Australian culture will
be further militarized on Friday.
 |
| Poppies have become aligned with the Anzac legend. |
Anzac Day is a right and proper way to remember those who
donned our colours to protect values important to Australians, but what happens
on Friday is little more than the exploitation of populist sentiment for
political gain.
That will be an unpopular view as many are clearly unable to
separate the brutality, violence, death and catastrophe of war from the
sentimentality they experience for events such as Anzac Day.
War is clearly a human failure bringing only sadness and
while we should recall that fragility in our thinking, our focus should be on
those things we have done well, and going to war is certainly not one of them.
Next year is the centenary of the ANZAC landings at
Gallipoli and its recognition is going to cost you and me money; cash that
could resolve many national social problems, and maybe even ease the apparently
overwhelming budgetary problems Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey repeatedly bleats
about.
It is correct that what is forgotten is repeated, but let us
remember those who wore our colours in a dignified, simple, and cheaper way,
and turn our attention, resources and innovative ideas toward today and the
creation and building of a nation best equipped to deal with such things as
energy scarcity, climate change and an economy teetering on disarray.
Rather than pander to populist views about something that
has become distorted by a century of myth, we should break loose from the past
and prepare ourselves for a future quite different from what was.
 |
| Greens leader, Christine Milne. |
Greens leader, Christine Milne, has said that what is
happening in Australia presently is a struggle between the past and the future and
although she wasn’t referring directly to events such as Anzac Day, she was
making reference about our inability to escape the past and willingly
acknowledge the challenges of tomorrow.
Tony Abbott’s strange decision that saw him reach into the
past and drag into today the considered long-dead idea of Sirs and Dames along
with his perverse unwillingness to accept the unfolding realities of climate
change gives another clear hint why his government prefers the certainties of
the past rather than confronting the dilemmas of tomorrow.
The militarization of Australia suits the dated ideologies
of the neo-liberals, such as the present Australian government, for with it
come understandings that the men of yesterday can grasp.
Confrontations of a century ago, or even recent contemporary
history, are as dead as those who died in them, and so rather than spending
time, money and our creative energy on remembering them, we should be switching
our attention to the future.
Celebrate Anzac Day if you must, but then turn your
attention to tomorrow, the future.
