"Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Australian National Heroes of the Late Nineteenth Century. Here with me are today's special guests: Ned Kelly, renowned thief and murderer, and A. B. "Banjo" Paterson, a bush poet known especially as the man responsible for 'The Man for Snowy River' and 'Waltzing Matilda'..."
I don't get it. I am honestly baffled. What is it with the Australian urge to glorify people like Kelly? To be clear. Ned Kelly was not a hero-of-the-people, struggling against great odds to rectify the wrongs perpetrated against the poor by a vile and selfish governing body focussed entirely on wealth. He was a criminal. He stole from people, he assualted people, he murdered. And his fatalistic, oft-quoted final words, spoken with the noose around his neck, "Such is life"? Yes! Such is life when you spend all your days stealing the goods and lives of nigh-on every individual you come across: eventually the troopers will catch up with you and, when they do, they will either shoot you (as they did Jack Doolan) or take you to face justice and string you up.
I think the same thing is behind the group urging to make 'Waltzing Matilda' the Australian National Anthem. I mean, the poem is about a bushman who steals a sheep and, when he gets caught, kills himself rather than spending the time in prison. I have to say this doesn't represent my experience of life in Australia. In fact the average Australian tends not to get that worked up about anything. I think the one we have is fine, especially since it's corny enough that we can pretend not to be proud of our country, despite the fact (so I think at least) that few of us would want to live anywhere else. (Well, up until the point that a certain group of individuals, who shall for the moment remain nameless, decided to fuck up everything. Ahem.)
Yes, I am rambling. And so very very tired.
I don't get it. I am honestly baffled. What is it with the Australian urge to glorify people like Kelly? To be clear. Ned Kelly was not a hero-of-the-people, struggling against great odds to rectify the wrongs perpetrated against the poor by a vile and selfish governing body focussed entirely on wealth. He was a criminal. He stole from people, he assualted people, he murdered. And his fatalistic, oft-quoted final words, spoken with the noose around his neck, "Such is life"? Yes! Such is life when you spend all your days stealing the goods and lives of nigh-on every individual you come across: eventually the troopers will catch up with you and, when they do, they will either shoot you (as they did Jack Doolan) or take you to face justice and string you up.
I think the same thing is behind the group urging to make 'Waltzing Matilda' the Australian National Anthem. I mean, the poem is about a bushman who steals a sheep and, when he gets caught, kills himself rather than spending the time in prison. I have to say this doesn't represent my experience of life in Australia. In fact the average Australian tends not to get that worked up about anything. I think the one we have is fine, especially since it's corny enough that we can pretend not to be proud of our country, despite the fact (so I think at least) that few of us would want to live anywhere else. (Well, up until the point that a certain group of individuals, who shall for the moment remain nameless, decided to fuck up everything. Ahem.)
Yes, I am rambling. And so very very tired.
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