I thought some of you might be interested in a recent post from my blog. It deals with nationalism and sport - two topics on which I have strong views. Since the Australian Rugby Union team beat its New Zealand equivalent last night (for the first time in two years) this might be an appropriate occasion to give the piece another airing. It includes a few digs at other countries, all intended as humorous. For those who don't know what the haka is - it's a pseudo Maori ritual often performed pre-match by New Zealand sporting teams.

I hate all national anthems. I hate people feeling obliged to stand up for them and feeling superior to those who don't. I hate people with flags on their cars or in their front yards. It used to be an instance of Australia's superiority to the US that we were above that sort of nonsense. Now, however, there is barely any such thing as a recognisable Australian culture. Most of our fashions in thought (including anti-Americanism) are imported from the US and one of those execrable fashions is a willingness to take flags and anthems seriously.

 
 
National anthems at sporting events are an abomination. The prevalence of them is one reason why, although I love sport, I have practically stopped attending it. In fact if you go to a big sporting event these days you get hit with a double whammy: vulgar national anthems to start with and a combination of 5th rate pop music and advertisements for Colonel Sanders throughout the day. And when I say "national anthems" (I'm on a roll now) I include pseudo-anthems - the Pommies playing Jerusalem before cricket matches, for instance. Are they completely immune to embarrassment? The author of Jerusalem,  William Blake, was as mad as a cut snake and his poem is a mixture of lunatic religiosity and disguised support for the French Revolution. During the First World War one Hubert Parry was commissioned to set it to music as a patriotic rabble rouser although he eventually tiptoed away from the commissioning organisation because it was a bit too patriotic if you know what I mean. He handed the rights to his music over to the suffragettes in the hope that it would become their political anthem. Political organisations just love songs, don't they? Nothing serves to better illustrate the truth of the old adage: "If you've got something to say, say it; if you've got nothing to say, sing it." One of the most hilarious sights in politics is a group of Fairfax-reading, ABC-watching  left wingers  singing The Red Flag. Personally I prefer the version that begins:
 
The working class can kiss my arse;
I've got a bludger's job at last.
 
though there are plenty of others.
 
 
At this point I should probably clarify my own position on a couple of issues: William Blake, though mad, was, at his best, a fine poet.  The suffragettes, apart from their unwarranted obstruction of horse races, were a worthy organisation.
 
 
 
Here in Australia we have too many grudges about New Zealand.  I think it would be better if we tried to get along with our trans-Tasman neighbours. We could start with an equitable division of disputed properties. We'll have Phar Lap and you can keep Russell Crowe. That's a fair start, isn't it? See, a bit of good will and you can resolve most difficulties. Not all, though: there remains the haka. Why it has not been laughed off the world's sporting grounds I do not know. It's offensive and ridiculous. It's especially ludicrous when demonstrated by some seven-foot sheep shagger who's as white as my arse and has a ribbon wound around his head to keep his brains from falling out. Give it away, fellers! Isn't it enough that you win all the games?
 
 
 
I used to be so proud of Australian sporting teams because they didn't know the words of the national anthem!!! That was a real indicator that our culture (back in the days when we had one) was superior to that of flag-wavers like the Americans. Not now, though. Now our boys throw their heads back and bellow absurdities with the world's best (having devoted the previous week to memorising the words, they generally seem to have forgotten the game plan, but you can't have everything). All national anthems are horrible, but ours is more embarrassing than most. The French have the most offensive lyrics, counterbalanced by a good tune (which they pinched from the Fitzroy Football Club). Australia's has a crappy tune AND vomit-inducing lyrics. New Zealand's has boring anachronistic words and a rudimentary tune. Canada's has only two words and no tune at all.  The vapidity of South Africa's anthem is masked by the fact that it's so fucking long and you have to suffer through reprises in nineteen different languages.  The US anthem combines the musical subtlety of Chopsticks with the verbal sophistication of a tweet from their  President.
 
And flags!  Don't get me started.  Flags will have to wait for another day.