Mnemonic wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 6:14pm:
Class is something that exists in Britain and the USA, but not so much here.
It's true that you people like to pretend there is no landed gentry here, and no North Shore golfing clubs, tennis clubs, or yachting clubs deliberately priced to keep out the riff-raff.
You like to pretend there isn't the silver-tailed, bejeweled opera crowd, or the High Fashion crowd, or those special marquees at the Flemington racecourse on Melbourne Cup Day that are filled with the sons and daughters of Australia's Social Elite.
As a sop to the Aussie myth of 'mateship' ~ your aristocrats are occasionally heard to utter the words ... "Good onya, mate" ... "Righto, mate" ...
It's all a pose.
The legal and political class in Australia are aggressively class-conscious and class-aspiring. They'll shop at Sydney's most expensive seaside suburbs rather than pay half price at K-Marts in the city where no one will recognise them.
And from your very own lips you have contradicted yourself, Mnemo :~
To wit: (paraphrasing) ~ "Private schooling is all about 'class'". You don't like the 'classism' that private schools represent.
But then: "Class is something that exists in Britain and the USA, but not so much here".
So isn't it a manifestation of 'classism' that so many parents send their children to private school here in Australia?
No 'class' in Australia? There's every bit as much social-climbing in Australia as there is in the UK - maybe more.
Every major city has its leafy suburbs where the 'aristocrats' segregate themselves from the Great Unwashed.
Most of these people loathe the Australian accent for it being nasal, whiny, and low-class. They hate being addressed as 'mate' for this being over-familiar and lacking in 'proper' respect for their social status.
etc.
The snobbery, the classism, the social climbing, and the looking-down-the-nose amongst You Australians is on display everywhere you go.
Mnemonic wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 6:14pm:
I remember reading somewhere that when British and Australian soldiers started working together, one of the differences they discovered was the social hierarchy that existed in British society. There were different ways of speaking to people in British society, depending on their rank or status. For example, some of the British officers were part of the nobility. No such hierarchy existed in Australian society.
One can boil that all down to one word: ~ Good manners, discipline, and respecting another's rank.
No petulance, no sulking, no little boy tantrums.
You People have been notoriously ill-disciplined during the Wars. Books have been written on it. Willful, delinquent, unruly, ADHD.
Mnemonic wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 6:14pm:
I hope I'm not being presumptuous in saying you must be British due to the fact that you have a union jack in your avatar.
Don't be so polite, you're making me feel guilty.
The Union Jack doesn't identify anyone these days. Through mass and indiscriminate immigration over the past 40 years into the UK, the Union Jack represents absolutely no one ~ and everyone.
If you want to be British ~ just buy a little Union Jack flag on a popsicle stick from a Chinese 2 Dollar store ~ 'Made in China' ~ and wave it at certain events.
It's been rendered meaningless. It's a relic from a time when the Brits were not black, or turbaned, or Muslim... and they weren't born in the UK to set off suicide bombs in the London Underground.
I spent 7 years of my childhood in China. When I arrived in the UK it was foreign to me except for the language.
Mnemonic wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 6:14pm:
It makes me wonder if someone says, "I must be better than you because I went to private school," that it has to do with there being a social hierarchy in British society.
Get over your complex and you'll feel a lot better. Snobs are sad little people with no talent and too much money. Pity them, because they are actually miserable individuals who will one day die alone and unloved.
Mnemonic wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 6:14pm:
When it comes to the benefits of being "more educated," I can give Andrei credit for being more "polite" than most members of this board, but sometimes he does come across as patronising.
Are you Indian or Chinese by any chance? I'm channeling someone from an ethnic background where politeness and respect is ALWAYS at a premium.
Mnemonic wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 6:14pm:
I managed to get to the 98th percentile in my state,
My sincere congratulations. Your parents must be very proud of you. Are you going into medicine (if I may presume to ask
)
Mnemonic wrote on Aug 14
th, 2013 at 6:14pm:
My conclusion: it must be something to do with being British.
Ah! This is a clear case of stereotyping, profiling, racial prejudice, xenophobia, bigotry ... and maybe even the dreaded 'homophobia'!
Andrei and I demand an apology!