Future scenarios for Australian leadership
...No vision, no victory.
The inclination of Australians to look overseas for leadership is not the inevitable result of a national lack of cleverness or creativity. It is the result of an often faulty perception of ourselves and our world stemming, to a considerable extent, from our infamous and enduring 'cultural cringe'. To meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must dispense with both misleading perceptions and the cringe, not just to keep the commercial benefits of Australian inventiveness at home, but to keep control over our social and political future as well.
Certainly, our deference to things foreign has cost us dearly in economic terms. The most famous - or infamous - example of Australia failing mightily to capitalise on its people's inventiveness is probably the aircraft data records now known as black boxes. This sorry tale is worth repeating, because it's an even worse indictment of the lack of foresight and initiative in both our public and private sectors that most people realise. And, as Santayana put it, "those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it".