If you know me, you know I have been thinking a lot about Australia recently.

I have fallen in love with the songs of <a href="http://ericbogle.net/">Eric Bogle</a>, who is probably the best folk singer who isn't that well known in this country, and one of his songs -- a criticism of what has happened in his country in recent decades -- could easily be adapted to the U.S.

<em>"Well, once jolly swagmen went humping their swags and stuffed jolly jumbucks down in their tucker bags. These days, jolly junkies go on house-breaking jags and steal to buy the poison they need while the swaggie, he just wanted a feed.</em>

<em>"And who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me? Hey Banjo, this country's not what it used to be. We've changed all your words, and re-written your score and it's 'Waltzing Matilda' no more."</em>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0cWlHmyjfc

Banjo was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo_Paterson">Banjo Paterson</a>, who wrote "Waltzing Matilda" and several other epic Australian poems, and just as he might not recognize 21st century Aussies, I'm pretty sure our Founding Fathers wouldn't recognize us anymore.

I'm not talking about the government, either. Fully 224 years after the Constitution was written, I have a hunch our founders might be surprised and more than a little amused at how much we're still letting 18th century thought run a 21st century country.

No, I think it's <em>Americans</em> that they wouldn't recognize, and I'm not talking about ethnicity either.

We have become a people who seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Compared to our ancestors, we are fat, lazy and stupid. We have apparently decided that anything we're <em>allowed</em> to do is something we should do, no matter how destructive it is, either to ourselves or to our country.

More from Bogle's song that fits our country too:

<em>"Saturday night outside a King's Cross hotel, there stands our future, and it's halfway to hell. Kids with hard drugs and young bodies to sell, Hey Australia, what progress we've made! We've come a long way, since Diamond day."</em>

Our biggest problem is that we have lost our religion, and I'm not talking about God or any supernatural being. Until about 30 years ago, people in both parties, both liberal and conservative, shared what we could call a civic religion. They might not agree on the scope of what government should do, but they believed that government -- the civic marketplace -- was important.

They believed that government mattered, and when functioning properly, could make things better.

But about 30 years ago, the Radical Right started attacking the very idea of government. They distorted Ronald Reagan's comment about government not being the solution to economic stagflation, and they started quoting him as saying something he never said:

<em>"Government isn't the solution, it's the problem."</em>

As the Radical Right gained more and more control of the Republican Party, all of a sudden there were folks on one side of the equation who didn't want government to do anything at all. Even national defense. Many of our "defense personnel" overseas now are what we used to call mercenaries.

And as much as it would be easy to blame the right, we all have to share some of the blame. We started celebrating mediocrity, and we lost the distinction between famous and infamous. Why do we even know who the "Octomom" is? Why do we tolerate misfits like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan? It's certainly not talent. If you've ever heard Spears sing live without lip-syncing, it's easy to see that she just has an average voice.

We put so much emphasis on what we wanted, not what was right or wrong.

We have tens of millions of children living in single-parent homes, even though it has been proven that growing up without a father is the absolute leading indicator for violent criminals. I'm certainly not criticizing folks who aren't single parents by choice, but why on earth did we decide it was acceptable for women to make a rational decision to have a child and raise it alone?

Our culture is worse than trashy? Go to a movie theater and pick a film at random to see. The chances are pretty good you'll leave the theater feeling slimy.

Television is even worse.

We don't use our culture to uplift people or to set good examples anymore. It's all about money.

If this sounds pessimistic, it's actually not. I have great hope for the generation of young adults currently in their 20s and early 30s. I have great hope that people like my own children and other kids I know like Sean and Kelsey Curran -- my best friend's kids -- will demand better. And when people with leadership abilities demand better, eventually things get better.

That said, I think it's time for my generation and the one that's slightly older -- the folks who are pretty much running things now -- to step aside. We are so much a part of the problem that we cannot be part of the solution. And until we do step aside, America is never going to stop debating the '60s.

This used to be a helluva good country, and it can be again. But the people who want that have to demand it. They have to tell the Harry Reids and the Mitch McConnells, the Rush Limbaughs and the Keith Olbermanns, to get the hell out of the way so they can start fixing things.

A little more from Bogle:

<em>"And who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? This country could still be what we want it to be. Perhaps one day soon, the dream will be restored and we'll go Waltzing Matilda once more."</em>

I'm sure you get the point.

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