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January 26, 2012
At the street level at Victor Harbor the flag waving celebration of Australia Day is pretty close to being one big barbie and drinks with friends and family. The flags flying on Australia Day were more noticeable this year than last year. They were on cars, on flagpoles, draped over balconies and on t-shirts. I saw a young woman sporting an Australian flag bikini on the beach. The shops were selling all kinds of flag-emblazoned merchandise, that more often that not, were made in China. Attached to some flags was the slogan: “Love It Or Leave It.”
Is this nationalism----a love of country--- a counter to the triumph of global markets: a way of adapting to, and living with global capitalism? A re-assertion of the nation-state? A pride in being Australian? It's a puzzle since the Australian flag has a Union Jack in the top left corner. That signifies the country’s colonial status.
It's also a puzzle because January 26 is an odd day to celebrate a National Day--belonging to the nation with which we identify--- since it is the day of the arrival of the first fleet and therefore the establishment of the colony of NSW—what meaning does that have for Victorians or South Australians? Or West Australians? Or Tasmanians? How do they respond to 'love it or leave it'.
Australia Day is less about a date and more about national unity, national identity, and belonging. In nationalistic rhetoric the nation is often represented as living within a specific natural territory that has nurtured its people which in turn have gained special national characteristics from living off the land.
Often this understanding of love for country is coupled with the assertion that there are “real Australians,” as opposed to others who are held to be driving the country into a ditch. We could call this a Tea Party nationalism, as it is an ethnic based nationalism that excludes those deemed not to be ‘real Australians’.
Groups tend to define themselves not by reference to their own characteristics but by exclusion, that is, by comparison to “strangers.” The exclusion of the other in Australia has historically fractured along racist lines. This maybe a minority view, but its there, and it constantly surfaces around Aboriginal-Australians, Muslim-Australians and asylum seekers.
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That some expressions of nationalism are crass and pointless and even aggressively racist can be conceded without fatally damaging the idea of the nation-state or denigrating Australians' national feelings overall. There are also deep feelings of national identification and pride in what Australians have created over the last 200-odd years. I am not about to throw that baby out with the bathwater of silly fireworks and too many beers.
I would certainly, however, like to see Australians' nationalism re-focussed on real national achievements, like the creation of a more egalitarian society than most in the so-called "West", an achievement which we seem intent on throwing away.
And let us not forget that it is the nation-state which affords what democratic institutions we have. With all their flaws (which are many), our democracy is intimately associated with the nation-state. An attack on nationalism can easily be translated into an attack on democracy.