The last bastion of the scoundrel.

Australia Day this year left me feeling, well, a little empty. It's the flags. After last December's unrest, the sight of the thing anywhere but at the top of a pole leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Amongst other things observed yesterday were the juvenile bogans, swaggering around with that yobbo attitude and wearing the flag like capes on their backs with the fly-edge dragging over the ground. And then there were the girls with flags wrapped around their torsos in some kind of improvised halter top. Actual flags mind you, not apparel with representations of the flag on them.

Is this blind, lazy nationalism meant to make up for their other shortcomings as responsible citizens? You don't contribute to society by flag waving - or wearing, as the case may be. It's bad enough that they're expressing their love for their country through mere symbols rather than through constructive involvement in society, it's worse still that they're using the aforementioned national symbol in such poor taste.


Listening to:
Title: Scared Cow
Artist: Crowded House
Album/station: Afterglow (1999)
Length: 3.37