Lot's Wife Edition 2 2016

SOCIETY
Patriotism:
it’s un-Australian
by Claire Noonan
Illustration by Ruby Kammoora
f you don’t love it, leave”. This message, plastered
“Iacross the image of a bold Australian flag, was sold on
a men’s singlet in a Woolworths in 2014. Tasmanian MP
Jacqui Lambi, reciting the Oath of Allegiance and dressed
in a sequined Australian flag dress, expressed that same
message. It was also stated by Neil El-Kadomi, a prominent
Mosque chairman, after a 15 year old, radicalized by Islamic
extremists, shot a man outside a Parramatta police station.
While the motivations behind the sentiment may differ, the
implication remains the same: those who seek to rectify and
criticize issues within Australian society essentially have
less of a right to be here.
Th e fervour and rituals involved in many displays
of patriotism seem almost religious in nature. Sing the
national anthem, put your hand over your heart, pledge
your allegiance. As a citizen, there is a social obligation to
partake, with enthusiasm, in the rites of patriotism that is
akin to the expectations of a church’s congregation. As so
many who have attempted to reform religious institutions
have been excommunicated from their communities, the
disenfranchised public are told to ‘leave’ their homelands. A
true patriot feels unquestioning affection and pride for their
country and its perceived culture and ideology. Through
patriotism, the successes of a country are emphasized, and
its failures overlooked. But as ‘patriotic’ Australians, what
do we have to be so proud of?
Many argue that patriotism benefits Australian society
by bringing people together through a shared cultural
experience and sense of national identity. But the emotions
of identity shouldn’t disallow the progress and tolerance
that is a fundamental principle of democracy. Like many
Western nations, we pride ourselves on the supposed
‘freedoms’ and rights that are allowed to our people. The
notion that the rights of all Australians are upheld and protected
brazenly disregards the experience of impoverished
Aboriginal communities, members of the LGBTI+ community
who are not allowed equal rights, and the indefinite
detention of asylum seekers that we are morally and legally
responsible for.
In a display of clothing-based ignorance similar to that
of Woolworths, Aldi withdrew its Australia Day-inspired
t-shirt design which stated “Australia Established 1788” in
January of 2014. It is painfully ironic that one of the groups
most marginalized and excluded by widespread Australian
patriotism is our country’s Indigenous people. The mere fact
that our nationally acknowledged day of celebration marks
the day of the invasion of their sovereign land demonstrates
the insensitivity and callousness of white Australia’s
attitude towards the rights and interests of our Indigenous
population. It is not enough to apologize, to obligatorily
recognize the traditional owners of the land at the start
of a school assembly, or to play a special game of football
every year and call it ‘Dreamtime at the G’. How can we, the
children of immigrants and colonizers, call ourselves proud
Australians, until we ensure that the children of the rightful
owners of this land have equal access to the opportunities
and privileges that we possess?
While contemporary displays of patriotism more
often involve drunkenly waving an Australian flag while
drinking a VB than dying for one’s country, the politics of
patriotism is still just as much at play. Leo Tolstoy famously
wrote in his essay ‘Patriotism & Government’ that “patriotism
as a feeling is bad and harmful, and as a doctrine
is stupid”. The xenophobic ideals that plague Australian
society are informed by feelings of patriotism and national
superiority, which have the capacity to exclude and marginalize
groups perceived as ‘other’. The patriotic view that not
only is our country and its way of life great, but superior to
that of others, contributes to an environment of racial and
cultural tension which dangerously mitigates our empathy
for those who are not like us.
It is not a sense of patriotic duty that implores
Australians to help their countrymen in times of need, but
human compassion. That duty extends beyond the people
who live in the same country as you, or who share your skin
colour, your religion, or your political beliefs. Within recent
years, this discussion has been brought to the forefront of
societal discourse with the refugee crisis. The scare tactics
of the Abbott government, as well as media outlets such as
the Herald Sun, misinformed and manipulated the general
public into a false sense that the Australian ‘way of life’ was
under threat. Supposedly our shores are being inundated
by fearsome Muslim ‘boat people,’ who seek to ‘abuse our
women’ and ‘impose Sharia law’ in Australia.
As our own national anthem states, “for those who’ve
come across the seas, we’ve boundless plains to share”. This
is a lesson that the leaders of our country, as well as its
general population, need to learn. Maybe we should start
singing the second verse more often.
Lot’s Wife | 21