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Loading... Advance Australia...Where?by Hugh Mackay
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  sally906 | Apr 3, 2013 |   This book is a wake-up call that will hopefully be heeded. Mackay's suggestions at the end of the book are fantastic, though I can't see anyeone carrying them through any time soon. But if at least he plants a seed in some minds, and Australians take the blinkers off and take a good hard look at ourselves rather than just assuming everything is alright, there is a chance this nation can save itself. (  )1  ForrestFamily | Oct 2, 2007 |  ) woosang |  ) zevombat | Jul 18, 2010 | no reviews | add a review
"What will the next generation of children be like? Why have we lost interest in politics? Why are our houses getting bigger while our households are shrinking? How serious is the surge of interest in 'values' and 'spirituality'? Is multiculturalism dead? Has our egalitarian ideal collapsed under the weight of a more competitive, more divided society? Fifteen years ago, Hugh Mackay wrote the bestseller Reinventing Australia that analysed, with forensic skill, what was happening to our society. Now, in Advance Australia ... Where? he takes another long, hard look at us. While we enjoy unprecedented levels of prosperity and the promise of more to come, we are still battling an epidemic of depression, taking on record levels of debt, and yearning for a deeper sense of meaning in our lives. While many Australians complain about feeling powerless and isolated, Mackay sees some encouraging signs that we are learning how to absorb the impact of the revolutionary changes that have reshaped us."--Provided by publisher. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.0994Social sciences Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Culture and institutions Social history Pacific AustraliaLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.35)
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He then goes on to see where Australian's are now and where we could possible be in the future. he looks at the loves of children, roles of women, our apparent current lack of interest in politics, shrinking households, increased spening in the arts, decreased spending in education, the future for pensioners and the role of technology.
Mackay points out that while we are relatively prosperous compaired to our parents - our lives are more precarious and we seem to have lost our meaning for living and feel just as powerless in the way we live our lives as our ancestors did.
Basically we have come a long way in 25 years, and we have certainly moved away from the problems that plagued us in the 1970s only to be faced with a whole new set of problems here in the first decade of the 21st century. Divorce rates have risen, birth rates have fallen; also on the rise is obesity, depression, anxiety, loneliness, drug use, alcoholism, gambling, porn consumption.
On the whole though Hugh Mackay has hope for our future. Easy to read most of his arguments have appeared in his newspaper column - he just expanded on his commentary. Some I agreed with, some of his predictions I feel may be a bit far fetched, and some of his arguments are dated already. Other than that it is well worth a read.
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