I need it, but to preclude needing one. Call it Prophylactic Anti-Cough Orientation.
Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2006 12 26 at 08:39 PM • permalinkSome mothers, including mine, do have them.
Like Hugh Mackay, my brother constantly complains to me that John Howard has turned Australia into a nation of selfish people who think only of themselves. When I mentioned the record private contributions from our citizens to the 2004 Tsunami relief, he dismissed that as a momentary aberration in our headlong descent into selfish depravity.
Sadly, there is no cure for my brother’s affliction, especially while he continues to rely solely on the SMH and the ABC as the sources of his news and current affairs.O/T the australian is recycling the lebanese ambulance story today.
i’d love to hear the question that led to the IDFs guys response
i’m betting it was something along the lines of ’ can you give a 100% cast iron guarantee the ambulance wasn’t hit by israeli fire?’
which of course he can’t (neither can he give a personal guarantee the moon isn’t made of green cheese)
which, predictably, leads the journo to write
‘An Israeli army spokesman has now gone closer than ever before to admitting responsibility’
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 26 at 10:21 PM • permalink#50 Um, Skeeter, I don’t think we’ll be changing that name any time soon.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 12 26 at 10:31 PM • permalinkSimply, the move to the Right in Oz is about a movement from collective to personal responsibility.
It’s not the Government’s job to ensure our livelihoods, it’s ours. It’s not the Government’s job to look after the less fortunate, it’s ours.
It’s not that we’ve become more compassionate, it’s just that we do things ourselves, instead of waiting for others to do them in our name. Well, apart from the Lefties.
I believe there’s a place for both personal and collective action: but the pendulum had swung far too far to the Nanny State in the past. But no longer.
We went into East Timor instead of waiting for the UN to give us permission. We did the same in the relief effort after the Indian Ocean Tsunami.
Personal responsibility holds for nations too, and while the UN is totally dysfunctional, we need to do more not less.
It looks like the facts have forked another of the lefts little lies.
Posted by curious george on 2006 12 26 at 11:30 PM • permalinkNo-one has said it yet, so it comes to me.
Hugh Mackay is the most irritatingly self-righteous-sounding prat I have had the misfortune to read. The Worst Australian puts him next to the Editorial and political cartoon, and its just too nauseating.
Fortunately like many readers of the West I now just pull out the TV Guide and Comics and throw the rest away. Hugh Mackay is a big reason for that.
Nilknarf,
I’ve been reading that strange name of yours for over a year now and I’ve only just realized it says Debra Franklin backwards. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 12 27 at 02:28 AM • permalink“At such a time, people don’t only become more prejudiced, they become less compassionate . . . They become much more self-absorbed, much more interested in attending to themselves and their own, their own families, their own street and suburb but not too concerned at what’s going on beyond that.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t he complaining that people are thinking globally, but acting locally? You know, just like the Greens keep telling us to…
Posted by Harry Buttle on 2006 12 27 at 02:31 AM • permalinkOf course Hugh Mackay would have to believe that Australians are becoming more insular and selfish, how could he judge otherwise when all he associates with are left wing claret/chardonay sipping socialists who never come out of their eyrie to do any body any good, so of course all he ever observes are self centred wankers.
There’s a fellow who is occasionally invited to preach at our church. He’s one of those people who would probably agree with Hugh Mackay (supposedly a Christian) about how awful we all are. I think that because, when he preaches, that’s what he tells us. We’re all awful. Our efforts have been so miserably poor that all sorts of victim groups are still suffering even though Jesus has yet to return. Gee! I thought that there would be no heaven on earth until after the second coming.
Me, I suffer having to listen to the guy’s condemnations so I’ve decided to end my suffering. I’m not going to church any more when this guy is rostered to preach because what I want is more encouragement to do better and fewer accusations of having already failed abysmally.
But if the suffering of the poor of all sorts and all nations hasn’t markedly changed for the better within a few milliseconds, or less, of Jesus’ return then I’ll go back to Sunday services when the accuser is preaching, assuming they’re still on, and will abjectly accept all of this fellow’s condemnations of me for having failed to fix up the whole world. Maybe then I’ll be able to believe that such an outcome is within my power to achieve. Right now I don’t think it is so I just try to be generous to my neighbours and hope that everyone else is generous to theirs.
An Early Advocate of ‘Welfare Reform’
There are two kinds of welfare. One leads each individual according to his means, to alleviate the evils he sees around him. This type is as old as the world; it began with human misfortune. Christianity made a divine virtue of it and called it charity. The other, less instructive, more reasoned, less emotional, and often more powerful, leads society to concern itself with the misfortunes of its members and is ready systematically to alleviate their sufferings. This type is born of Protestantism and has developed only in modern societies. The first type is a private virtue; it escapes social action; the second, on the contrary, is produced and regulated by society. It is therefore with the second that we must be especially concerned.
At first glance, there is no idea that seems more beautiful and grander than that of public charity. Society is continually examining itself, probing its wounds, and undertaking to cure them. At the same time that it assures the rich the enjoyment of their wealth, society guarantees the poor against excessive misery. It asks some to give of their surplus in order to allow others the basic necessities. This is certainly a moving and elevating sight….Almost two and a half centuries have passed since the principle of legal charity was fully embraced by our neighbors [England], and one may now judge the fatal consequences that flowed from the adoption of this principle….Since the poor have an absolute right to the help of society, and have a public administration organized to provide it everywhere, one can observe in a Protestant country the immediate rebirth and generalization of all the abuses with which its reformers rightly reproached some Catholic countries. Man, like all socially organized beings, has a natural passion for idleness. There are, however, two incentives to work: the need to live and the desire to improve the conditions of life. Experience has proven that the majority of men can be sufficiently motivated to work only by the first of these incentives. The second is effective only with a small minority. Well, the charitable institution indiscriminately open to all those in need, or a law that gives all the poor a right to public aid, whatever the origin of their poverty, weakens or destroys the first stimulant and leaves only the second intact. The English peasant, like the Spanish peasant, if he does not feel the deep desire to better the position into which he has been born, and to raise himself out of his misery (a feeble desire which is easily crushed in the majority of men)—the peasant of both countries, I maintain, has no interest in working, or, if he works, has no interest in saving. He therefore remains idle or thoughtlessly squanders the fruits of his labors. Both these countries, by different causal patterns, arrive at the same result: the most generous, the most active, the most industrious part of the nation devotes its resources to furnishing the means of existence for those who do nothing or who make bad use of their labor….Is it possible to escape the fatal consequences of a good principle? For myself I consider them inevitable….Any measure that establishes legal charity on a permanent basis and gives it an administrative form thereby creates an idle and lazy class, living at the expense of the industrial and working class. This, at least, is its inevitable consequence if not the immediate result. It reproduced all the vices of the monastic system, minus the high ideals of morality and religion that often went along with it. Such a law is a bad seed planted in the legal structure. Circumstances, as in America, can prevent the seed from developing rapidly, but they cannot destroy it, and if the present generation escapes its influence, it will devour the well-being of generations to come.
—From Memoir on Pauperism, 51–58
#65 Daniel San, Wronwright once accused me of being an arab man in disguise, so I wouldn’t worry if I were you.
Hahaha!
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 12 27 at 08:38 AM • permalink#65- youre noy alone- i thought nilknarf arbed was an anagram and have spent ages trying to work it out- im so stupid i might start preaching global warming
Posted by eeniemeenie on 2006 12 27 at 08:30 PM • permalinkLOL eeniemeenie.
I like BARF AND RE LINK as an anagram of my name, actually.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 12 28 at 01:11 AM • permalinkI am not in a giving mood. I am feeling greedy and petulant.
I for instance do not want to give any more money to the ABC. That is one bunch of lepers that doesn’t deserve my charity.
Posted by mr creosote on 2006 12 28 at 06:46 AM • permalink
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Brisbane also was overwhelmed with generosity - My family and I delivered presents in our local area for Vinnies, and one family had so many gifts we had to take out the back seats of the car to fit them all in. At least 12 presents for each child, plus three bikes we couldn’t fit in the car (Kia Carnivale - not exactly small).