A song of gravitas?

Vanstone pens ode to Australia

Former Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has penned a new national song she hopes will help Australians feel proud of their country.

I don't know whether to cry or cringe. "Land of Hope and Glory"?

No doubt there will be some incredibly 'patriotic' tub-thumper who will now decide that our children will learn these words as a 'good thing' while working out how to convince them that going someplace else and killing people is a good idea ...



I've been reading too much early 1900s history of Australia recently. Gods, were they convinced that it would be the greatest adventure ever to go off at the behest of the tub-thumpers (who couldn't/wouldn't go themselves) and "pot themselves a Hun or two" as if "the Hun" were rabbits in need of a good culling!



This sort of sentiment harks back to the same attitudes that were prevalent in 1914 and in 1939. Unthinking assumptions that because 'we' are the 'good guys' everyone else had better do what we want.



It's the unthinking part that really offends me.

I don't know how to let it be known that I would wish our so-called leaders would sit down and cherish all the children in their care, instead of wondering how to make themselves look bigger and better.



Perhaps it is because they are really the most insecure and least creative of our population and the rest of us are too busy getting one with creating our lives that people who like sentiment like this and yell loudest are the ones most noticed.



Sometimes I wonder just how far we are from what chimps do ...