Growing up in Australia was easy

What's amazing is how much has changed from my childhood days growing up in Australia. 

I was part of the post war baby boom population and large-scale immigration which not only changed our taste for food and wine, but underwrote the multicultural country we experience today. Most artists then needed to travel overseas to further their careers and although our first cultural icon, the Australian Broadcasting Commission had been established in 1932, it was not until 1956 that The Australian Opera was formed, followed by the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1959 and in the Australian Ballet in 1961.

Apart from these institutions our cultural influence mostly came from abroad. The “Dream machines” culture of America gave us such icons as Roy Rogers captivating tales of the Wild West which dominated my childhood memories, along with the mighty British spitfires and daring adventures set in the English countryside or in caves used by smugglers on the Cornish Coast. What culture there was evident seemed to be more English than the English; perpetuated by the constant pilgrimages by our  Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies to the “Mother Country’. He was our longest serving Prime Minister, serving between 1939-1941 and then from 1949-1966; retiring aged 70. However, under that veneer of a carefree democracy with egalitarian ambitions, in blissful ignorance, there remained deep seated  racial prejudice and abuses including those inflicted on First Nations people who were only  given the vote in 1962.

My early childhood memories were very happy ones. I grew up in the picturesque small dairy farming town of Kyogle situated on the NSW side of the border with Queensland. The back fence was all that separated our house from fields of grazing cattle and the river; an endless source of entertainment and excitement for me. I was scarcely ever indoors, coming in only at the shrill cry from my mother “The Search” , a call to come indoors to listen with bated breath to the daily radio broadcast of “The Search for the Golden Boomerang”. Radio, books, comics, making slingshots, playing in the dirt under the house, bows and arrows, climbing trees or exploring the river banks with family cats and dogs kept us actively interested so I can never recall ever feeling bored. In later life when I first watched the same radio scripts on TV, I was sorely disappointed. Actors and sets seemed surprisingly insipid and imprisoned on an impoverished tiny screen compared to the vivid imagery conveyed in my mind by those talented wordsmiths.

I loved the weekly visit to the movies.

Coming home afterwards we feasted on hot chips, smothered in salt and dripping with fat, wrapped up unceremoniously in old newspapers- no doubt frightfully unhealthy. Once home it was time to re-enact the scenes from the  story line whilst playing outside in the bush.
Supermarket shopping was non-existent so there was a constant stream of merchants and visitors to our house; the milkman at first light filling your jug with fresh milk and cream, a baker carrying his basket under his arm of freshly baked bread exuding its enticing aroma, the postman’s shrill whistle, ice from an ice cart for your ice chest, an insurance man collecting the premiums and an occasional salesperson selling encyclopedias and so on. In those days most women stayed at home so there was the inevitable chat across the picket fence. One borrowed any cooking ingredients rather than go without  if you were caught short. It wasn’t unusual for strong bonds of friendships to grow up with one’s neighbours.    

Each week the faithful ‘Dunny man” had to carefully exchange your full dunny for an empty one which was an operation that required a combination of brute strength (as they were rather heavy when full) and skill to ensure you didn’t spill any of the contents while lifting onto the truck. The contents were respectively referred to as “Night Soil”.
My best pal conveniently lived next door and as he was several years older and the local wrestling champion my experience of friendly arm wrestling with him turned out to be invaluable when dealing with a much older school bully. 

He launched an attack on me on the way home; to my surprise, as the small crowd gathered around to watch,  I managed to get a decent head lock on him and wrestled him forcefully to the ground. To my astonishment he  heeded the chant of the crowd. “He’s got you! He’s got you!! Give-up. Give Up!!”
Christmas time was always an exciting time and receiving a Bike for a Christmas present eclipsed all known previous joyous experiences. My parents had laid a string throughout all of the rooms of the house and back down the stairs to be attached to the bike situated on the front lawn. Christmas morning at first light they invited me to follow the string and see what was on the end of it. Needing no encouragement I tore through the house and in a state of heightened excitement to finally survey a wondrous bike. I immediately hopped on and cycled away. It didn’t matter to me that it was an old bike, painted and spruced up with a false “Malvern Star” sticker on it

In fact I don't recall even remembering at the time what my later life recollections revealed: slightly bubbly blue paint covering rusty spots on a lovingly restored old bike by the local bike shop. 

Freedom is an elusive state but I never felt as carefree as when riding that bicycle around in the country.

When Queen Elizabeth visited Australia no one really knew why we should all be so excited. It was as if we were all swept along with this national bout of infectious enthusiasm and delight for the Queen. The cheers of the schoolchildren echoed everywhere as the Queen was greeted with unanimous delight. We travelled a long distance by train with thousands of cheering country children to catch a glimpse and listen to her speeches. 

But this idyllic setting came to an abrupt ending  as tragedy was to strike us and the close-knit Kyogle community in 1954. Our family house had been purchased on the basis it was flood free. As an added precaution it was built on high stilts. Even so, despite the cyclonic rain on that fateful day, it was thought our house would not be flooded. As the floodwaters entered our backyard, I imagined myself as a fisherman and unconcerned dangled my fishing line in the brown waters below from the back veranda.

However soon the rising waters were inching their way up our back steps so we evacuated to a neighbor’s house on much higher ground. My father told us he was staying on to protect our furniture and effects.

Later on, we peered out over the murky waters as darkness descended upon us to make out my father swimming around in the flooded house, placing objects onto higher vantage points in a futile attempt to avoid the ever-rising floodwaters. The waters were rising at an alarming rate and it was with some relief; we watched as my father finally wearily swam out through the bedroom window and with measured strokes struck out for the bank and safety at last. Fully clothed, cold, exhausted but determined he slowly hauled himself up onto the bank to join us on the veranda, in time to see our house disappear under the raging waters of the Richmond River.

I can still recall that dreaded smell from the flood with its endless mud. There were pieces of corrugated iron torn from roofs, turned to good use to fashion makeshift canoes: folded over and sealed both ends with tar, to deliver milk and supplies. I remember search parties each morning looking for bodies and everyone helping one another. There was the drone of the old DC3 aircraft parachuting supplies to a stricken community cut off by floodwaters the likes of which had never been seen nor have been since.      

My parents sold their house at a tremendous financial loss and decided to leave Kyogle not long after.

The flood left my parents bankrupt so we moved to Ballina and stayed with my maternal grandparents to give my parents a chance to recover financially. We then moved to Wollongong for a short period until finally settling in Coffs Harbour. 

My memories of Coffs in the fifties were of a town where you could leave the door of your home unlocked as there was virtually no crime, helped no doubt by an alert police force that knew everyone’s business. One of my fondest memories was of our pet dog called Rexie, a very intelligent foxie who was given the keys to the town. His daily routine, after breakfast, was to visit the Red Cross Snack Bar and then morning tea at my father’s work followed by lunch at home and then a final goodbye to the Red Cross workers in the afternoon. If there was any event in town, he was always around to check things out as an accepted observer.  He was always very careful crossing the street and would wait patiently for a lull in the traffic, or wait for the traffic lights once they were installed in the town. He even visited the golfers during the North Coast Open observing the professionals and crowds of people. I recall walking along the fairway when I overheard a conversation: ‘what’s that dog doing on the course’ only to hear the usual chorus of answers, ‘that’s Rexie, he turns up everywhere, always welcome and always well behaved!!  

We were spoiled for choice at Coffs with beaches to the north and south of the town. I recall eating oysters on the rocks and on the odd occasions catching good sized bream with my mother cheering me on.       

My parents eventually saved enough to just scrape together enough for a deposit on a small house in a subdivision and soon became actively involved in the local community. I moved to Sydney, returning to celebrate every Christmas after marrying Anne and as a family after my father died in 1969, right up to the time of my mother’s death in 1993. Those days as newlyweds and with our growing family are another very happy story for another time. 

Sound Recordings of my Father with the RAAF Glee Singers 1943

I  obtained a copy of the original sound recordings of the RAAF Glee Singers who performed at a concert in Australia House, on Australia Day, in London in 1943. 

The sound recordings were obtained for me kindly from the Australian War Memorial and to listen click here. Click on any of the songs listed.

My father served as a bomber pilot in the Second World War and photos of the RAAF Glee Singers with their recordings are in the archives of  the Australian War Museum. 

He kept an interesting war diary which i have published with Amazon as a paperback and on kindle. . 

Click  here   

Meaning of life and emergent philosophy

I don’t think there is any universal definition as to the meaning of life, which is more a matter of personal belief and philosophical inquiry that has entered the minds of philosophers since time in memorial.

For the oldest known civilisation, that of our First Nations peoples in Australia, it was manifested in their rich culture and ontology, whose habitat was understood as bequeathed to humanity by the creation spirits. 

Thereafter it was their responsibility to preserve that legacy in order to live a meaningful existence. For the first nations people, all living things were believed to be made co-dependent and reactive to one another in one inseparable land. Hence the land and all of nature was inextricably woven into their existence.   

So, it was this idea (called the dreamtime) that dominated every facet of their rich life; in mythical creation stories, ceremonial art, music, ritualistic practice; initiation rites into adulthood; and in the repository of knowledge of the law handed down from one generation to another. Within their system adolescents were isolated away from the rest of the mob under the control of elders who provided tutelage on all matters of their law until they were sufficiently aware to make the positive transition to adulthood which carried with it the responsibility towards their tribe and the environment upon which they were dependent - Charles P Mountford – The Dawn of time.

These ideas are of interest to secular philosophers because of the strength of unity such a system has on members of the clan or mob and to the wider nations; to hold what things and ceremonies are sacred for life’s existence, to apportion responsibilities on attaining adulthood, to be seen fit and able to support a partner, to embrace life without a fear of death, to return to the creative dreamtime and to share in all things in a meaningful existence.

A similar thematic existed in other indigenous societies elsewhere whose oral traditions, long before western philosophy and religious thought permeated society through various writings, were deeply spiritual in their thinking to find meaning in existence tied up with responsibility for the land to which they were inextricably linked. 

What subsequently took shape given the impact of civilisation, in terms of trade routes and emergent philosophical enquiry meant different aspects to the meaning of existence came into being.   

In the absence of scientific knowledge religious views were shaped mostly on polytheism attributing natural phenomena to the Gods that gradually gave way to an omniscient single GOD or Yahweh of the OT and the Way in the East. 

But for Christianity, which became the Religion for the Roman Empire in 320 AD, the underlying tension between the Hebrew way of thinking with the specified covenants to GOD and the freer spirit from the letters of St Paul that merged with Greek Rationalism, proved a stumbling block to the early communities.  

The attempted cross fertilisation of the two distinct cultures and their underlying ideas underwent a very slow transformation that did not emerge in any synthesis until over a thousand years later. Along the way various splits occurred in Christianity with the eastern movement more comfortable with ideas that allow humans to be deified in the Greek tradition. The West maintained that gap to the new heavenly Jerusalem under Augustine (354-430).

To reiterate the confusion arises once you attempt to merge the individual experience of the Jewish GOD with the universal truth espoused in Greek rationalism as in the Aristotelian categories.  

Aquinas {1224-74) provided some material progress in his majestic philosophical work to define how one ought to live; a mixture of revelation and rational reflection. 

Meanwhile in Eastern philosophy, "the Way," or "Tao," was considered a fundamental principle of the universe, encompassing natural order, the flow of existence, and the path to enlightenment. It is a concept central to various traditions like Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, but with nuanced interpretations depending on the specific school of thought.  

Western Tradition 

Returning to the home of western philosophy in ancient Greeks we find evidence of the phenomenology of the body in Homer’s Polytheism according to late Professor Hubert Dreyfus who was Harvard university's long-time scholar on such ancient texts.

Homers polytheism    

The ancient Greek ideas and how they were influenced by their belief in GODs became part of their everyday life.  Homer is famous for his epic poems, The Iliad and the Odyssey, which have had an enormous effect on western culture.  Homer’s work offers an introduction to the ethics and heroics of that time. The ethics of the Greek immortal GODs were to principally shine a light on honour and glory. Their ancient religion incorporated poems sung to princes, hymns, dances, rituals, festivals and sacrifices offered to the GODs.  

By way of explanation, much later on phenomenology was further developed largely by Edmund Husserl and expanded upon by Martin Heidegger. The principal idea posits reality is made up of objects and events which are called phenomena as they are perceived or understood in the human consciousness, and not in relation to anything independent of human consciousness.

Homer’s very basic phenomenology of the body incorporates the idea that our various moods keep us continually in tune with ourselves and give rise to a meaningful life; a reflection of, or as arising from the various GODs, so that there is sacred nature to our existence.  
In other words, our consciousness depends upon personalities at a higher level than our own, an input from the GODS.  

Homer may appear irreligious at times but it should be remembered the Greek Gods he portrayed were in the image of humanity with the same foibles except they were immensely powerful and eternal. In other words, we are made in the image of the GODS who also compete with one another just as we do.  

At that time, it gave meaning to existence as one could imagine the belief that it is only the GODS that send us back feedback in the form of the feel-good emotional signals or a rush of joy or heightened emotional rewards.

That in turn reinforced in the memory of the emotional satisfaction, attributed to the GOD’s. But Dreyfus suggests Homer's ideas are closer to our natural mode of existence than what was to come long after him in the autonomy and self-determination of the enlightenment. Homer's idea is that we are respectful in our engagement of others and objects according to that mood upon which he attaches a link to the GODS.

Dreyfus also advocates the personage of Jesus, as one who meets the demanding criteria of what constitutes a life worth living, to give life meaning, as was contained in the parables. They invite imagination, are largely non-prescriptive and represent a radical departure from the entrenched culture of that period and possibly in some respects even today. Stepping back into time they must have seemed revolutionary to those in power who were in charge of the Temple and whose authority was recognised by the Romans. For the Jewish leaders had formed an uneasy truce with Rome and were able to continue to practice their religion.

Logic enters the fray 

The impact of Socrates in the discourse by Plato followed by his student Aristotle was of monumental importance as the meaning of life took on a whole new dimension. Humans were meant to live a flourishing life tied up with the concept of eudaimonia- but were prone to failure because of a weakness of the will. The extent of the influence remains significant today in Aristotle's psychology were meaning to life is tied to his themes of happiness. That was achieved as a consequence of retaining your good character and resistance to temptation by forming good habits. As I mentioned previously, Greek rationality influenced the spread of Christianity by St Paul who merged that concept with Hebrew mysticism which proved to be confusion amongst communities. 

Enlightenment philosophers on the cusp of the scientific revolution 

But notwithstanding these tentative moves and the reformation, it was not until Descartes established the idea of human knowledge, supported by the authority of Greek philosophy that any degree of synthesis was developed. 

Descartes contributed enormously to societal ideas and is known as the modern Father of western philosophy. He was both an analytical philosopher and one that relied also on the idea of synthesis. Possibly his best-known work is contained in the Meditations. These began with his scepticism before laying the foundation for his thinking embodied in the famous statement; I think, therefore I am. One might say his rational reasoning rested on the materialist premise that there has to be one who is a thinker or doubter and so this provided his foundation.   

Descartes' radical sense of freedom needed an articular, which was Kant, whose idea was the subject replaced GOD as the order of the world so that from that time onwards that idea took hold more convincingly; that we need to take personal responsibility for our actions. His ideas remain interwoven into the modern world to provide meaning. 
Hence the enlightenment offered a new way of thinking based on a scientific and more rational approach that was to dispel the myths of the past. But to reiterate there was also the propensity to replace the passions associated with our existence with rationality as in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.  
According to Kant, the critical question is how the world comes to be understood by us. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason aims to show how reason determines conditions under which our experience and knowledge are possible.

However, it was Soren Kierkegaard in (1813- 55) who provided a more comprehensive synthesis that underpinned the subsequent existentialists movement. According to Professor Hubert Dreyfus, it was his synthesis that helped more so than any previous philosopher, in resolving the existential Judeo-Christian tension. 

In ‘Sickness unto Death’ Kierkegaard, in his dense narrative, talks about his synthesis. His synthesis is existential as it implies a freedom and an individual’s responsibility to one’s self and how that works as in an unconditional commitment to a cause or GOD. The synthesis is defined by him as the factors of being in: freedom and necessity, the finite and infinite, the temporal and eternal. Kierkegaard introduced the idea of each of these categories as pointers in regard to how to live and find meaning in life.

Where they are not in sync this leads to anxiety or despair which Kierkegaard describes as a sickness. So that he talked about the various negatives as in (1) not acknowledging any existential despair (unconscious in a manner of speaking, as in so caught up in worldly affairs so as to obliterated or unconscious so to speak) (2) of acknowledgment but being despairing in the form of seeking an escape (take drugs or some form of escapism) and finally (3) to find a way through it as in an unconditional commitment. 

So that the finite factor of being refers to necessity, or if you will, the concrete here and now to one’s reality, as a definite something in the world. But the infinite, by virtue of an unconditional commitment to GOD (or to substitute CAUSE for an agnostic interpretation) is infinite. In other words, the infinite allows us to explore the potentiality or capacity to incorporate new ideas or creations, or revise one's thoughts and so on.

This provides our meaning to life. 
It is a more enlightened view of existence in my view since it accepts, we are already in the world as in being. So, we need to find our own meaning by accepting the sacred as in an unconditional commitment to GOD or a CAUSE.

Kierkegaard’s existential psychology is practiced today to help one find meaning in life.  

Rise of the post WW2 existentialist's

In the post WW 2 period a war-torn audience was desperate to find meaning to life given the savage nature of warfare and particularly the atrocities witnessed at the concentration camps and large-scale indiscriminate bombing.  So, the stage was set for philosophy to provide answers which were offered in the likes of Jean Paul Satre and his intellectual life partner Simmone de Bouvier,

They both endorsed the idea that existence precedes essence so that meaning in life (as in its essence) was what you made of it because of our freedom to choose.  Sartre exemplifies that idea in his novel Nausea.

Sartre's novel Nausea exemplifies the existentialist idea that "existence precedes essence". The novel explores this concept through the protagonist, Antoine Roquentin, as he grapples with the meaninglessness of existence and the arbitrary nature of reality. 

Here's how Nausea embodies this idea:

The Absurdity of Existence:

Roquentin experiences alienation and nausea once confronted with the sheer fact of existence, both his own and that of the world around him. He reaches the conclusion that things simply exist without a preordained purpose or meaning. 

No Inherent Meaning:

He realises humans are not defined by a predetermined essence. They are born into existence and must create their own meaning and purpose. 

The novel highlights things that could just as easily not exist whose realization leads to a sense of uneasiness and a feeling of absurdity.  

His experience indicates the burden of human freedom. Without a predefined essence, humans are constantly making choices and forging their own identities, which can be a source of anguish. 

Despite such an initial despair, Roquentin's journey suggests that humans can create meaning and purpose in a world devoid of inherent meaning. This creation of meaning is an ongoing process, not a fixed state. 

His ideas were further explained in his book entitled Being and Nothingness. In a nutshell the self as he describes humanity before itself, is a nullity. That is our interaction with the world and society is our freedom, so we become what we choose to be in good faith or avoid that responsibility as in bad faith. So, you find meaning in life by accepting your responsibility to always act in good faith. 

But Simmone de Bouvier expanded on the idea of freedom to realise one person's freedom may entail another's curtailment or even slavery. Good faith may represent the crossroads between factivity and freedom. She also wrote the influential publication called 'The second Sex' demonstrating bad faith was instigated by a societal propensity to stereotype women's roles. Her work was more strident than that of the founder of feminism namely Mary Wollstonecraft who saw inequity for both sexes as a cause for concern. 

The logical positivists 

Also roughly aligned to the so-called Vienna School the idea was that European philosophy that embraced metaphysics couldn't be substantiated scientifically. They were therefore dismissive of most philosophical ideas of that nature and instead wanted progress and meaningful engagement to be restricted to matters that were supported by facts. Bertrand Russell exemplified the movement in terms of his resistance to the First World War and served a gaol service as a consequence of his opposition. So that by adhering to a scientifically based philosophy the movement found meaning in the fact the more robust approach supports meaningful outcomes and engagement subject to the rigorous examination of science.

Conclusion on absurdism  

Finally in relation to absurdity as talked about by Sartre and Camus we must bear in mind the fact we all are born to struggle through life and then die, that idea sounds absurd to those philosophers - Is that all there is? So, they posit, we must make our own meaning in life. 

If we agree on individual freedoms to the extent, we are free to believe what we will, then whether or not we believe life is absurd is not what's at issue is more to do with how you find meaning or that need to find meaning.   

The absurdist’s in that respect to that extent exemplify all of those other philosophers who talk about how you find meaning in life, because that's up to you and what decisions you make. 

Most Australians and those in the western world probably I would think life isn’t absurd but ask those whose existence is tied to the life of hell in a war-torn country and you might get a different answer.

Maybe Sartre and Camus would have been out on the street fighting for their rights if still alive, because they believed life was absurd, and so they believed we must remain true to good faith given ones meaning of life - to honour courage and justice.