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September 10, 2004
We have blogged on Terence Stamp's review of Benjamin Barber's Fear's Empire in Logos before. But in the light of this I want to pick up on the fear bit.
Terence Stamp says:
"Throughout this book Barber’s particular critique of Bush’s foreign policy is delivered alongside a general argument against the very essence of the conservative weltanschauung: “fear.” Fear as a political rhetoric, it can be said, derives from a sense of vulnerability and weakness in the face of the fecund opponents of American power. It derives from a general pessimism about humanity and its fundamentally evil urges, that says a world without power and order produces anarchy. And perhaps it derives from deep psychic rivulets of historical guilt. "
I do not know about the historical guilt bit in relation to Australia. What strikes a chord, however, is the fear arising from Australia's sense of vulnerability and weakness as a nation-state in a global world. We are a terrified nation with a paranoid mentality about the baddies coming to get us. That is why we cling to the coat tails of the US as a global power.
Some speculation.
Like America, Australian self-identity resorts to a notion of exceptionalism. New world Australia was seen to be “empty” (a terra nullius) and this myth allowed its people to “start the world over again.” To build a new classless (white) world different from a class-ridden Britain. However, Australia's actual beginnings was one of virtuous Australian pioneers confronted by an alien and hostile world that could not be easily tamed or bought under control. The image of Australian exceptionalism in a hostile world continues to be projected outward to the wider anarchic and threatening world of nation-states within the Asia Pacific Rim.
Associating with powerful friends (Britain then America) served the interests of national sovereignty in an anarchic world of fear and evil. It was the only way to protect national virtue faced with threats from the Japanese, communists and terrorists to destroy us. In hitching up to the US Australia now finds itself embarking upon a “righteous war against evil.”
The point of the speculation is to suggest a reason why Empire is no longer a dirty word in Australia. Thus Brett Bowden writes:
"Empire is no longer a dirty word, at least not for some. Why? Because the essential task of empires is to produce and maintain an orderly world. And at the present juncture in world politics, the Unites States and its key allies believe that the world is in need of a good dose of American-led-coalition-of-the-willing imposed order in the name of security and freedom. "
If anarchy between nation states can ordered through power and domination of an imperial power, then that means increased security for Australia. We can sleep more easily in our beds.
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