The grubs of the left love to mock patriotism, which just means love of country, and nationalism, which they dismiss as ‘white supremacy’ or ‘racism’ or whatever.
You either love your country, and everything it has bestowed upon you – the town you grew up in, the education you received, the economic opportunities you have been afforded, the holidays, the adventures, the pleasurable moments of relaxation, or sporting activity that are and were denied 99.9 per cent of the rest of humanity.
You either love those things, your country, or you dismiss them as irrelevant, falsely believing that you would have achieved the life you are living all by yourself, regardless of the country you call home.
Worse, of course, than dismissing or being apathetic to your country is actively hating it.
The scenes coming out of France at the moment, verging on civil war between the anarchist forces of the hard Left in cahoots with violent angry migrant mobs is, in my opinion, the inevitable result of leftist hatred of La Patrie, the French nation and culture.
It may be fuelled by the communists but the foot soldiers are the armies of young first or second generation migrant men fed on a diet of hatred of France, of so-called French colonialism, all in the name of the Left’s beloved multiculturalism.
It is no surprise to me that the primary targets for these mobs are the symbols of patriotism – the town halls, the monuments… A war against civility. A war against tradition and patriotism.
And that is what makes the Left in this country, and most Western nations so, despicable: they actively encourage our kids to hate their country, to be ashamed of it, and to dismiss its culture and history as irrelevant or, worse, as somehow evil, racist, colonialist, imperialist, and white supremacist. These are the vile slurs hurled at poor old Australia by the modern Left.
On a side note, it literally infuriates me that the Left, and indeed the entire Woke so-called progressive elites of Australia, endlessly bang on about how precious the relationship between clearly part-Aboriginal Australians and so-called ‘country’ is – yet dismiss as irrelevant any notion of a relationship between non-Aboriginal Australians and their country of birth.
And the cruel irony if this is of course in – typically – the perversion of language by the Left.
The word indigenous, which is a direct derivation from the Latin word indigena – literally means ‘a person born in a particular place’. That’s it. It has nothing to do with ancestry, or colour of skin, or culture, or heritage. It literally means a person who was born in such-and-such a place.
I am an indigenous Canberran. I am also an indigenous Australian.
I do not need to be welcomed into my own country, thank you very much. In fact, I actually resent it, as much as I would resent some clown standing on my front porch blowing cigarette smoke in my face and muttering gobbledegook at me before letting me into my own home.
And as for acknowledging that somebody else owns the land other than the people who, you know, actually own it, nope – no way, forget it. That’s what I call theft through incantation and shame on those corporations and councils that go along with such nonsense.
But back to patriotism.
In the same way that if you work for a large company, they might reward loyalty with various bonus programs or whatever, or in the same way that the local footy team plays better when there’s a large home crowd giving them their support, patriotism is a vital ingredient in the social cohesion – I hate that phrase, but that’s the one everybody uses – of a nation.
Patriotism oils the wheels.
We all benefit from this wonderful country and we demand an awful lot of it – we demand security, a sound economy, protection of our assets, clean streets, and safe public spaces. We don’t always get them, and we punish political parties who fail in their duty to provide them, as Victorian Labor are about to find out.
But pride in your country is important both at home and abroad.
This nation has achieved an awful lot of just over 200 years and every one of us should share in and celebrate that success. And – unlike every other commentator and politician in this country – I am not now going to make some gratuitous qualification to that factual statement.
Patriotism is ‘the last refuge of a scoundrel’, as Samuel Johnson famously said in 1775. The Left love to use this quotation to suggest those who are patriotic are scoundrels, but in fact, as is universally the case, the Left have got it back-to-front.
Johnson wasn’t attacking patriotism per se, as his biographer Boswell makes crystal clear, he was attacking those who hide behind the cloak of patriotism, or fake patriotism. He was attacking frauds, in other words.
Samuel Johnson was actually a profound supporter of patriotism, and wrote a pamphlet on it, distinguishing true patriots from false patriots.
His description of a false patriot, to my mind, accurately describes the modern Woke so-called progressive Left:
‘Still less does the true patriot circulate opinions which he knows to be false. No man, who loves his country, fills the nation with clamorous complaints…’
That to me is the perfect definition of the modern Left. Be it on climate change, the economy, immigration, First Nations, crime, radical Islam, antisemitism, and so on, it is the modern left that fills this nation with falsehoods. Sorry, I forgot, they’re not lies anymore, they’re just a ‘change of position’.
I digress. Patriotism is important internally and externally. Anthems and flags are important. We have a beautiful Australian flag, but the Labor Party and the Prime Minister are so embarrassed by it they always manage to stick the two Indigenous flags in pride of place, even when they are overseas, which is a farce. We have a beautiful anthem with its own quirky lyrics, but how many kids ever get to sing it? Certainly not at school, although One Nation have said they will implement it.
I remember a couple of years ago, I mentioned it on Outsiders at the time, I had the misfortune of being in inner Melbourne, South Yarra, that area, on the morning of January 26. We’d been to the tennis the night before. Not a single shop up and down Chapel St or that area had a single indication that it was Australia Day. No flag. No bunting. Nothing. No cafe. No shop. No cars going past. Nothing. You literally wouldn’t have had the faintest idea it was the national day.
A nation that carries itself proudly, with head held high, around the planet is one that will attract the best people, that will attract business opportunities, and that will garner respect for its people wherever they go. I remember fondly being in Greece many years ago with a group of English people. We were trying to get a cab but it was mid-afternoon and none of the drivers were interested, they were on their break, until I tried a trick which I’d used successfully before. ‘By the way, I don’t speak Greek, I’m from Australia, and I was wondering…’ That’s as far as I got. ‘Australian! Why didn’t you say so! We love Australians. Where do you want to go?’
But that was back when Australians were open, friendly, honest, fiercely patriotic, and hugely respected around the world. We even had pop songs that went to number one around the world all about how great it was to be an Aussie, like Men at Work’s ‘Land Down Under’.
Yes, for a brief time there that was Australia’s national anthem. And everywhere you went they all knew the words. We were the envy of the world.
Back then, most of us took pride in and even knew the words to our own official national anthem … and sang them with gusto.
Is it still the same today I wonder, after thirty years of Australian black armband self-flagellation and self-denigration?
Are today’s Aussie female athletes, for example as well versed in the national anthem?
Half the team of the Jillaroos, the Australian Women’s rugby team, could barely bring themselves to sing the anthem at the opener to the match in Sydney on Friday night, with several appearing sullen and determined not to.
The Left has a hell of a lot to answer for in this country.
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