John W - American Wannabe Pt II: The Yankening
I think I’m about to choke with rage. Either that or smugness. I never realised that ‘John Howard: American Wannabe’ would turn out to be true so quickly! I’m talking, of course, about flag raising in schools. John Howard has threatened to take funding from schools that don’t have a flagpole with the aussie flag up it as of next year (paid for with their own money – no mention of flagpole funding as yet). That doesn’t include private schools by the way, they are left to their own devices as usual.
Actually, no, wait, stop. First I would like to give a big clap and cheer for Johnny W (hey – just like George W, how about that…) for implementing a minimum two hours a week physical exercise in schools for all kids. Good on him – best idea yet.
Back to the flag. I’m sure that they do this in heaps of countries around the world and it’s not an issue, but you can bet your Telstra shares that Johnny W didn’t get the idea from Canada. Once again he has looked wistfully across the Pacific at George’s place and wished that he had a population as willing and unquestioning as the one currently in control of everything (or so they would have us believe). I can almost read his thoughts:
“[i]George’s[/i] people don’t question him! Most of them don’t even vote! Why can’t [i]my[/i] people be like that?”
A population that doesn’t think and doesn’t vote. A prudent politician’s perfect dream. Just imagine – an entire nation all to yourself to mould in your own idyllic image: white picket fences, heterosexual couples raising heterosexual children who will grow up full of Aussie love and brilliant economic strategies (with a little help from the Jim’s Mowing man and maybe a servant or two). Or maybe I’m being too bleak.
One thing is certain: you can’t get there all at once. Baby steps beyond the baby bonus. Flag raising at schools is a good place to jump to next. Don’t be surprised if we see some kind of ‘pledge of allegiance’ next. I’m sure our preamble-penning PM already has a draft pledge tucked away in the bottom bedside drawer at Kirribilli, waiting for the right moment. At first it will be voluntary, then it’ll become tied to funding and then anyone who objects will thrown into Baxter with the rest of the terrorists.
Only now do I realise why John W is so desperate to Americanise Australia. If Australia were more like the US, then Australian’s would be much more likely to vote for him. This whole flag thing is in the same spirit as Howard’s attack on state schools earlier this year, when he accused them of being amoralistic and politically correct (a politician complaining of something being politically correct – what is this suggesting?).
Howard knows that private schools are okay – any organisation teaching a standard of ‘pay your own way’ is okay with him, paedophilia investigations or not. Graduates of private schools are going to enter society with exactly the kind self-interested economic-rationalist morals that the liberal party loves.
State schools are a different manner. Firstly: these kids are poor – they don’t pay their own way, the government has to, so they’re learning that their families don’t necessarily have to have money to succeed. They are also learning that there are other power structures out there (other than Mummy and Daddy) to engage with to ask for help, money and information – these are all costly things for a government to provide. Secondly, they are still learning, and not just how to start up their own lawn-mowing business. State schoolies learn all sorts of pesky, annoying things like questioning authority. Private schoolies are getting this too, but for the majority of them, authority and government is the hand feeding them, so why bite back? Public schools are getting less and less from the government, but they are still being allowed to learn how to think. Thinking leads to unhappiness. Unhappiness leads to democracy. Democracy leads to voting out the liberals because they’ve given such a terrible deal to public schools (and refugees, and universities, and low-income earners, and gay people, and …).
Having a flag flying out the front of school to look at every morning and associate with all the fun and good times of school days is a step towards a patriotic nation. One where Australian means government and un-Australian means terrorist. The last thing Howard wants is another David Marr or Michael Moore brewing out there in state school land. Some bright young disgruntled student reading the paper, figuring out just how much of a raw deal they’re getting and having ideas.
I won’t be surprised if some student much like the one I’ve just described, mad with thought, engaging in an anti-government protest and being expelled for tearing down the flag when this comes in.
I will be surprised to hear this conversation taking place in any primary school across the country.
“Miss – what’s that red and white cross on the corner of the flag?”
“That’s the Union Jack, it’s the British flag.”
“Why do we have another country’s flag in the corner of ours?”
“Because this country was colonised by the British over 200 years ago. We become our own country in 1901 but we kept the British flag in the corner of our own to remind us of our heritage.”
“But we’re Australian aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“So why do we have that flag there?”
In Australia, patriotism should be a matter of choice, not force. If our school children can’t make up their minds about what a girl having two mums really means, then they certainly aren’t old enough to start making decisions about whether our nation is something to be proud of.
See this link for The Age’s forum on this subject. Gotta love The Age. I got an Australian this morning and felt a bit like throwing it under a bus. “…[I]stunning[/I] triple backflip” indeed.
The Age article: [link]
Forum: [link]
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=http://img78.photobucket.com/...%20pics/bush_on_terrorist s_in_the_22nd_Century.gif
Actually, no, wait, stop. First I would like to give a big clap and cheer for Johnny W (hey – just like George W, how about that…) for implementing a minimum two hours a week physical exercise in schools for all kids. Good on him – best idea yet.
Back to the flag. I’m sure that they do this in heaps of countries around the world and it’s not an issue, but you can bet your Telstra shares that Johnny W didn’t get the idea from Canada. Once again he has looked wistfully across the Pacific at George’s place and wished that he had a population as willing and unquestioning as the one currently in control of everything (or so they would have us believe). I can almost read his thoughts:
“[i]George’s[/i] people don’t question him! Most of them don’t even vote! Why can’t [i]my[/i] people be like that?”
A population that doesn’t think and doesn’t vote. A prudent politician’s perfect dream. Just imagine – an entire nation all to yourself to mould in your own idyllic image: white picket fences, heterosexual couples raising heterosexual children who will grow up full of Aussie love and brilliant economic strategies (with a little help from the Jim’s Mowing man and maybe a servant or two). Or maybe I’m being too bleak.
One thing is certain: you can’t get there all at once. Baby steps beyond the baby bonus. Flag raising at schools is a good place to jump to next. Don’t be surprised if we see some kind of ‘pledge of allegiance’ next. I’m sure our preamble-penning PM already has a draft pledge tucked away in the bottom bedside drawer at Kirribilli, waiting for the right moment. At first it will be voluntary, then it’ll become tied to funding and then anyone who objects will thrown into Baxter with the rest of the terrorists.
Only now do I realise why John W is so desperate to Americanise Australia. If Australia were more like the US, then Australian’s would be much more likely to vote for him. This whole flag thing is in the same spirit as Howard’s attack on state schools earlier this year, when he accused them of being amoralistic and politically correct (a politician complaining of something being politically correct – what is this suggesting?).
Howard knows that private schools are okay – any organisation teaching a standard of ‘pay your own way’ is okay with him, paedophilia investigations or not. Graduates of private schools are going to enter society with exactly the kind self-interested economic-rationalist morals that the liberal party loves.
State schools are a different manner. Firstly: these kids are poor – they don’t pay their own way, the government has to, so they’re learning that their families don’t necessarily have to have money to succeed. They are also learning that there are other power structures out there (other than Mummy and Daddy) to engage with to ask for help, money and information – these are all costly things for a government to provide. Secondly, they are still learning, and not just how to start up their own lawn-mowing business. State schoolies learn all sorts of pesky, annoying things like questioning authority. Private schoolies are getting this too, but for the majority of them, authority and government is the hand feeding them, so why bite back? Public schools are getting less and less from the government, but they are still being allowed to learn how to think. Thinking leads to unhappiness. Unhappiness leads to democracy. Democracy leads to voting out the liberals because they’ve given such a terrible deal to public schools (and refugees, and universities, and low-income earners, and gay people, and …).
Having a flag flying out the front of school to look at every morning and associate with all the fun and good times of school days is a step towards a patriotic nation. One where Australian means government and un-Australian means terrorist. The last thing Howard wants is another David Marr or Michael Moore brewing out there in state school land. Some bright young disgruntled student reading the paper, figuring out just how much of a raw deal they’re getting and having ideas.
I won’t be surprised if some student much like the one I’ve just described, mad with thought, engaging in an anti-government protest and being expelled for tearing down the flag when this comes in.
I will be surprised to hear this conversation taking place in any primary school across the country.
“Miss – what’s that red and white cross on the corner of the flag?”
“That’s the Union Jack, it’s the British flag.”
“Why do we have another country’s flag in the corner of ours?”
“Because this country was colonised by the British over 200 years ago. We become our own country in 1901 but we kept the British flag in the corner of our own to remind us of our heritage.”
“But we’re Australian aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“So why do we have that flag there?”
In Australia, patriotism should be a matter of choice, not force. If our school children can’t make up their minds about what a girl having two mums really means, then they certainly aren’t old enough to start making decisions about whether our nation is something to be proud of.
See this link for The Age’s forum on this subject. Gotta love The Age. I got an Australian this morning and felt a bit like throwing it under a bus. “…[I]stunning[/I] triple backflip” indeed.
The Age article: [link]
Forum: [link]