I love this idea of 'national identity'. An inspirational and aspirational communal identity. An idea as juicy as a hamburger that inspires zealous affirmation and passionate fervour. An idea worth dying for?
My Australian Nationality, is it what defines me? Such a popular concept, surely it must make up some part of my identity. It is something I have thought about over the past few years, especially since the term 'Un-Australian' is invoked so often by the media and Australian politicians. Is it "a fair go" or sport or can Australian be consumed as a yeast extract. It seems to me anyway, to be an elusive or somewhat arbitrary ideal. An imaginary concept for an imagined community. Perhaps Un-Australian is easier to define, apparently it can be anything you don't particularly like. I don't particularly like the term Un-Australian, I'm not sure I even write it correctly. In '
Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy' Arjun Appadurai talks about the turbulence of multiculturalism and to a point I understand what he is talking about. We all heard about the
Cronulla violence and know that many other Australians are simply racist, you need only to look at the fleeting popularity of the One Nation party to realise that. But I must admit I don't feel the turbulence in my own life, it just doesn't seem to be there. Is Melbourne a cultural diaspora so rich with cultural diversity that we are somehow insulated against this turbulence, or am I just missing something...
Comments