NATIONALISM- ITS PLACE IN CURRENT AUSTRALIA

 

The concept of ‘nationalism’ has always seemed foreign to me. I’m an Australian because I was born here and the feds have given me a passport which labels me as from ‘Australia’. There’s a coat of arms on the cover and everything……….. along with my name and weathered image. To the international set and support officialdom, I’m definitely ‘Paul Regan’ and I’m from ‘Australia’.

I quite like living in Australia because it’s really the only place that I know and this familiarity thing bolsters the comfort setting. Since jettisoning from mum in late 1954, I’ve grown up here, gone to schools here, worked here, entered holy matrimony here, scratched my arse here many times and, yes, I’m composing this blog here….right now.

Is the apparent close association between the lucky country and me something that I cherish and/ or self-inflate my athletic chest over? Response- negative. That association is primed by sheer chance and it’s nothing that either party (i.e. country and citizen) has actively nurtured or forged……… apart from mandatory paperwork. Basically, my nationalistic status is ‘inert’ and pride relating to zip code non-existent.

Just for the record, I love seeing the poms receive a cricketing clinic from any Australian team or Marc Leishman launch a drive down the 18th at Pebble Beach and Pam Burridge always ruled the tubes in my humble opinion. But to jump from a profile of supporter to one of dewy-eyed patriot is inaccurate and childish.

Nationalism is a complex notion and its base shifts easily depending on who is using it and what purpose it serves.

A good nationalism has to depend on a principle of the common people, on myths of a struggling commonality (Andrew O’Hagan)

This Scot’s referencing of myths as a part of the platform is important. Douglas Dunn, in ‘Language and Liberty’ (1992) which he edited, hits another road entirely with…..

Nationalism, and its chum, patriotism, encourage unedifying hyperbole.

Even allowing for the fact that the former describes a physique whilst the latter hones in on effect, my position lies somewhere between the two.

Central to nationalism’s place in the sun is the establishment and shaping of ‘identity’. Identity presents many problems for a place like Australia. The images of smoke rising up from a thousand barbecues, a larrikin language and those semi-regular nature versus built environment matches of the day all make for romantic mug shots of a large brown land but at the most basic levels of comprehension, they’re engineered and faulty. And it’s when comparisons are made to other sovereign states that these weaknesses become more apparent…….

We are peculiarly lacking both in the supposed moralistic fire and fury of the Americans, and in the culture and history of the English. The national identity of white Australians was not born in a revolt. We were sent to this country as prisoners, and we remain, to this day, desperate to conduct our business in the shadow of the Americans and the English. We are terrified of abandonment; horrified by our own shortcomings, both real and imagined. And we have never revolted: we still swear allegiance to a Queen who has no business with us; who remains irrelevant, anachronistic and functionally useless. (Joseph Earp; The terrible, intoxicating lie of Australian patriotism; 2018)

The displacement of First Nations’ inhabitants is one defining feature of our modern identity and yet it’s rarely included as part of any ‘authentic’ history. In fact, black history fails to even leave a watermark in our schools’ curricula. Whether there was an invasion or a settlement over two centuries ago doesn’t much matter when original inhabitants are portrayed as either throwing spears around the joint or pissing welfare money up against a wall.

It’s not hard to see why many people have a dim view of nationalism. Many expressions of nationalism are racist, aggressive, vulgar and just plain awful. (Christopher Scanlon; 2014)

The chanting of values-ridden slogans like ‘a fair go’ and the relentless barrel rolling over our multicultural credentials are only partially muffled by the treatment we dish out to refugees a.k.a. boat people. The current process, backed by both major political parties, resembles a campdrafting event at the Royal Easter Show where steers are purposefully herded into corrals and that’s the end of the story. I’m guessing that the fireworks come next.

Moreover, within the theatres of war where our coming of age as a nation is often tagged, there is plenty of room for interpretation.

For too long, we’ve been the geopolitical beta-male of the international playground, one who is repeatedly told to go smash that strange new kid, and who does so on the understanding that we’d be able to eat lunch with the cool set. But history points out that we’re constantly between sitting down and the next fistfight, and our sandwich goes untouched. (Brenton Moore; 2017)

For my money, Australian nationalism in 2018 channels the marginalising of distinct sub-groups of established and potential citizens whilst swooning for a hazy monoculture from the distant past. Richard Aldington’s assertion that Nationalism is a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill makes more sense than a lot of the drivel that accompanies much of our proud navel gazing.