More of me thinking about Australian identity. I don’t know if this writer is just an optimist or whether there is still hope for Australia.
“Perhaps it’s a reflection of the more dangerous international climate in which we live, but in the political and media arenas particularly, there seems a growing insecurity that not being able to narrow the essence of the national psyche down to a particular object or symbol makes us somehow less of a nation.
I beg to differ. One of the things I’ve always felt proudest of about living in this country is the very fact our character can’t be so easily typecast.
…
We don’t need another posturing, po-faced portrait of a popular figure cloaked in the national flag to tug at our heartstrings. That’s likely to make as many of us roll our eyes and cringe not just a little as feel our chests swell with pride.
Some would argue that’s unpatriotic. But that mild sense of cynicism, or what I’d prefer to call perspective, is a healthy Australian trait.
…
The love of a good, hard tussle, played in the right spirit, by men and women who get the job done without the need for boorish, egocentric self-promotion — that’s Australian. So is the team ethic, the love of the underdog, and the belief that enduring the hard times with grace makes the triumphs all the sweeter.” Blind barracking for the Aussie is not our way
Not being a sports fan, I can’t say how much the last paragraph is true, but I suspect those are exactly the values politicians are currently trying to undermine or co-opt.