Does Australia have a cringeworthy new US fetish?

pietillidie · Joined: 07 Jan 2005

Is it my imagination, or does Australia have a new US fetish? This is not a scientific observation by any means (though there might be some pertinent survey data out there), but I seem to be noticing it everywhere I go.

From being told to join in with 4th of July celebrations on radio this morning (WTF?), to an astonishing number of people living out daily life through nutty US cable news stations, to local political debate being framed by US events, the level of worship and adoration for Batshit Crazy Land has hit new highs.

I had thought this was just a Nick's phenomenon because many of us are big media readers, but not so, apparently.

Of course, it might be that Australian attitudes haven't changed, and increased access to global media has simply amplified the fawning. And there's always the Yellow and Brown Perils to usher the frightened into the arms of (even a hopelessly erratic and hamstrung) power.

No doubt it also suits the billionaires, global and local, to keep people focused on the chaos and fear of another country. What better way to make people imagine things are falling apart here than by placing them on virtual US streets? We need radical change, folks; can't you see things are falling apart?

If there are not enough Australian crazies to feed people's anger, fear and blood lust on TV each night, there is a veritable smorgasbord of US nutters on offer daily!

Whatever the case, why anyone would still obsess over the US after the disasters of Iraq/Afghanistan, the Global Financial Crisis, and the nation's chronic murder and poverty rates, is beyond comprehension. There are plenty of sane, high quality societies out there in the world to focus on, and the US isn't one of them.

David · I dare you to try Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: Andromeda

I notice this very much among the social justice oriented people of my generation. My Facebook feed is filled with posts from US blogs about issues that really have little relevance to Australian issues (like whether or not wearing a Native American head-dress constitutes 'cultural appropriation'). I don't have any American friends, so it's weird. It reminds me of that famous line from the '70s German film Kings of the Road: "The Yanks have colonised our subconscious".

think positive · Side By Side Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Location: somewhere

To be fair a lot of those are my posts David!

And yes I love the good ol Stars and Stripes!

The accents, Disneyland, Vegas, Florida, most of the people I've met there, the movies, planet Hollywood and rainforest cafe food, the Star-Spangled Banner, the play offs, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite national park, walmart, $20 American honey, Seinfeld, judge Judy, biggest loser, walking dead, Armstrong, sons of anarchy, Donahue and the greatest of all, Oprah!

sixpoints · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Location: Lulie Street

Do we have a new US fetish?
I think we've certainly had a US fetish since the dawn of mass popular US culture 1920's onwards. But I think we always saw the US as some mixture of exciting, powerful, modern, but also as distinctly foreign.
What worries me somewhat is the notion that many Australians seem to now be viewing the world through US eyes and wanting to adopt an unthinking US style approach to our civic life.
I too find much about the US exciting, powerful etc, but I do not want my country to become the US. We have a history of looking out for each other, something I think the Yanks could learn from us. But I'm concerned we may be heading down to some neo-US brand of obsessive individualism that is not the Australian way.

Wokko · Come and take it. Joined: 04 Oct 2005

O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?