a national holiday

nationalism has always been an uncomfortable idea for me, and linked most strongly in my mind with the flag waving antics of the u.s.a. it is thus with a great deal of unease that i've noticed in the last few years an incredible surge in australian nationalism, with its own brand of flag waving hysteria. there are more and more flagpoles in peoples’ houses. what is more, it is very noticeable that, say in the last five years or so, the job of finding an australian flag in a shop has become so much easier. not content with just a simple flag there are also many other random items branded with the flag: beach towns, stubbie holders, underwear, bikinis etc. etc. you only need go to a 2 dollar discount store to stock up on all your australian flag paraphernalia. there is also the scariest of all flag items branded items, the t-shirt with the catchphrase ‘if you don’t love it, leave it’. also sometimes rendered as ‘if you don’t love it, fuck off’. this t-shirt hits home the profound disquiet that nationalism, and a somewhat prominent australian brand of nationalism, stirs in me for we can immediately see the comparatively close sister phrase (no doubt often also used by the same people wearing this shirt). now, i’m sure there may be some tourists who find this amusing, if only for its ‘aussie’ sense of ‘humour’, and this is why these cheap dollar stores and tourist shops sell them. but i cannot escape the ugliness of this phrase and the ease with which it transforms into the racist taunt, ‘go home you [insert foreign derogatory word of your choice]!’ the razor edge which pronouncements of national pride seems to sit on is to put in most mildly, a major concern for me, and one of the primary reasons that i cannot buy into these discourses. too often in an australian context does this edge appear more like a sliding hole into the racist camp. in any case these discourses are flawed in that their claim to a privileged position as inheritor of australian birth right means nothing, since everyone, bar the tiny indigenous population have this ineluctable right. added to this, the symbolism that is chosen to represent australian nationalism inevitably leaves me out as well as a massive sector of the population. the citizenship teach exemplifies this , because how could knowledge of cricket possible serve as a marker of a person's attribute and ability to 'integrate' (already so much baggage attached to these words!) into australian society? so inasmuch as these discourses and the people who subscribe to them create much anxiety and fear in me, i also find them rather humorous. for invasion day (and as i have learnt this phrase is one that can't be uttered even amongst people i would except to understand the full gravity of its meaning), would like to wear a different shirt, not so as to declare a different allegiance, but so as to cut down the power of these discourses and show that they are pretty absurd. *goguenard slips into his trusty I <3 france t-shirt*