In Western philosophy, misanthropy is connected to isolation from human society. In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthropy in relation to his fellow man: "Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable...and when it happens to someone often...he ends up...hating everyone.
I'm with Aristotle. Here I am, optimistically believing in the essential 'good' in mankind, but what do I get? FKN Australia Day.
It hasn't been this bad since the seventies at the height of the Australiana craze that gave us the apalling 'football, meatpies, kangaroos and holden cars', Paul Hogan, Baz Lhurman, occerist shite (I'm looking at you Singo) advertising campaigns to flog low grade uncompetitive products to the dumbest end of the market. But thanks to way too many years of Howard politics and the rise and rise of bogan insensibility, now I have to suffer the embarrasing spectacle of every second car in creation festooned in FKN Australian Flags. Not only that, all the long sufferening staff of my local IGA have to dress as jingoistic morons to take my cash at the checkout in their 'fight back' advertising campaign to sell me "Australian' products for this 'one day of the year' marketing exercise. And everone, it seems, is in on the act - if you're marketing lamb, it's appartenty 'International Australia day"!
Oh, paleeze.
Then, down at the beach today, every lowlife and their dog is sporting an Ausflag bikini/boardie/towel/beach umbrella and all I want to be is FKN HVK with a gun, and a sniping position from which to cap the muppets. The only thing Australia day inspires in me is misanthropy. I find myself bubbling with rage and loathing of my fellow [sic] Australians. All the shallow sentiment, all the bullshit longing for belonging, all the hollow platitudes, turn my stomach and make me wish them ill.
Hello! Real Australins DO NOT WAVE FLAGS for Fk sake. We do not respect authority, we do not rally around empty nationalist symbols. We are post modern. We define ourselves by what we refuse to be. We do not and have never wished to be American in this - or Nazis for that matter. All I see when a car goes past with those ludicrous fluttering flags are nascent brownshirts.
Perhaps it's just Queensland - maybe in the rest of this great sunburnt country the extremities of stupitidy aren't so obvious. Maybe the extent of fkwittedness isn't so pronounced, but man, up here, it's a battlefield. I have NOTHING in common with an aesthetic that demands total removal of one's frontal lobe.
So, a pox on all the houses of the ignorant fools who think that waving a flag is going to sustain the values of a (mostly anglo and white up here at least) minority populace that thinks that a culture of cricket, alcoholism, biggotry and escapism is sustainable in the face of immigration and reconcilliation. And I extend my misanthropy to first generation migrant kiddies who think that draping themsleves in a tatty piece of fabric will allow them access to the fat aussie bastard club too.
And all this crap about a new Australian flag? Fk it - lets not have a bloody flag at all. Let's be the first country in the history of civilisation to give the whole idea a miss.
The absence of a flag and all the low grade racist crap that goes with it is something I'd actually consider saluting.
uh..wow.
ReplyDeleteI feel increasingly that Oz is a foreign country to me now, so many things have changed in ten years, I don't recognize a lot of the stuff happening.
Australia Day used to be a fairly low key cheerful event, a few flags, bbqs and a long weekend. I don't remember the darker undertones at all.
Nice label, by the way (bex and a good lie down).
I followed your link. unfortunately. oh dear god.
In this brave, new world where nationalism still replaces religion and tribal connection as an opiate, the masses need jingoistic patriotism. If not they might realize they are, essentially, cattle or, more accurately, an economic crop that is harvested every few years for the benefit of the wealthy. And if they realize that they are the means by which the rich get even richer, they might stop buying things they don't need - and that, in turn could threaten our entire social structure. Is that what you want?? Of course not. No one wants that. So three cheers for Australia Day and the vigorous - albeit pointless - debate on redesigning the Australian Flag!
ReplyDeleteHear hear
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I see every person who's waving the flag as a nationalistic fascist.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it if Australians from non-anglo ancestry wave flags?. Just curious.
Streuth.
In New Zealand the equivalent of Australia Day is seen as invasion day and really not acknowledged. It's like a lump under the carpet that everyone steps over.
rofl Just clicked your link. That prick does my head in. Don't even get me started on him. lol
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be catching up on the hoovering and a few other chores. Wouldn't want to venture out and be beaten over the head with a flag pole by some bogan.
ReplyDeleteOwtch.
ReplyDeleteIt's a worry, eh? Lowest common denumbinator time again. When did the collective IQ of the country drop so far?
I have it on good authority that Australia's collective IQ dropped 5 points at 10:00 AM on December 5, 2009. I have no idea why.
ReplyDeleteYou bet Australians don't wave Australian flags. Well, they didn't use to, but they do now, and in increasing numbers. We went to the Big Day Out in Sydney this year and, well, it's a complete and utter nationalistic flag-fest. And it's ugly, because it's not just cultural pride, it's an aggressive 'up yours' to people who don't look white and blond(e). Horrible.
ReplyDeleteIt started with the rejigging of the White Australia Policy in the Howard years when it became politically acceptable to put children behind razor wire and suspect everyone from the Middle East as a terrorist. It focused the racist undercurrent into Cronulla jingoism.
ReplyDeleteSure it goes back to the Ozzie Oxxie Ozzie chant but now there's seen to be a dollar in it so its full tilt boorishness layered on "Fuck Off We're Full" sentiments.
Its FKN fucked!
I had a nice day off despite all the flag ramming.
Yup. I was whining about The Flague (Flag plague) over at Madame's.
ReplyDeleteTime was when if you saw a car bedecked with flags it meant there was some sort of VIP within, and the fluttering flags were simply points of reference for the sniper's shot.
When I was a little girl the only time you saw the flag come out was if the Royal Family came to visit and you'd wave a flag as the limo came down the street.
For me it will always be a symbol of sucking colonization and mindless groveling. I refused to leave the house on the 26th because last year when we went to Redcliffe for lunch it was packed to the hilt with Bogan flag wavers.
Ugh.
And don't even get me started on guys who adopt the whole ArseTrailyern Ozzie bloke BS. When I was at uni I went out with a guy that does that act and behind the scenes when nobody was looking he was a total screaming queen. I swear to god the mongrel stole my eye liner.
ReplyDeleteHelena Rubenstein kohl paint and FKN expensive. Ran into him 25 years later and at least these days he pays for his own.
Bastard.