Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Crimethink to change Australian flag?

Would it be crimethink to change the design of the Australian flag so that it represents our multi-cultural nation? Is this really the purpose of a flag? Would a change be ungood? Does keeping the Union Jack on our flag necessarily make Australians NOT of British descent unpersons? Would removing the Union Jack render those of British descent unpersons and erase their contribution to Australian life over the past two hundred years or so ? We cannot employ minitrue to alter history. Newspeak, which changes oldspeak does not change the facts, but do we need to feel ungood forever because of our storywise? Current prolefeed generally ensures that very few will think about this issue, others go by bellyfeel agreeing with public opinion. Those who do think about it tend to be polarised.
I've purposefully used in this piece of writing some of the language devised by George Orwell in his dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), because in the novel historical information is revised so that the State is always correct and I believe that those who wish to change the Australian flag would do so in order to disavow and whitewash our historical past in light of current conciliatory relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
I tend to agree with the Spanish/American philosopher, George Santayana who said: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it (Reason in Common Sense, 1905). I believe that we need to remember our transgressions as well as our lawfulness, our wrongdoings and our virtues and, in this sense then, our Australian flag including symbol of our historical link to the United Kingdom and its deeds, serves as a reminder that there is much to be done to redress past and current unrights dealt out to Aboriginal Australians.

1 comment:

  1. Ever since we changed our flag, Canada seems to have exchanged its identity for a corporate logo. Whitewashing what made the country to recognise every other identity except British has made me regret the loss of my country. I envy Australia's ability to honour its past and remembering those who sacrificed and made the country what it is.

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