Why We Love Australia

 https://www.undp.org/european-union/stories/value-cooperation-fractured-world

Again, the recent UN meeting has brought up the topic of how our world is fractured.  Not a new topic at all.  Every time a war breaks out different ideologies seek to impose their will upon others.  Sometimes with dubious reasons, with “sometimes” being translated as all the time considering little side pieces are manufactured to promote that you are right about everything.  This is lovingly known as propaganda.  You have weapons of mass destruction?  Die heretic!  Oh wait, you didn’t?  Sorry, my bad.  Die heretic!

Separating the producers and cooperating traders vs. the takers is easier at an individual level than it is on a fractured global misinformed by the Internet scale.  Collateral damage on innocent civilians is considered not cool while the leaders who are pushing the buttons are stirring up trouble.  That collateral damage is lovingly called war crimes.

War is messy and always a huge waste of resources.  But even times of relative peace, the underlying factor that makers and takers have - a competition for resources.  Having more stuff is better than not having stuff.  And the people with more stuff want to keep that stuff and not give it away.  This is lovingly called government by rich white dudes.

In their quest for global domination (oh, yeah, we’re on to you), Australia has a distinct and unfair advantage.  The old joke that pops up in memes has some truth to it.  All the wildlife in Australia wants to kill you.  Being able to learn that everything is out to get you at a young age is totally unfair to those of us that grow up thinking that everyone is our friend.

Crocodiles, check.  Want to kill and eat you.  Poisonous snakes, check.  They want to kill you before you kill them.  Kangaroos, check.  Getting drop kicked by a roo after it just finished watching a kung fu marathon on the telly, maybe not going to kill you but that doesn’t mean it isn’t trying.  Those giant ass huntsman spiders, check.  They might not be super deadly poisonous, but take unholy delight in scuttling around scaring the shit out of people.  Heart attack victims.  Koalas, check.  They want all the eucalyptus for themselves, and you dying of starvation is of no concern to them.  Desert scorpions, check.  There’s a reason that a version of heavy metal is called death metal.  The Scorpions and other metal bands want to kill you if you don’t play your records backwards and worship Satan and spend all your money on their records instead of buying food.

Of course, the point is not that literally everything wants to kill you.  Labeling any group and picking arbitrary victims is never a great idea.  But, that’s the internet for you.  Here’s a group that doesn’t really want your stuff and just wants to present a bad ass image that they will take your stuff if you mess with them.  Here’s a vocal group that actually does want to take your stuff and projects the image they don’t to hide that they really do.

There are some exceptionally good things about Australia that do not really want to take your stuff.  At a group level, simply look at Wollongong that has never in its history had anything bad about it.

Or does it?!?