Comments on: Flag burning

By: AkaiChou

AkaiChou — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:12:14 +0000

Just going off a slight tangent, a little bit of stereotyping is ok. Everyone uses a little bit of stereotyping to help analyse and understand situations, people, cultures, etc quickly. (Simple e.g. she is wearing a hijab, she is muslim, she won’t eat pork, don’t offer her pork.)

Over-stereotyping is bad, and in extreme cases results in ethnocentrism / xenophobia / racism. (E.g. “Bloody chinks! Stop stealing our jobs and go home!” “Not until you do, convict boy!”;)

Anyway! My point is, Dennis, it’s ok to stereotype. *pat pat*
Hell, stereotypes are based on a little truth anyway!

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 07:42:16 +0000

That's a really interesting point you make about people assuming how aboriginal people feel about Australia/invasion day. I'm guilty of making similar assumptions and stereotypes. oops.. :S

It's impossible to undo the wrongs and injustices of previous generations... and we can't say 'sorry' on their behalf. Let's all move forward... Being bitter about the past isn't going to help anybody.

About Mundine though... I find flag burning pretty offensive myself. In Mundine's case though it seems much more like a display of his own personal frustration as opposed to a political statement.

I feel sorry for him.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:19:07 +0000

Y’know, I reckon we might consider a new flag and anthem. Take a while to write, though.

By: me

me — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:26:46 +0000

just testing to see if your comments thingy works

By: karan

karan — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:51:12 +0000

It's a tricky, I think, and not one I entirely grasp either, but I do think that the aboriginals would like the events to be recognised for what they were. Fixing today's problems is all well and good, but if the sense that they as a people have been exploited and otherwise maltreated, the sense of injustice will remain. It's hard enough to wring an apology for clear and documented injustice that was the "stolen generation"; doing so for more ancient grievances might be even harder, but it does need to happen in order for an important issue in the Aboriginal collective concious to be cleared.

The thing with the flag is that it's giving a binding sense of identity to those who lack it; Australians can neither identify with the long history of the English, nor the more recent American achievements. What makes "Aussie" culture? The shrimp on the barbie? Nationalistic sentiment, almost instinctive, finds a focus point on the flag. Only the acheivements of sportsmen and the legendary Anzacs provide a sense of community spirit, and theirs are associated with the flag flying. The other thing is that no hate crime has been committed in the name of the flag; it is merely a symbol hijacked by those with a political agenda by and large rejected by the mainstream.

People who consider their position on things would think along similar lines to you re the flag burning. However, people who react emotionally see a symbol that ties into their way of life being defiled, and in this symbolic act they take insult. Their position is not to ask why, but to demand retribution for the "attack" on their "values". Values is a fuzzy thing, and fuzzy things tend to cause emotional reactions.

Either way, the issue is a complex one, and not helped by the intense media focus.