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kingwilly

Sorry proud Aussies, I don't get you. I don't agree with you.

This is not just the Southern Cross-tattooed proud Aussies I'm talking about, the VB drinkers watching footy in the bars of Kuta. This is all the Australians who pronounce pride in their place of birth, who are the first to grab you in some foreign hostel and tell you what's so damn great about Straya.

Where do you come from? It shouldn't matter.

I don't get you.

For some people, travelling far from home makes them increasingly proud of that place they left behind. It sends them misty-eyed about gum trees and koalas, about beaches and bars, about what it means to be from that land. They've never felt more Australian than when they're away from the country.

That's fine if you feel that way, but I've always thought differently. In fact, the more I travel the more I become convinced that the whole concept of nationality and nationhood is irrelevant. Where do you come from? It shouldn't matter.

I haven't been in Australia for four or five months now, and there are things I miss about home. But I've also met so many great people from so many great places that I find it hard to maintain that I come from the best country in the world – or that anyone comes from the best country in the world.

(Australians aren't alone in this patriotic belief. As you travel around you realise that a lot of people, regardless of whether they're from Thailand or Turkmenistan, Britain or Bahrain, tend to think they come from the best place in the world. Go to Colombia, with all its well-publicised problems, and most locals will tell you they wouldn't dream of living anywhere else – this is the best country in the world. It seems like it's human nature to be proud of your patch.)

But what are we really so proud of? The dumb luck of having been born on a certain piece of land that then becomes "yours"? And what makes your country so much better than everyone else's – other than your familiarity with it?

I dislike the whole concept of nationhood, the way people support their country like it's a football team playing in a grand final. Like we have to choose sides. How much better would it be if we'd all stop taking pride in the little slices of the globe we happened to pop out in and starting just being citizens of the world?

It might sound corny, but it could happen. We could ditch the parochialism and the patriotism and just treat other human beings as other human beings.

I'm not preaching some naïve "opening of the floodgates" or the erasure of national borders. But as the world shrinks with budget travel and immigration and multi-culturalism and internet connectivity, when you can chat to an Iranian on Twitter or head down to your local Ghanaian place for dinner, we should all be becoming less patriotic, less concerned with coastlines and borders and where we came from, and more interested in the globe as a whole.

Forget being a proud Australian who comes from the best land of Earth. Forget zealously protecting your patch from "other" people trying to move in. Forget grouping people by their country so you that you can tell everyone what Germans are like, or what Americans are like, or what Israelis are like.

Forget nationhood and patriotism entirely, and just be a decent citizen of the world. That's something you can be proud of.

Are you a "proud Aussie" when you travel overseas? Or do you become less interested in nationality?

Email: bengroundwater@gmail.com

Instagram: instagram.com/bengroundwater



Read more: The best country in the world? There's no such thing | Backpacker

Loy Toy

Having lived away from the place for so long I suppose I am more aware about Australia's sporting achievements or failures more so now then ever before.

I suppose it's because I am constantly reminded about the failures, which has been more common over recent years, by my Pommy mates.

I agree with the OP's claims that when some travel abroad they openly publicize their country of origin and I largely am bored shitless by these clowns.......Aussies, Brits and Americans.

I also proudly sing our national anthem when in the bar when a live sporting event is being broadcast as do most Poms, Taffs, Jocks and Paddies along with most Yanks sing their own anthems.

Part of the fun and banter I suppose but as mentioned above some idiots take things too far.

beerlaodrinker

i would have to agree with you sir wilson , this whole ozzie ozzie ozzie oi oi oi things a bit much, a bit of jingoism isnt a bad thing but aussies are imho overly patriotic for all the wrong reasons, sure its a great place , but lots of places are also great, i will admit that in my youth when i first travelled i was almost bursting with aussie national pride to the point where it must of been bloody nauseating for those unlucky enough to encounter me,

kingwilly

I think this is the most relevant quote here.

beerlaodrinker

This blokes cool though

astasinim

Good op and can be applied to any nation. That said, I dont see a problem with celebrating world changing achievement's either.

I think LT sums it pretty well for me.

Necron99

And a barbie doll and a swing and...and...a pony!



Seems happy to want people to know he is an Aussie, which pretty much fucks his article.
What did you post this rubbish for Willie?

pseudolus

Used to get very bored by Aussies in the UK grumbling that they couldn't get a decent sanga. I always told to make their own and shut the fuck up.

Moonraker

- Albert Einstein

Loy Toy

I must also note that when the Barmy Army travel down under following their ashes Cricket side they are very well received except for that noisy clown with the trumpet.

You will never get a more fervent patriotic group of world travellers than these people and personally I love the atmosphere they bring with them along with the Brits that go on the British Lions Rugby tour.

Great stuff I reckon.

astasinim

It all boils down to that primeval need to belong or to be part of a group.

Loy Toy

Fvcking disgusting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

pseudolus

I've travelled with the BA a few times. Generally the Aussies love the Army not least because of the profits their businesses make from them. However, at the matches, there is a constant stream of younger male Aussies trying to cause trouble solely because they have no understanding of the term "banter" and take serious insult from gags and songs at their expense. Remember at the MCG 3 lads running into the standing area we had occupied, starting to scream Aussie Aussie Aussie; then being bombarded with song and jokes in their direction to which they started throwing punches prior to being shuffled out by the marshals. No punches were thrown in their direction either; very good restraint by the Army at all time.

Still chuckle at the 12 days of Xmas parody we penned in a Melbourne hostel -

Five Foot Langer (stand up!) ...you had to be there I guess....




Oh... and Two Gareth Southgates...there's only 2 Gareth Southgates....

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hillbilly

Being a hillbilly I love the US. Having said that I would assume that most everyone from their respective countries would be the same. I just do not see the need for slamming other countries.

However, if one is from that country they want to comment on then that is a different matter...

Loy Toy

I'm sure it was all in good fun mate.

Too bad your football fans cannot control their patriotic emotions when they travel abroad though.

pseudolus

indeed - they are pure scum. England should be forced to play in Saudi, Iran, and a few other choice places to keep their numbers down on a yearly basis.

Davis Knowlton

When people ask me where I'm from, I say "The Philippines". I'm a permanent resident, have lived here 17 years, and will never leave. When these same people express disbelief, and say "Where were you born?", I respond "The US, but that wasn't your initial question".

I like having an American passport; it's acceptable pretty much anywhere I would ever want to travel. I love the size, beauty, and diversity of the American countryside. There are many things I like, but very few I miss.

I abhor the politics and politicians. I shake my head in dismay at our ill thought out military disasters. I am shamed by how we are perceived throughout the world.

I wonder what happened to the country of my childhood.

I have been gone for forty years. But, for better or worse, in some way it will always be my country.

Norton

Folks like us changed. Not much our country.

Norton

Believe so. Not just a group but the best group.

Dillinger

I see nothing wrong with anyone being Patriotic abroad especially those who move to such a Xenophobic place as Thailand.

bobo746

Aussie and proud of it but dont feel the need to tell the world what a great place it is.

Rural Surin

Actually, the article could have replaced any national pride entity instead of Aussie. The heavily invented purer political ideals of nationalism can be destructive....on the individual as well as the collective. Tends to distort and mislead one towards a false patriotism, of sorts.

How about absorbing countries, populations, their particular social order, etc as a culture only. As base culturalism and nationalism cancel each other out in a broader dissection.

All countries have been seeded and practice a form of this national thought progression, yet are blind to their respective culture - which bonds naturally without the [almost militaristic-like] manufactured pressure of a national theme.

Flag-waving derives from deeper insecurities.

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" Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology, it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things......natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity."

AntRobertson

That's an awful lot of words to say precisely nothing, Jeff.

Rural Surin

But it isn't xenophobia, outside of the surfaced text-order and false attention that it receives regarding this social quality....

Such is repeated over again - and fools will take it to heart.
Needing any base of argument to justify their claims.

Mid

Australia Day is coming up on the 26th and reports suggest all the associated goodies in the supermarkets are Made in China .

Not to mention , clowns with these on their utes


crikey.com.au

wondering why there is nothing to do in nowhereville on a Sat night

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