How hard times reveal who we are as a nation
I’VE SPENT NEARLY TWO DECADES LISTENING to Australians talk about themselves: who we are, who we have been and what we are becoming. The shifts, evolutions and the persistent traits in our national identity. When sitting in focus groups of friends or strangers, our thoughts spiked with caffeine, sugar or alcohol, and given the time and space to contemplate, we are often able to draw out our collective complexities and contradictions, to be honest about them and to try to make sense of them.
Are we hardworking or laid-back? Rule breakers or rule followers? Are we the most successful multicultural nation on Earth or xenophobic and intolerant? Are we innovative, creative and flexible? Or are we hopelessly set in our ways, resisting change even if it hampers or harms us? Are we a sophisticated nation of enthusiastic travellers and engaged global citizens? Or are we insular and inward looking, concerned with coming first in the Olympic swimming medal tally and little else?
In my own work as a social researcher, I have changed my mind about many of these questions over time, and for me they remain mostly unresolved. Which might be that our national character is one of
