The word "elite" gets bandied about alot but often defies definition due the nature with which it is used. One of the most insightful descriptions of the Australian elite I have seen is by Greg Egan . In his novel Distress one of his characters called the elites the "Professional Australians".

Professional Australians

Greg Egan in my opinion is Australia's best author, and would rank him as the person on this planet I would most like to have a beer and a chat with. While he writes mainly in Science Fiction, he is not scared to add wider social issues into his novels. Most post-cyberpunk sci-fi authors often limit themselves to the near future, Egan does not always do so, but his novels which do have implemented near future Australian social and environmental issues. Distress , published in 1995, is one such novel.

Distress contains a lengthy commentary on the Australian "elites". Egan writes from the viewpoint of an Australian character named Bill Munroe who was one of the original pioneers on the bio-engineered coral island of "Stateless" out in the Pacific. Stateless had earned the enmity of modern nations as it was built on stolen biotech intellectual property from America by the biotech engineers who created the technology.

In the novel, Australian is one of the strictest nation-states toward Stateless. It has trade restrictions on the island and won't allow any direct flights. The main character, Andrew, has to fly up into South East Asia to catch a flight to Stateless which is east of Australia. The following discussion is between Andrew and Bill Munroe takes place on Stateless and explains why Munroe came to live in Stateless and why Australia is the strictest nation-state toward Stateless;

I said, "Did you really come here [Stateless] for the light?"

Munroe shook his head. "Hardly, I just had to get away."

"From what?"

"All the noise. All the cant. All the Professional Australians."

"Ah" I'd first heard that term when I was studying film history; it had been coined to describe the mainstream directors of the 1970's and 80s. As one historian had put it: 'They possessed no distinguishing features except for their nationality; they had nothing to say, and nothing to do except foist a claustrophobic vocabulary of tired nationalist myths and icons on to their audience, while loudly proclaiming themselves to be "defining the national character", and to represent, in person, "a nation finding its voice".' I'd thought this was probably a harsh judgement - until I'd seen some of the films. Most of them were stultifying horse opera's - rural colonial melodrama's - or sentimentalised war stories. The nadir of the period, though, was probably an attempted comedy in which Albert Einstein was portrayed as an Australian apple farmer's son, who 'splits beer atoms' and falls in love with Marie Curie.

I said, "I always thought the visual arts had grown out of that long ago. Especially in your mode [painting]"

Munroe scowled, "I'm not talking about art. I'm talking about the entire dominant culture."

"Come on! There is no 'dominant culture' anymore. The filter is mightier than the broadcaster." At least, that was the net-swoon line; I still wasn't sure I bought it.

Munroe hadn't. "Very Zen. Try exporting Australian medical biotech to Stateless, and you'll soon find out exactly who is in control."

I had no answer to that.

The discussion between Andrew and Munroe picks up again soon after;

He [Munroe] said, "Don't you ever get tired of living in a society which talks about itself, relentlessly - and usually lies? Which defines everything worthwhile - tolerance, honesty, loyalty, fairness - as 'uniquely Australian'? Which pretends to encourage diversity - but can't ever stop babbling about its 'national identity'? Don't you ever get sick of the endless parade of buffoons who claim the authority to speak on your behalf: politicians, intellectuals, celebrities, commentators - defining and characterising you in every detail ... from your 'distinctive Australian sense of humour' right down to your f**king 'collective subconscious iconography' ... who are all simply, liars and thieves."

I was taken aback for a moment, but on reflection this was a recognizable description of the mainstream political and academic culture. Or if not the mainstream, at least the loudest. I shrugged. "Every country has some level of parochial bulls**t like that going on, somewhere. The US is almost as bad. But I hardly notice it anymore, least of all at home[Australia]. I suppose I've just learnt to tune it out, most of the time."

"I envy you then, I never could."

The tram slid on, displaced dust hissing softly. Munroe had a point: nationalists - political and cultural - who claimed to be the voice of their nation could disenfranchise those they 'represented' just as effectively as sexists who claimed to be the voice of their sex. A handful of people pretending to speak for forty million - or five billion - would always wield disproportionate power, merely by virtue of making the claim.

So what was the solution? Move to Stateless? Become a-sex? Or just stick your head in a Balkanized corner of the net, and try to believe that none of it mattered.

Munroe said, "I would have thought that the flight from Sydney was enough to make anyone want to leave for good. Physical proof of the absurdity of nations."

I laughed drily. "Almost. Being petty and vindictive with the East Timorese is understandable; imagine dirtying the bayonets of our business partners for all those years, and then having the temerity to turn around and take us to court. What the problem is with Stateless, though, I have no idea. None of EnGeneUity patents were Australian-owned, were they?"

"No."

"So what's the big deal. Even Washington doesn't go out of its way to punish Stateless quite so ... comprehensively."

Munroe said, "I do have one theory."

"Yeah?"

"Think about it. What's the biggest lie the political and cultural ruling class tells itself? Where's the greatest disparity between image and truth? What are the attributes which any self-respecting Professional Australian boasts about the most - and possesses the least?"

"If this is a cheap Freudian joke, I'm going to be very disappointed."

"Suspicion of authority. Independence of spirit. Nonconformity. So what could they possibly find more threatening than an island full of anarchists."

in the previous diary I pointed out the disparity between Bush's inaugural speech and the reality of his situation. Bush is not unique, the denial of reality extends to Australian politics as well. In 1995, Egan pointed out that the emperor was wearing no clothes - ten years later, Australia remains bare arse naked.

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The Howard Government has decided that capitalism and globalism erode culture. As a consequence they have decided that establishing culture is the role of government. Sadly their view of what constitutes Australian culture is myopic, and backward looking. It is non-adaptive, and overly nationalistic - an attempt to keep the government and nation-state relevant. Government can encourage culture through reducing the artificial barriers to interaction, innovation and cultural memory.

Switch The Channel

The drive through eastern Pennsylvania is picturesque. Rolling fields of corn are broken by rivers, towns and the occasional city such as Harrisburg and Allentown. The scenery goes through many, and drastic changes. Sadly the music over the radio does not.

Between the major cities such as Washington DC and New York is a deadspot which Clear Channel has moved into. The spectrum is dominated by stations called the Hawk, or the River, or the Eagle. These stations pump out exceedingly soporific and non-challenging music. There is only so much Phil Collins and Bachman Turner Overdrive the mind can take before the select button is left in a permanent state of motion.

Capitalism is brutal toward art, it only rewards profitable art, and mainstream success is dependent upon almost absolute popularity. The cities and populations centers are kinder, the sheer numbers of consumers allow for greater diversity in media. The spectrum around New York is jammed with radio stations for every niche, spanish, metal, rap, hip-hop, book talk, talkback, college radio and so-on.

Eastern Pennsylvania is barren by comparison. I can recall as a teen not being able to pick up 2JJJ on the radio in far western Sydney. This was prior to 2JJJ going national and expanding their broadcast range. As a consequence I was limited to the repetitive mush of 2MMM or 2DAY FM. It wasnt until I moved into Eastern Sydney that I got exposed the underground Sydney music scene. I have been a fan of Sydney pop ever since.

Gary Sauer-Thompson makes the point that capitalism leaves little place for culture, and only tolerates culture if it is profitable, or can be used to leverage a profit. Economic liberty and culture are diametrically opposed. Culture exists despite capitalism, not because of it.

The Howard Government has decided that a unifying culture is important to maintain a nation state's identity and they have been using the power of Government to try and enforce a culture in an environment of social and economic liberty. This will ultimately fail, liberty is stronger than a nation-state, and more persistent than any government.

The Government's intrusion in this area requires a great deal of energy and expense to try and get people to follow their view of an Australian mono-culture. Liberty has a lower energy point, and is a more natural residual interaction point for a society. The Howard Government will undoubtedly be voted out one day, and the constant attention, expense and energy expended on trying to establish the anglo-australian culture will be forgotten, or morphed. It is no replacement for the emergant interactive properties of individuals interacting without interference.

If the Government truly wants to ensure an Australian culture survives, adapts and flourishes under globalisation and economic liberty, then they need to ensure the cost of interaction between individuals is zero. This will mean several artifical barriers which government controls will need to dropped to zero, and the rents extracted from them removed.

One of the greatest inhibitions to culture is the intellectual property laws that have been expanding without end. Copyright should not exist beyond a generation with a renewal being required after ten years. This would enable the majority of unprofitable culture to be shared without cost after a decade, with the highly popular being returned to the culture after a generation. In addition, the copyright cartels need to have their power broken in Australia.

The other area is to drop the cost of communication to near zero. This will mean opening up the spectrum to the public. Instead of cartels of public allocated bandwidth, or treating spectrum as a scarce good through auctioning, the spectrum should be opened to all with minimal regulation. WiFi has seen a boom of innovation, and a rapid dropping of cost. This is because it has been used as an abundant public good, rather than government controlled scarcity.

Thirdly, the government and social conservatives have to trust the people to innovate and advance the culture. Advocating an old, aged, and non-resonant view of Australian culture will not do. Maximum liberty is the only means for a culture to adapt to the constant challenges of society and economy. Government and the nation-state really don't come into it, and to be honest, aren't welcome.

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The Schonell is a Brisbane theatre, and one of its few great art cinemas. It's in the middle of the University of Queensland St Lucia campus, the product of a confused but surprisingly functional moment of seventies architecture. A distinctive feature is the internal brick cloisters enclosing the stairs descending past tiers of seats: cinema as church. The Schonell stopped trading as a cinema tonight .

By coincidence I was there: I knew it was coming, but not that it was so soon. Voluntary Student Unionism is blamed for its closing, and though that certainly seems to have brought it to a head, other factors are at work :

"The Liberal Party actually voted to keep the Schonell open! They're claiming the financial loss the Labor Party says the Schonell was running at isn't accurate, and that the financial records actually show the Schonell breaking even."

As the Time Off article mentions, the cinema cohabits with the finest pizza cafe in Brisbane. Just as Manchester United is a clothing company with a marketing department that also happens to be a football team, the Schonell is a cafe with a marketing department that also happens to be a cinema. And that cinema is situated slap bang in the middle of the one of the key art cinema demographics - students. On the other hand the union ties the cinema's hands by preventing it from running ads before the movies, following an vague anti-corporate aesthetic. Alert readers will note that falling down dead is a great way of sticking it to the man.

So at this stage I'm unsure if the UQ Union is, characteristically, unable to organise a pissup in a brewery, or whether this is a first step in a more complicated plan to offload the building.

Either way, I'm saddened. Farewell, Schonell, but I hope it's see you later.

ANZAC Day is the only day that really has any national or cultural resonance. Australia Day, Queen's Birthday etc are becoming historically irrelevant to modern Australians.

Carmel Tebbutt made a nice gaffe for an education minister;

When asked about the meaning of Australia Day on Sydney radio station Nova, Ms Tebbutt did not appear to either. "We celebrate Australia Day because that's the day that we became a nation and the states joined together," she said.

When picked up on the blunder, she made this correction. "Sorry, you've got me too early in the morning. Well, Australia Day of course is Europeans arrival in Australia."

If three-quarters of teenage kids don't know what Australia Day commemorates, and adults such as the NSW Education Minister are getting it wrong, it is not because of a lack of teaching, it is because the holiday has no cultural relevance.

When I was a teenager I used to think of Australia Day as being the end of the Festival of Sydney; an event I loved as my family would travel in from the Western Suburbs to wander through Hyde Park and the Domain to see what was on.

I was a teen in the late 80s so many Australia Days were met with protests from Aboriginal People which meant that most kids my age knew what Australia Day was for from the news.

There will be the howls from cultural conservatives that we are losing our British heritage and consequently the culture that centres us and nurtures our nation. The fact is culture and history only survive as long as our grand-children are prepared to remember it.

The old fogey's in Canberra might be concerned and are willing to use the public purse to chase that concern, but if it is not resonating with teenagers, it isn't a failing of education, history, or culture - it means the culture has moved on to a form of Australianism which doesn't require British grounding to be complete.