Lost in the past while seeking the future?

The landscape of the Australian cultural economy has changed rapidly in the last two decades, and so has that of the world at large. The beacon of the capitalist world - the United States - has managed to export its economic products to most of the free world, much to its own financial benefit. Australia has moved quite successfully from out of the shadow of protectionism and a fixed dollar into the free market model.

It is good for those who succeed in this system where money and profit rule. But what of those without the skills and resources to survive or prosper in the market place? They end up marginalised, feeling disenfranchised, probably thinking “imports” stole their jobs, and at race riots chanting "we grew here, you flew here".

John Howard has wholeheartedly reconnected Australia’s relationship with the United States back to what it was in the Menzies era. Trade is flourishing since the inception of the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement.

Shopping in the supermarket lately is also indicative of the state of the Australian farming economy. “Product of the US” has started to feature regularly in my local Woolworths. American cultural imperialism is reflected in the booming imports of American entertainment which are saturating Australian television and music.

Yes, we are being invaded by foreigners, ones with well disguised American accents, in movies and television, hip-hop culture, toys, fast food and fashion. An American monoculture is entrenching itself all over the world. And it has a very commercial agenda manifested in the brand name clothes and food, entertainment products and so forth on which the younger generation, in particular, are happy to deplete their bank balances.

Perhaps this invasion of American consumerism is what is driving some Australians (and their leaders) back to the past trying to find something familiar in contrast to the imposition on Australian culture by American capitalist culture and consumerism. Yes, it’s true money does make the world go round, but it is mostly the American dollar which does so.