Researching the history of the term ‘Anzackery’, we came across this, published in 1967:
Australians must be in many respects among the least nationalistic people in the world and, on the surface anyway, most sceptical of patriotic gestures. It is very odd how little indoctrination is imposed on our schoolchildren, how little revered are the founding fathers or other possible heroes, how few care whether we have a national anthem, how casually Australia Day is taken.
The author, Geoffrey Serle, went on to describe the ‘cynical irreverence’ of Australians ‘which derives largely from the relative absence in our history of those crises of defence of hearth and home which have produced the standard patriotism of other countries’. He wondered whether the ‘Vietnam crusade’ might bring change.
‘Godzone: (6) Austerica unlimited?’ in Meanjin Quarterly, 26, 3, September 1967, p. 245
18 January 2014
