Backbencher

Lecture 6 was about the societal similarities and differences between Australia and New Zealand as well as how they both evolved from the British colonial system. It started by talking about the founding mythologies of each country. We saw that Australia’s start as a convict colony and the reign of the bourgeoisie made it so that there was noticeable class consciousness among the people. They also try hard to make it known that Australia is not England. New Zealand on the other hand started as a planned colony which retained its ties with the British Empire and with that a sense of order. New Zealand tries to be a society without any classes. New Zealand likes to project the idea that they are not Australian.
The lecture then moved on to talk about the Australian legend. This had to do with things like bush culture and temperament of the people. Bush culture has to do with the values that people derive from the bush like bush ballads and mateship. The temperament of the people of Australia was that of just plain ordinary people without the wealthy class. It’s a society of regular blokes.
The lecture then moved on to the importance of sports to Australia and New Zealand. The main sport down there is Rugby, also known as footie. It seemed like there was more emphasis on how the national team fared in world competition than there is in America.

I enjoyed hearing about the sports, especially Australian Rules football, because I watch these sports on ESPN2, but I could never figure out the rules. I also liked the cricket controversy in the Bodyline series because in Baseball the pitcher owns the plate and can brush a player back if need be. I do wonder why a country that likes fast paced sports would still like cricket though.