The lucky country. The Lucky Country by Donald Horne 2023-01-05

The Lucky Country (Video 2004)

We have this incredible balancing enemy within: the weather. Obviously the book is a flag post in post-WW2 Australian literature and analysis, however I wonder how much of its impact is because it takes such a big axe to then contemporary shibboleths about Australian exceptionalism. Fifty years ago author Donald Horne described Australia as 'a lucky country run by second-rate people', adding that our leaders are mostly unaware of events that surround them. When one reads the book you can hear echoes of the voices of Paul Keating for example. He commented, "I have had to sit through the most appalling rubbish as successive generations misapplied this phrase". If one is to take two central arguments of the book, i. And our current leaders hardly inspire confidence - indeed, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott regularly poll less than 40% as preferred prime ministers, among the lowest ratings of all time.

The Lucky Country Quotes by Donald Horne

Horne's controversial 1964 book is a problematic read in 2018, because at times one is expected to know and understand the Australia that he was writing about, and at others one is diverted or focused on how different or same contemporary Australia is to the vision he posited 54 years ago. There is no generally acknowledged central city where the important things are believed to happen and it seems better to be. He also also less substantive than a modern reader would wish when it comes to his assessment of indigenous issues. When it was first published in 1964, 'The Lucky Country' caused a sensation. Horne's calls for the emergence of a 'vigorous' technocratic elite also leave a slightly sour taste in the mouth given the economic pillaging this class has presided over since the 70s. There may be more similarities between the history of Australia and America than for the moment Australians can understand.

​The Basics

My cousin, a Professor at a prominent tertiary institution, told me the exact same thing a week ago at a family bbq. And indeed, the 1970s saw the election of Gough Whitlam, a prime minister who stood up to Washington, engaged with Asia, introduced universal healthcare and began the process of recognising Aboriginal land rights. Maybe with the reactionary strongman leaders of South-East Asia it was, in terms of actual cultural engagement it was not. One of them gives me her mobile so I can call a friend to come and get us. Donald Horne provides rambling short essays about a dozen aspects of society a form many of his other publications also take. In cultural terms, yes, but keep in mind that when Horne published this, White had just published Voss and Riders in the Chariot, modernist art was getting going, and Peter Sculthorpe was about to publish Sun Music I.

The Lucky Country

I hesitate to call it an 'argument' because the book's central theme is pursued in the same way as it offers short asides: quickly asserted in broad, blurry generalities. The book has aged without a doubt as Australia is now more multicultural with a more diverse set of values but it's key tenet of the county being lucky and ran by second rate individuals remains true. Natural enemies abound and they have their impact in unexpected ways. The book was a wake-up call to an unimaginative nation, an indictment of a country mired in mediocrity and manacled to its past. I seemed to have found some answers in this book, although the book is about Australia in the sixties. Must be feeling negative today.

The lucky country

Maybe with the reactionary strongman leaders of South-East Asia it was, in terms of actual cultural engagement it was not. Those Australians who have looked askance at our nation, its body politic, culture, society, economy, geopolitics etc have either echoed, reconfigured or riffed off the critiques Horne made. Horne was just being sarcastic, much like Men At Work were when they wrote "Land Down Under". Where Horne does tackle specifics, such as his disdain of Menzies, he can write with some verve. Our sons and daughter turning queer? So things were really on the upswing. Many of his arguments, such as Australia and its leaders mimicking other cultures, rather than coming up with their own ideas is accurate, albeit harsh. It rested on its luck and was unimaginative, uninspired and unexceptional.

‎The Lucky Country? on Apple Books

We have sent, I suspect, more than our fair share of men to fight other people's wars, if you like, but despite Japanese bombing of part of Australia in WWII, we are rarely concerned with such issues. Best someone pass this on to the Minister for Education? Horne's book itself might have been a part of that. But generally The Lucky Country is as languid and lazy as the country he describes. It's hard to fully understand the whole book, I hope I can reread it from time to time and have a better understanding. Yet few Australians would be able to quote the sentence it originally appeared in: "Australia is a lucky country, run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck.

The Lucky Country by Donald Horne

I remember trying to read this "classic" at least twice before, and a bookmark 30-odd pages in suggests I tried a third time a few years back. He is begging for donations to finance a fight against the idea of a national once off tax levy to pay for the rebuilding which must next take place. Other topics I'd highlight are:- Nation without a mind, The first suburban nation, Snobs, Women, Between Britain and America, Lost bearings, Provincial Australia, A Republic? Perhaps the most important value of 'The Lucky Country' in 2018 is two-fold; first as a historical document it presents a fascinating vision of Australia that those born since it was written or in the future can read and critique with alternate sources. Much of the analysis still applicable today 2015 with a conservative government in Canberra, a prime minister exhuming knighthoods on Australia Day. Greed drives us now and sport - any sport.

The Lucky Country (EP)

On the downside, it's very irritating to read a book this long that avoids proper nouns almost entirely. But really, I don't feel lucky. His greatest intellectual strength is a non-doctrinaire opinion, but other than not saying what has already been said, it's unclear what is valuable about what he does say. The chapter 'Living with Asia' worth reading again today, gives an understanding of how Asia views Australia. Yet even today many of the things he talks about are not only as relevant as ever for instance, his assessment of Australian republicanism still holds mostly true 50 years, which is actually quite sad and even when th Horne's sprawling though concise work of social criticism exposed Australia and Australians not to sheer vitriol but to a reasoned lament of the mediocrity of it's "elites" and many the negative elements of Australian society in the 1960s, especially of general apathy and malaise. Horne is a witty, weighty and incisive writer with rare perspective, both in 1964 and in the excellent preface to the 5th edition, written in 1998. The question is whether this time our luck will run out.

The other one gives me a packet of tissues. Now, The Lucky Country was written half a century ago and much of it is irrelevant today - the influence of the Australian Communist Party, the White Australia Policy, and the tension between Catholics and Protestants, to name a few things. Although, it was interesting to learn about the role the Communists played in Australian politics and some of the secret deals that took place. Two lovely girls independently stop. When it was first published in 1964, 'The Lucky Country' caused a sensation. In this polemic work, Ian Lowe will assess the state of Australia and whether we can retain our status of the Lucky Country.