Flying the flag

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I mean the advent of the Howard and Pauline Hanson years- the conspicuous flaunting
of the flag was not a common vice. Overt patriotism as a method of cultural
division was not an established d practice
Unlike the United States where one of the first thing that a visitor notices
is the constant display of the Stars and Stripes in place both public and private,
Australia, in peace time, seems not to have needed the constant reassurance
that the flag flyer was adequately Australian – and, by inference, that
others, without a waving flag, were not.
Perhaps foreign, perhaps with divided loyalties?.
Not True Blue?
Maybe un-Australian?
I have always believed, (perhaps naively), that the United States tries to be
nationally inclusive in terms of race, creed and colour. Certainly not politically
inclusive, as communists and their socialist fellow travellers, were generically
regarded as non-American, thanks to the legacy of the McCarthy witch hunts.
But, generically flying the flag signified a general national togetherness moving
to a country-wide red white and blue rash at moments of national crisis.
I am saying this in the face of the continual inequality of the African American,
but I don’t recall anybody waving the American flag in their face and
saying that they weren’t American. Black yes, unequal yes, seen as inferior,
yes – but still American.
In Australia, because of the racist overtones, the flying of the National flag
appears almost divisive. I know that this isn’t the intention of many
ardent flag flyers, but there is a strong associative link with events such
as the Cronulla riots. Cronulla did as much to reinforce Australia’s reputation
as a tolerant nation as Laslo Toth did to reinforce Australia’s ability
in art criticism after he defaced Michelangelo’s Pieta in 1972.
Australians are strongly into denial about racism, as the statements of the
Victorian Premier and Police Commissioner affirm when talking about attacks
on Indian students indicate.
But that overt violence disguises the fact that Victoria, probably more than
any other state, has been ruthlessly exploiting foreign students for years in
shonky colleges where people pay for low order qualifications to get some working
residence. The contempt that allowed such ungoverned exploitation to go on for
years is a disgrace that will see the destruction of a multi-billion “industry”.
Some of that is deserved, but the collateral damage will be extensive and is
also an inevitable consequence of seeing education as a business.
On Australia Day itself I had an amiable discussion with an Australian about
the design of the flag itself. At the time we were sitting eating meat pies,
sausage rolls and Pavlova, whilst young children mimed to American songs surrounded
by their generously large and loud parents.
To me it seemed odd that Australia did not have a unique flag, in the same way
that Canada managed to get the distinctive Maple leaf flag in 1965. Canada has
been historically in almost the exact position in relation to colonial and dominion
status as Australia, yet somehow Canada managed it.
My friend, who, to give some relevant background, is a naturalised Englishman
in his seventies, advanced the opinion that Australians had gone to war under
the current flag and lost their lives fighting for it.
This would be a fact lost on the Canadians who had the a similar Union flag
in both great wars but had carelessly discarded their reason for dying .
Now, the number of people who directly lose their lives fighting for a flag
is actually numerically small – probably more die in soccer riots than
in armed conflict. People go to war, enlist in the armed forces, have their
genitals inspected, trained with varying degrees of effectiveness to kill other
people, have usually done so with little idea of the risk they take. The reasons
are sometimes noble, but in many cases are direct emotional responses to what
their friends are doing or what propaganda enjoins. When you look at the youth
of some those who died it Gallipoli or Fromelles, literally children as young
as fourteen, rationality is not going to be a prime cause.
Going to fight for or defend a flag is not there either. To honour the Union
Flag for their sacrifice for what were ultimately honourable ideals is to not
honour the dead or the tragedy of their going.
At least a new flag would stop the confusion with the New Zealand flag, which
is almost identical, though in design terms is fractionally a clearer graphic
statement. My current suggestion is that Australia have a six pack of Carlton
Draught stubbies on a blood soaked pavement and New Zealand a bottle of Sauvignon
Blanc.
As a sweeping generalisation the desire to keep the Australian flag as it is
reflects a desire to keep Australia as it was when the Queen toured this sunburnt
land after her Coronation in the 1950’s. Everybody knew their place, the
Aborigines were going to be assimilated, and the impact of rapid post war immigration
was just being noticed as a quaint phenomenon.
When Donald Horne described Australia as ‘the lucky country” it
was meant as an indictment of an unimaginative nation, its cosy provincialism,
its cultural cringe and its White Australia policy. Most have failed to detect
his irony and many more, either wilfully or lazily, misinterpreted his words.
From my perspective, for all Australians to be able fly their flag proudly it
should represent, not the complacent belief that we represent the epitome of
global perfection in one place, but the opposite of those ironic phrases of
Donald Horne. Imaginative, global, culturally strong and diverse and racially
colour blind. It would be a good place to start.