Dumb, drunk and racist?

Hi all,

It's good to be back, and I apologise for not posting for so long.

Probably the most compelling show on television in recent weeks hasn't been The Shire, but rather, a topical little program put together by a Daily Tele journalist named Joe Hildebrand.  It is a snapshot of Australian life that has been put on display for a handful of Indians.  The show is called "Dumb Drunk and Racist" and it is one hell of an eye-opening program.

Joe doesn't shy away from exhibiting as many sides of the Australian psyche as he can, either by design or by accident (there's plenty of both).  Certain episodes left me feeling very sober and, in some cases, ashamed of the culture I grew up in.

Growing up in rural NSW as I did, I can't help but feel sometimes that I am a "bogan" by default.  I've tried hard to shed as much of that as I can by broadening my mind, but I couldn't help but feel that certain aspects of the Australians shown on the screen were reflected in versions of myself from years gone by.  The program made it seem blindingly obvious just how insular we can be as a nation and how, as one of the Indians in the program put it, "we don't know how lucky we are".  Agreed.

This is one program that shined a light on our nation and showed us for what we are.  We're not all dumb drunk and racist as some people overseas would believe.  Some of us are probably guilty of not stopping often enough to think about issues deeply enough before we speak our minds.   As a result, we can probably come off as looking less intelligent than we really are.

This was one program that left me speechless and shocked at what I saw.  Not in a way that say, a disaster documentary would, but in a way that caused me to stop and think about who I am and what my culture is, and what my place within it all is.  It also helped and hindered the battle of my contradiction - being a default-bogan and yet trying to get away from being one all at once.  That alone makes it spectacular television.