thanks to signbotSo said Samuel Johnson way back in 1775, and it still rings very true today. Especially today.
I won't be wrapping myself in the Australian flag, today or any other day.
This (relatively) recent aggressive, American style, proud to be an Aussie, love it or leave it, kind of nationalism/patriotism makes me very uncomfortable. And the fact that politicians from all sides are jumping on this particular band wagon should make us all very suspicious indeed.
I prefer the the style from my childhood, laid back, quiet, glad to be here but not bloshie about it, a little bit cynical, irreverent. Australia Day was a day off, a day for a BBQ down by the river (I grew up in-landish) with the dogs and some friends. There were no drunken louts shouting at people and thrusting flags at them. Flags stayed where they belonged, up flagpoles.
Yes I'm glad I was born white, middle class, in the late 1960s on the south-eastern coast of Australia. Glad, but not proud. I can't be proud of something I have through no effort on my part. I just lucked out in the birth lottery, it's not an achievement.
That said, I did have Vegemite toast for breakfast this morning and I'm pretty sure some BBQ-ing is on the horizon. Enjoy your day off, be glad you are here, rather than some other place where there's war or hunger and little hope, and have a nice Australia Day.
EDITED TO ADD - I swear I didn't read this before I wrote this!
Posts
4 comments:
It's about an absence of leadership and vision.
We have politicians from all sides of politics and at all levels of government who are more concerned with winning the next election or looking after their corrupt mates than they are with setting a direction for the nation and showing leadership to take us there.
Into that vacuum steps the alcohol fuelled neo-pseudo in-your-face patriotism that we're seeing today.
In the absence of any real sense of future and purpose, we just wave flags.
It's different to the American flag waving. They have a country founded on the extraordinary vision of a few dozen truly gifted leaders, and for most of their history, the flag waving has been more about a vision of what is to come. (This doesn't apply right now, of course. It's difficult to follow the vision of an idiot.)
It's a problem the world over... there are no true leaders anywhere. No statesmen (or stateswomen, if that's a word) and no real idea of what levers politicians need to pull now to make the world better for their grandchildren's grandchildren.
Lets call them statespeople - there are none I agree. Yes, all they look to is the next election, hence no planning for 10, 20 or more years hence. Can you see them building the harbour bridge today? No way would it be as wide, or as beautiful.
It would be 2 lanes wide in each direction and it would sway in high winds.
There'd also be no pylons (they're just there for decoration, so the bean counters would have dispensed with them), and it would be named Sartor Bridge.
The toll would be $20 in each direction, but they'd still insist on having toll booths. They'd also close the Gladesville bridge and the Harbour Tunnel, just so drivers had no choice but to use it.
At its base, where the parks are now, there'd be ultra high density shoe box apartments built by Meriton, and at least one pub (owned by a retired Police Minister mate) filled to the rafters with poker machines.
Such is the quality of our leaders today.
eggs-zackery
Post a Comment