Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Surprise Patriotism Waffle
(Warning: This post is a ramble with no real point.)
I am a huge deviantART nut - regular submitter of photomanipulations and slightly less regular submitter of photos. Last night I was in the middle of uploading a photo I took a while ago at Pine Island and, because the colours in the photo reminded me of it (you can find it here: http://www.deviantart.com/view/22347824/ ), I googled that poem that every Australian knows four lines of:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I didn't even know who it was by, and I'd never read the whole thing before. (It's "My Country" by Dorothea McKellar, in case you didn't know.)
I was really surprised by the sudden feeling of nostalgia and patriotism that it evoked in me - not so much the over-used four lines I've posted here, but other bits of it.
Australians are very lazy about their patriotism, I think. We don't have our flag hanging all over the place and we don't shout it out to the world, but scratch the surface of most Aussies and you'll find a great deal of pride in our country, if not our government. (Can you be patriotic and simultaneously not support everything your government does? Maybe that's the main difference between us and the Yanks - we believe we can.)
I have one friend, L., who is a born and bred Aussie, but she feels a much stronger affinity for the landscapes of England than she does for our scraggly gum trees and burnt grasses. Her theory is that my affinity for Austrlian landscapes is a direct result of the fact that I am (I discovered last year) part Aboriginal. A very small part, mind you - my maternal grandfather's paternal grandmother (got that?) was an Aboriginal woman from northern NSW.
I don't know if that's true, though, because there are a lot of other fully "imported" Aussies who feel the same way I do.
But maybe I am more succeptible to patriotic giddiness at the moment because spring is in the air - the wattle is in full, frothy bloom, and the magpies have started swooping. I saw my first bicycle rider trying to avoid losing his helmet to a testosterone charged maggie yesterday.
Gotta love it.
I am a huge deviantART nut - regular submitter of photomanipulations and slightly less regular submitter of photos. Last night I was in the middle of uploading a photo I took a while ago at Pine Island and, because the colours in the photo reminded me of it (you can find it here: http://www.deviantart.com/view/22347824/ ), I googled that poem that every Australian knows four lines of:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I didn't even know who it was by, and I'd never read the whole thing before. (It's "My Country" by Dorothea McKellar, in case you didn't know.)
I was really surprised by the sudden feeling of nostalgia and patriotism that it evoked in me - not so much the over-used four lines I've posted here, but other bits of it.
Australians are very lazy about their patriotism, I think. We don't have our flag hanging all over the place and we don't shout it out to the world, but scratch the surface of most Aussies and you'll find a great deal of pride in our country, if not our government. (Can you be patriotic and simultaneously not support everything your government does? Maybe that's the main difference between us and the Yanks - we believe we can.)
I have one friend, L., who is a born and bred Aussie, but she feels a much stronger affinity for the landscapes of England than she does for our scraggly gum trees and burnt grasses. Her theory is that my affinity for Austrlian landscapes is a direct result of the fact that I am (I discovered last year) part Aboriginal. A very small part, mind you - my maternal grandfather's paternal grandmother (got that?) was an Aboriginal woman from northern NSW.
I don't know if that's true, though, because there are a lot of other fully "imported" Aussies who feel the same way I do.
But maybe I am more succeptible to patriotic giddiness at the moment because spring is in the air - the wattle is in full, frothy bloom, and the magpies have started swooping. I saw my first bicycle rider trying to avoid losing his helmet to a testosterone charged maggie yesterday.
Gotta love it.
// posted by Cass @ 11:48 AM 
Comments:
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Oz is pretty sweet, you're right about that. I have fierce pride in my country. And I can completely divorce my pride in the country from my dislike and antipathy for the government of the day.
I do note however that 'My Country' completely fails on the OH&S Front.
It should be
'I love a sunburnt country,'
'But I am very careful you see,'
'I wear a shirt, and a hat,'
'And at minimum, SF 15.'
I do note however that 'My Country' completely fails on the OH&S Front.
It should be
'I love a sunburnt country,'
'But I am very careful you see,'
'I wear a shirt, and a hat,'
'And at minimum, SF 15.'
Well the people in it can. Especially if they have the old friar tuck bald patch like me.
Today's Word Verification is whsri. Ah Whsri, helping baldies prevent head cancer since 1853.
Today's Word Verification is whsri. Ah Whsri, helping baldies prevent head cancer since 1853.
I think that Australians aren't so much lazy as just very, very laid back about their patriotism. We don't feel a need to sing some martially-inspired anthem or salute the flag or other such superficial nonsense - threaten our freedom or our way of life though, and you'd better watch out!
...and I think that loving the country and hating the government is not only patriotic, but almost necessary!
My word verification is Lveyft, a small village in south Wales.
...and I think that loving the country and hating the government is not only patriotic, but almost necessary!
My word verification is Lveyft, a small village in south Wales.
Mine is fnltv, which some sort of new football program.
I wonder where the line is between lazy and very laid back? :)
I wonder where the line is between lazy and very laid back? :)
I think patriotism is very much out of style. I don't know if it will ever be in style again; while I don't suppose anyone I know would profess not to love Australia, I rather suspect what most of us love is our lifestyles. Safe, comfy, pretty, often shiny. I don't think patriotism demands love of or even support for the government; but I think that many people feel contempt for politicians, politics, authority, bureaucracy, the military, and the public service. In fact, apart from the landscape, the plants and the animals, I'm not sure what it is about the country itself that modern patriots do love. And exactly what it is that their love of country could motivate them to do. Apart from supporting or joining the firies or the SES, donating a few bucks to our preferred charities, and writing angry letters to the editor.
Don't forget buying calendars with half naked firemen in them ... for charity, of course.
So you think that we need to support the system of administration and various national institutions (eg the military), if not the current government, to be patriotic?
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So you think that we need to support the system of administration and various national institutions (eg the military), if not the current government, to be patriotic?
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