Boofheads Celebrating Badly
If you live in Perth, you're probably thinking: "Ah-ha, I know what's coming: a tirade about Australia Day violence: young blokes on beaches throwing beer bottles and biffing one another." Not so.
My Australia Day reflection concerns a new practice of Conspicuous Vacuous Patriotism (CVP). The practice was attaching small, flimsy Australian flags to various parts of the car -- a few of these can still be seen on the streets. Owners of chunky 4WD utes seemed particularly attracted to this form of CVP, and the more zealous Patriots had flags flapping at their driver and passenger windows.
Now a flag in the front yard is one thing, but these car-flags were like teenage pimples: too many, too quickly and far too conspicuous.
My question is: what the heck was with this?
A friend suggested it might be related to a rise in nationalistic feelings following the election of a new government. I'm not convinced. Anyway, where did these tacky flappers come from? Did BP have a buy-a-pie-and-get-a-free-flag special? Did Big W ship in flags by the thousands to cash in on CVP sentiment?
Call me a curmudgeon, but I found this latest form of CVP irritiating.
My Australia Day reflection concerns a new practice of Conspicuous Vacuous Patriotism (CVP). The practice was attaching small, flimsy Australian flags to various parts of the car -- a few of these can still be seen on the streets. Owners of chunky 4WD utes seemed particularly attracted to this form of CVP, and the more zealous Patriots had flags flapping at their driver and passenger windows.
Now a flag in the front yard is one thing, but these car-flags were like teenage pimples: too many, too quickly and far too conspicuous.
My question is: what the heck was with this?
A friend suggested it might be related to a rise in nationalistic feelings following the election of a new government. I'm not convinced. Anyway, where did these tacky flappers come from? Did BP have a buy-a-pie-and-get-a-free-flag special? Did Big W ship in flags by the thousands to cash in on CVP sentiment?
Call me a curmudgeon, but I found this latest form of CVP irritiating.
posted by Sauntering Walker at 5:07 PM
8 Comments:
Could it be part of the same wave of defensive patriotism we witnessed in Sydney a couple of years ago (e.g. at Cronulla Beach): 'If non-Australians want to live here then we'd better remind them of where they are'? Hence the conspicuousness.
Having been absent from Australia for the last year I'm not sure if that connection is valid. Hopefully the reason is less sinister. If CVP is up from 2007 then maybe your BP/BigW theory is more likely.
Clare Cheap as Chips - 2 for $1.
Definite increase in CVP this year!
My theory: individuals wanted to express how appreciative they were. - A token public holiday even though the 26th fell on the Saturday! -only in Australia! A great reason for CVP.
Dave: I think cheap and cheerful celebration is most likely (i.e. the BP/Big W theory); however, I do wonder how many and how big the steps are from celebration to defensive patriotism to offensive patriotism -- the last form being particularly ugly.
Jeremy: Nice to hear from you. That's why I'm eternally grateful we don't have Cheap as Chips in WA. Talking of public holidays, apparently in Indonesia if the holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, they get the Monday / Friday off as well -- i.e. 4 day long weekends! There's something to fly the flag about.
Yeah, made me nervous actually. Felt like some sort of uprising.
I saw one guy with two massive Australian flags on the top of his ute and on the back it had a sticker of a map of Australia with words in the middle saying: "F@*k off! We're full."
Charming...
Hmm, are you offended by Christmas trees (CVChristmasism), Easter eggs (CVEasterism) and such? I mean, it's the season, guys. Australia Day means Australian flags. Although I don't personally fly flags some of my best friends are flag fliers and I'm quite encouraged by the flag's resurgent popularity.
On the other hand, what really offends me is middle class university students (not to mention middle aged lame-os who should know better hanging on to the glory years) who proudly strut around in Che shirts (CVCommunism). Although I guess one thing they have over the car flags is that the shirts certainly aren't cheap. However, I'll bet that the boofheads can give a more illuminating explanation about why they are flying the flag (eg 'I got it with a pie at BP', 'my grandad fought under it' or 'It's Australia day tool') than the champagne socialists can explain their threads ('all the cool kids are wearing them', 'vive la revolution' [in a Rick Mayall accent] or 'he looks cute on a shirt and it goes with my Diesel jeans'].
Our theory on Australia Day is that it is best viewed in context with Anzac Day. It's great going to a dawn service and seeing quiet (not to mention sober) crowds reflecting on earlier sacrifices and the lifestyle that's offered us. It is also encouraging that these crowds are growing, particularly by gen xers and ys. (not a lot of che shirts though). A few years ago one of our friends on hearing we were going to the dawn service said 'that's very patriotic of you'. We'd never really thought of ourselves as patriotic but I guess it depends on your perspective.
I think as Australians we are faintly embarrassed by our flag, our national anthem and in some ways our country. This has been changing over the last 10 years and the flag's increasing popularity is an example of that. In the lead up to the republican referendum there was a lot of talk about changing the flag. I can't imagine people seriously floating the idea in 2008.
Janine
Hi Janine: I think I know who you are?
Good to hear your well substantiated, articulate view. The last paragraph in particular got me thinking.
I won't respond in detail, but briefly:
* Sometimes I do find too many Easter Eggs annoying, especially when they are on the shelves almost two months before Easter.
* As to the Che t-shirts, I think your being peeved is entirely justified.
* As for "It's Australia Day, you tool", I'm not sure that's the sort of illuminating comment I'm totally comfortable with.
* I wonder if, to some extent, our discussion is about the substance of patriotism and what it means to be Australian, and the form in which this is expressed. I took the easy road by critiquing one form of expression. Perhaps the more complex yet worthwhile question is what aspects of Australia and Australians are virtuous? And, how these can be appropriately expressed (I presume the mode of expression will differ among different groups).
Hi Chris, yes you do know me! I guess what I was reacting against was the suggestion that a multiplication of "small, flimsy Australian flags (attached) to various parts of the car" was equal to a multiplication of the very worst nationalistic sentiments, rather than a positive expression of patriotism. As though, the flags being available cheaply (or free with a pie from BP even!) somehow disqualified them from being valid expressions of "virtuous" patriotism.
If the discussion is about the substance of patriotism, which Australian virtues are worth celebrating and expressing, and in which modes do you think they should be appropriately expressed by different groups?
With regard to the "It's Australia Day, tool" comment, are you uncomfortable with the pejorative 'tool' or is it the argument itself, that the nature of the day (Australia Day) is obvious reason enough to fly the flag? If it's the tool comment, it was just added for a bit of boof-head colour. As for the argument, I think it's about as straightforward as it gets. Where's the discomfort?
As far as Easter Eggs go, I agree that seeing them on sale in February, effectively replacing the Christmas stock immediately, is a little annoying. Likewise the commercial focus of Christmas. But I think much of this comes from the fact that I'm a Christian and both of these dates have great significance for me. But to be honest, what bothers me a whole lot less is the ubiquitousness of our national flag on our (secular) national holiday.
Janine
Janine: Thanks for clarifying your response and the reasons for it.
"Which Australian virtues are worth celebrating and expressing, and in which modes do you think they should be appropriately expressed by different groups?"
GOOD QUESTIONS!
I might use these questions for some future posts. Perhaps you could contribute a post or two?
Re the 'tool' comment -- it was probably just the pejorative tone, but I appreciate your boof-head colour.
Sorry this is so brief: work has me under the pump.
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