Remarkable Reading #10: THE LUCKY CULTURE AND THE RISE OF AN AUSTRALIAN RULING CLASS by Nick Cater and BREXIT: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS NOW By Ian Dunt

The aim of this section Remarkable Reading is pay a tribute to the books that taught, share trends & insights into where our world in the 21st century is heading in a technology enabled world, and ask the right questions.

Bolded and italics quotes and references do not belong to myself  and belong directly to the author.  The focus is to share valuable insights and teachings from the book to win business for the authors.

I’ve been privileged and lucky enough to have dedicated over 7 years working a business life in Australia.  In my time working in Australia I had the opportunity to travel to every spectacular and striking state in Australia.  Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide are all individualistic and unique with a certain sense of an almost invisible “Australian Spirit” that binds the remarkable democracy together.  

Carrying on further regarding from here regarding what a fascinating and enigmatic country Australia is, I recently finished reading Nick Cater’s absolutely remarkable THE LUCKY CULTURE AND THE RISE OF AN AUSTRALIAN RULING CLASS.  Alongside THE LUCKY CULTURE AND THE RISE OF AN AUSTRALIAN RULING CLASS, I also read Ian Dunt’s BREXIT- WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS NOW and here are two crucial trends I’ve decided to touch upon accordingly:

1. History, Immigration & Racism
2. Innovation & Progress

Firstly, I’ll start with Australia and Nick Cater’s THE LUCKY COUNTRY AND THE RISE OF AN AUSTRALIAN RULING CLASS.  Nick Cater has written an  illustrative, razor-sharp, canny, candid and very clever book about one of the world’s fastest rising future Superpowers.

The book starts very sharply with:

Prologue, Page 1: “The first duty of migrants is to justify their fateful decision to family, friends, and most importantly, themselves.  They must prove that this is a better place, even if they have to make it so themselves.  They will be given every opportunity, since Australian playing fields are level, and old and new Australians are accorded equal request”

In terms of History:

Page 21 - “Australia is an exceptional country, populated by exceptional people skilled at making their own luck.  When fortune smiles, it is not by chance or benevolence, it is the dividend of an investment of human ingenuity, enterprise and energy.  Australians have been forging their own destiny for over 200 years; they subscribe to the idea of progress, the notion that civilization has moved, is moving, and will move in a desirable direction.  In contemporary , success, multi-ethnic Australia, there is nothing to prevent the proclamation of Australian exceptionalism, for the Australian character is not racially determined.  Australian culture, the manners and customs that distinguish Australians from citizens of other country, sets the pattern of private and public behaviour”

Immigration will continue to remain the 21st Century’s hottest issue alongside the next Billionth entering the Internet.  Immigration will also continue to be a part of the progress in helping shape the nation in terms of moving in the desirable direction.  If the “bigger” pyramid of the “token Australian” works, then so will the smaller pyramid of Immigrants.

Page 84 - “At the beginning of the Obama presidency, it appeared to some commentators that the New Class of the late twentieth century had become the New Ruling Class of the twenty-first, enforcing a rigid code of manners and beliefs on those who wished to join its ranks.  It had become a priestly class, one that relied for its legitimacy not on superior wealth or might but on the presumption of superior intelligence.”

Page 230 - “At the heart of the quarrels that delayed the building of universities in Australia was a conflict between the country’s two great founding principles.  Its immigrants wanted to build a better place than the one they left behind, but they also wanted it to be fairer.  A better country required clever people; a fairer country required that clever people did not think they were better than the rest”

This ties in with my question of Innovation.  Is creating something new always better than copying an existing idea and giving it your own twist? Perhaps, in within that, resides a greater creativity (remix and fusion) than the original invention.  I know for a fact that Australian is excellent at the former,and it is forever my wish and dream that it comes extremely efficient at the latter as well - new inventions.

Cater states: Page 37 - “Technological progress runs second to social progress in the received Australian narrative; the fair-wage ruling known as the Harvester Judgement has secured a place in history, less so the harvester, an Australian technological achievement mass-produced at a plant in north-west Melbourne where the wage case began”

I think it is vital that Australia maintains this yet still keeps up with the world best.  The point of technology is to improve your country’s with social progress. The point of new mobile applications and inventions is that it increases the social progress & intellect of Australian citizens, cultivates their culture and does not ruin it - but evolves it for the better.  

Finally I will touch on Racism.  I have always found the Australian “character” to be very jovial, friendly,evolving, refined, enlightened, intelligent  and extremely hard-working.  It does not mean that the Token Australian has to “love or like” everyone, yet, you’re always more likely to have a punter shout you a beer when you go to a pub and are friendly.  The analogy that Cater uses below of Paul Hogan and the profoundly lovable CROCODILE DUNDEE ( an all-time favourite) sums up the Australian character nicely.

Page 122 - “...the character taken to an international audience by Paul Hogan in the 1985 movie Crocodile Dundee.  Hogan projects what Americans and Europeans envy in Australians; their classless egalitarianism, a laid-back and laconic manner with zero tolerance for speciousness.  Physically, Crocodile Dundee is impressive, but not a man with whom to pick a fight, yet he triumphs largely on his weits, assisted at times by those foolish enough to underestimate him”

Page 286 - “Some will consider Hogan’s unsophisticated character as unsuitable ambassador for Australia; others, however will see in Dundee the strengths Horne recognized as the great Australian virtues:  “Their non-doctrinaire tolerance, their sense of pleasure, their sense of fair play, their interest in material things, their sense of family, their identity with nature and their sense of reserve, their adaptability when a weary is shown, their fraternalism, their skepticism, their talent for improvisation, their courage and stoicism”

Now briefly on progress and Brexit.  Ian Dunt’s BREXIT - WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS NOW is a timely, forthcoming and education book about economical metamorphosis happening right now.  Here are five observations I thought were important.

Intro: “Big Ben Strikes and Britain is out of the European Union.  The talks have fallen apart in mutual acrimony.  The UK union have not secured continued membership of the single market/.  It doesn’t even have access.  It is out of the treaty which waives tax on imports and exports.  It had no trade deals with Europe or anyone else.  It is on its own”

Page 20 - “The starting point for our current difficult lies in the referendum question itself.  On 23 June 2016, voters in the UK were asked: ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union.’  The results were:

REMAIN: 16,141, 241 (48.1%)

LEAVE: 17, 410, 742 (51.9%)

Page 11 - “Multiple parts of the British economy, from space stations to cakes, suffer a sudden hit.  Companies that still make tangible physical products in Britain- Unilever, Imperial and Penguin among them - are the first to feel the pain”

Page 26 - “The consequence is that Britain either has to convince its EU partners to reform to the rules on freedom of movement or leave the single market.  It is arguably the biggest decision Britain has made since end of the Second World War”.

Page 125 - “The City of London will survive Brexit.  It has many advantages over its European rivals including English as a language, and the culture, shopping and diversity of London.  It also h as no prime competitor in the Continent.  No other European financial centre has the capacity to absorb more than a few thousand staff”

You can follow author Nick Cater on Twitter here, read his Wikipedia biography here and purchase a copy of THE LUCKY CULTURE AND THE RISE OF AN AUSTRALIAN RULING CLASS on Amazon here.

You can follow author Ian Dunt on Twitter here and purchase a copy of BREXIT: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS NOW here.

Thank you,

Prashant aka Praz

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