Australians behaved as if in more intellectual pursuits the nation generated only second-rate talent. Some commentators believe that cultural cringe contributes to the perceived anti-intellectualism that has underpinned public life in Australia. By country Australia The term cultural cringe is most commonly used in Australia, where it is believed by some to be a widely accepted facet of Australian culture. In Another Look at the Cultural Cringe, the Australian academic Leonard John Hume examined the idea of cultural cringe as an oversimplification of the complexities of Australian history and culture. His controversial essay argues that "The cultural cringe ... did not exist, but it was needed, and so it was invented." A manifestation of Australian cultural cringe can be expressed in the almost obsessive curiosity of Australians in wanting to know what foreigners think of Australia and its culture. Some commentators claim the cultural cringe particularly affects local television programming in Australia, which is heavily influenced by imported shows, mainly of American and British origin. The Federal government has legislated to keep a quota of Australian content. Some argue that a form of cultural cringe resulted in anti-heritage attitudes which led to the demolition of many world class pre-war buildings in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (Australia's three largest cities at the time), destroying some of the world's best examples of Victorian architecture. Modernism was promoted to many Australians as casting off imperial Europe to rebuild a new independent identity, and the existing pre-war architecture, which was a feature of Australian cities, was denigrated. This resulted in many calls to demolish the Royal Exhibition Building, labelled the derogatory term "white elephant". It was not until Queen Elizabeth II granted the building Royal status that Australians began to recognise its value. The building became the first in Australia to be given World Heritage status. This reaction against the cultural cringe continues in some fields such as architecture, where local architects are shunned for using introduced styles. It has also been claimed that cultural cringe has led to federal government information technology contracts going to large foreign multinationals, rather than domestic IT companies. Convict stain is another manifestation of cultural cringe. For several generations following the cessation of penal transportation, many Australians felt a sense of shame about being descended from convicts, and many did not even attempt to investigate their families' origins for fear of finding convicts in their lineage. In recent