The word is not the thing.
I believe this isn't hard for most people to understand, yet still people put a lot of emphasis on what something represents, without considering what it actually represents. For instance, the other day in some Australian sports events, athletes didn't sing the national anthem and they were called un-Australian and much worse, and people said that if they won't sing the anthem, they shouldn't play for Australia. Is singing the anthem what makes someone Australian?
What does a national anthem represent?
By definition, a national anthem represents "a country's history, traditions, core values, and collective identity", but considering that most were written a long time ago and even as they change over time, do they really speak to the collective identity and core values?
Advance Australia Fair
Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty, rich and rare
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands
For those who've across the seas
We've boundless plains to share
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair
There are a couple lines in there that just no longer mesh with reality. For instance, the third line "wealth for toil" means that one can become wealthy by working hard. And the twelfth line doubles down on "toil" with hearts and hands, yet that is no longer the case. The rich aren't those who toil. And then of course it goes onto "boundless plains to share" which definitely doesn't speak to the collective identity in Australia at the moment.
While some people attach their identity to an anthem or a flag, I do not think it is required in order to care for and be concerned about one's country. In fact, I think that citizens being able to protest and show dissent and dissatisfaction with the conditions of a country, should be celebrated. Otherwise, the country is little better than North Korea in ideology, if not practice. And with the instance of Australians not singing the national anthem, they all tended to be indigenous Australians by background, who might not feel like they have been fairly represented at any time in Australia's colonised history. However, there are plenty of past events where white Australians didn't sing, and it wasn't an issue at all. Perhaps that says something.
Whatever it is, I do not think one song can encapsulate any country's "traditions, core values and collective identity" anymore, because they no longer exist. It isn't as much about the mix of people from other countries, as it is about the mix of people from the same countries, the same ethnic groups, the same backgrounds. Over the last few decades, "culture wars" have been pushed and fought to create conditions that disconnect people and turn neighbour against neighbour. To then think that something like a single song can unite people is quite ludicrous. And then to say that if the anthem doesn't resonate positively with a person they are not part of that country, is simple-minded.
These days, most people believe that religion and state should be separated, yet many still want the mechanisms of religion affecting politics. The way people attach to a flag or anthem is a religious connection and some will fight for it, literally to the death at times. And then talking about forcing people to sing is akin to forcing them to convert to a religion they do not belong to and that isn't going to change them, it will just cause deep-seeded resentment.
However, talk to the players on the field that didn't sing and they are indeed proud Australians who proudly wore a unifying symbol of Australian culture, the green and gold sporting colours. They have been in use for a hundred and twenty years and are inspired by an Australian flower, the golden wattle. Even if the flag and the anthem might not represent all Australians or sporting people, the green and gold represents all Australian athletes.
In my personal opinion, people put too much emphasis and power into many symbols and attach their identities to them. As a result, when someone else doesn't revere the same symbol in the same way, they feel personally attacked. They feel threatened that their own identity is being diminished or taken away, without recognising that who they are is the same, with or without the symbol, because the word is not the thing. If anything, someone who has to plaster themselves and everything else with an external symbol of their identity, is trying a little bit too hard and perhaps, don't have much else of an internal identity to be proud of. They have to rely on something like someone would a religion, to tell them who they are.
There is nothing wrong with a flag or an anthem or any other symbol we want to use to express our beliefs, but forcing them upon other people who do not hold the same position seems pretty oppressive and abusive to me. And if it is the people who are saying this is what the country culture stands for, what does that say about the country culture and the people who make it?
Call yourself whatever you want.
It doesn't mean you are that thing.
Taraz
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