And it was not that we rejected the idea that a "small group of people have usurped the symbolism of the flag" (funny that they never place such emphais on numbers when a small group of Middle Easterns commit crimes). It wasn't the "them" in those who draped themselves in the flag for the Cronulla riots that created such an absurdly emotional, outraged scandal, this week. It was the "us" in the Cronulla riots. There's a little bit of Cronulla in far too many in this country. The ban was lifted, and mainstream media churned out exactly what most of us at this website knew very well they would (it packaged the backflip as some "win" for this country that we should be proud of - personally, I'm not - and then, it presented a beautifully behaved Big Day Out crowd to debase the organiser's fears as irrational and ultimately proven incorrect). Never mind, that we now also know that convenience stores were selling racist t-shirts for the day that featured - surprise, surprise - the Australian flag. That won't be a scandal - we'll ignore it, and we'll choose the idea that we "reclaimed" the flag... you know, as opposed to won a victory for the right of our racism.
The charming young man who last year beat a concert-goer at The Big Day Out because he refused to kiss the Australian flag upon request (one of the police reports from last year's gig that was used as the basis for the decision, but was conveniently ignored by all but a few portions of the media in their reporting of the banning), was no doubt waving his flag at today's show. He was probably reclaiming it, no less. But none other than Andrew G recalled his own proximity to this horrible incident in his own blog (long before this year's scandal);
The main thing I got from the (2006) crowd was that there was a large, dare I say it, “Cronulla” style element. Australia Day, Beer, Yobs in board shorts yelling things. Flags. Lots of “Aussie Pride” tattoos. Scary. There were fights there. I’ve never ever seen a fight at a Big Day Out. Why would you want to fight at a day like that? All the bands and food and hot girls/guys you’ve ever wanted in once place at once, and you have to biff? Why??
My dear friend Ali saw a poor guy get his lights viciously punched out because he refused to ‘KISS THE FLAG’ draped around the shoulders of some pissed animal who was travelling in a cowardly pack of other yobs. This is Sydney? Kiss the flag or I’ll hit you? Please explain to me how that works? I want to know. I really do. Post below and let me know, help me understand it, please.
Sydney, you’re letting the promoters who work so fucking hard to make this show happen each year down, you’re letting the bands that came out to be a part of it down, and most of all, you’re letting your country down. This is not how Australia needs to be represented to the world, and that’s what’s happening more and more internationally as far as how we’re perceived.
I never thought I'd be particularly impressed by Andrew G, but... in all fairness... well said.
So what message do you think the racists who use the flag as a symbol of their hatred received, this week? What did we, as a nation, tell them? A major event decided to make it very clear that their behaviour and use of the flag was unacceptable. And what did we do? Our own fucking prime-minister - the man who leads us - responed by branding the attitude that racism under the banner of our flag is not on, as "Un-Australian", and an evil anti-social "political agenda". Nice. I've now visited the major white pride websites of this country, and I can tell you now, they're very happy. They see it as a victory - as a justification of their hatred from the highest levels of this country. And they're right. It was. We could have used the banning to discuss the flag, and more importantly, violent nationalism and racism. But we didn't. And they're not stupid. Well, they are - but they're not that stupid. They know what this week meant. They had a very happy Australia Day.
I couldn't help but think of these organisations (stormfront.org is by far the most disturbing - feel free to click the link and browse the forums) when another scandal broke, this week: the latest Youtube catastrophe of The Granville Boys. Never mind that this video had been sitting on Youtube for almost six months; the story breaks, and the headlines hit the stands - as if by magic - smack bang in the middle of the Big Day Out scandal, two days before Australia Day. And these boys are a disturbing portrait of growing racial tension - but again, we've not in any way discussed that our open hatred will, quite logically, only fuel and breed this kind of potential collectivism amongst young Lebanese (we'll point the finger at these boys, completely ignoring that only twelve months ago, we all got together on a beach and bashed the shit out of them for no other reason than their race). We met 9/11 with aggressive collectivism and discrimination, and the sad irony is that we will keep this chain reaction going, manifesting the very thing we will use to justify our racism with our racism. We applaud the pride of an Aussie when he is threatened, but we demonise the same dynamic when we threaten another. It's a horrible vicious circle, and it wil lead us nowhere but into further peril.
And the irony of this story? What was the most featured aspect in the presentation of these evil Lebanese boys? One of them has the Lebanese flag tattooed on his head. One paper even sat it beside a picture of the Lebanese flag - you know, just to make the point clear that this boy was - oh, dear - proud of his nationaity and using it as the basis for his racism. Isn't it awful when people do that?! How bad are those Lebanese, hey?!
And I couldn't help but think of how we scoffed at the terrible young man, Skaf, when he suggested that our legal system protects anglos and discriminates against Muslims. The public have now gone into further outrage at this "racism", and the police have now stepped in to assure the voting public that action will be taken. The videos have now been removed.
But thankfully, we're still free to watch this;
Makes you proud, doesn't it? But there's been no public outcry over this, or any of the white power material and websites produced in Australia. The government and the police do nothing - though if they thought it would please the public, no doubt they would. But the public, needless to say, don't care. We cry foul when we discover a bookshop that sells - gasp - "anti-Western material", but feel free to familiarise yourself with why you should hate all muslims, or blacks, or anyone who isn't white anglo. God bless freedom of spech, it's so... consistent.
And so, here I sat, today - Australia Day - in my apartment just near the Newcastle foreshore, where our local Australia Day celebrations took place. I decided to remain indoors, but went as far as my balcony, where I had the pleasure of watching hundreds of young men draped in flags, marching down the street, yelling their Ausie chants. "Aussie! Ausie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!" is still a favourite, needless to say - but I failed to catch the "celebration" in their voice. It was unmistakably aggressive. Whatever joy there was in this chant, in 2007, it was gone. It wasn't joy - it was a desperate kind of collectivism - as much a threatening declaration of what they were "not", as much what they "are".
But I think the most creative was one group of boys who changed the lyrics of the military song, "Sound Off" to "Fuck Off", to appropriate it to the day's sentiment; "Lebanese... fuck off! Iraqis... fuck off! Middle East... fuck off!" Oh, the pride.
And then, there was the Tripple J hottest 100, that tried its best - God bless it - to address the flag furore in a variety of subtle ways (far too subtle, truth be told, for it's pissed audience). At one point during the live broadcast from Sydney's Hyde Park, John Saffran wanted to know if anyone had brought any flag other than the Australian flag to the event, and requested they bring their flags to the front. It was met by boos and a variety of abuse. The co-presenter quickly moved proceedings right along.
And yes, I'm being critical. But that's my right. As an Australian. As a member of a democracy. When those who autonomously think outside the collective rules are victimised for doing so (for the first thing that dies in wartime mentality is critical thinking), then what we have is not democracy - it's a conformist, totalitarian dynamic pretending to be a democracy. And that is not the Australia I want to live in. And let's face it; I can't live anywhere else ("If you don't like it, fuck off", goes the sentiment - and now, the T-shirt - but this world has visas and borders, and quite frankly, I can't). And so, I must deal with my nationality in a functional, technical manner. I am an Australian through no choice of my own, but at the end of the day, c'est la vie. I have to deal with where I live, and this is exactly how democracy should serve me. Democracy should shape our nation, in the best way it can, so that the place where we live accommodates our needs, beliefs, ambitions and rights, without unjustly compromising the rights of the cross-section who call this society "home". If the ideology becomes nothing more than "like it or get out", then democracy has failed. This is not a democratic ideology - in fact, it's the opposite. Democracy is about changing what you don't like. I am an Australian. Under democratic ideology, I'm not only allowed to be critical and be active in the shifting (evolution) of this society, I'm expected to be. This is my country as much as it is anybody else's. What is it to be "Australian"? Whatever the fuck I want it to be. It's whoever the fuck I am.
So forgive me for not running out into the streets today and celebrating this great land of ours, but this, after all, is the era of "Un-Australian". Who is to decide what "is" and "isn't" Australian? And how moronic to put it down to a handful of things that ignores the beauty of cultural diversity so many of us simply cannot see because we are so insecure and afraid. You know what I love about this country? It's that despite the majority of morons in this country who actually use this term in their paranoid lexicon, there are millions of us here in this place, and there are so many different meanings of the word "Australian" - personal meanings, not collectively dependent ones - that can never be taken away from them, and that have nothing to do with the dominant anglo-saxon arrogance and ignorance that has spoilt the beginning of this century. It's utterly depressing that this diversity has been bullied into a kind of silence, and that it is no longer represented to the degree it should be. But it exists, just the same. What it means to be Australian - what I think of when I see that flag - is personal, and even in itself, transient. It means something entirely different to the person next to me, and it could mean somthing entirely different, next year. And I can respect that at the moment, there is a problem with the symbol of our flag within a portion of this society, and I'm adult enough to be able to concede it and address it without spending a week whipped up into a stupid rush of oblivious emotion.
So on Australia Day, 2007, I say this...
Fuck monoculture; it's dumb, and I reject it. And I have every right to reject it, because I'm an Australian, and this is a democracy. "Like it, or get out" is not democracy; it's the very thing so many of us hate about Islaamic society. The irony of that.
And it's a beautiful country, and there are many people here I so dearly love. And hey, the weather is so lovely, and all. There's an awful lot that's right about this place. But there's an awful lot that has slowly gone wrong. Perhaps, I should have spent the day celebrating the things I do love, but quite frankly, I never put those things in a conceptual context of nationality, and I don't really feel that I need a "day" based on this, to do so. This year, after the week this country has just had, I decided it was more appropriate to be thinking. Ask not what your country can do for you, as they say, but what you can do for your country.
