De Minimis
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
  • Podcast
  • Your Learned Friend
  • Anonymous Feedback
  • Art
  • Get published!
  • Constitution
  • Archive
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2017 >
      • Semester 2 (Volume 12) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8 (election issue)
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
    • 2016 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 9) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
      • Semester 2 (Volume 10) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8 (Election Issue)
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
        • Issue 13 (test)
    • 2015 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 7) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
      • Semester 2 (Volume 8) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
    • 2014 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 5) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
      • Semester 2 (Volume 6) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 12
    • 2013 >
      • Issue 1
      • Issue 2
      • Issue 3
      • Issue 4
      • Issue 5
      • Issue 6
    • 2012 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 1) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
      • Semester 2 (Volume 2) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12

Our National Fetish

14/4/2020

 
Issue 7, Volume 17

HAMISH DUNDEE

No, it isn’t VB, Vegemite, or tying your partner to the bed using venomous snakes – it’s something much more dangerous. In fact, the things that many Australians can be reliably predicted to be interested in aren’t Australian at all: they belong to our Pacific cousin, the United States. 
Picture
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Australians are drowning in a high-fructose corn-syrup diet of American food, TV, politics, and consumer goods. American ‘burger joints’ are all the rage, and every man and his dog has an iPhone in their pocket. Who the hell cares if Brad and Angelina are getting back together? Us, apparently. My gripe with this situation isn’t some kind of reactionary patriotism. The fact is, for many Australians, American ubiquity has meant a gradual erosion of our distinct national identity.

Take food, for example. Naturally, America is a cultural powerhouse, and it is only expected that American-style food would be available the world over. But what does it say about our nation, that we cannot develop indigenous cuisine? After all, our most globally recognisable food icon (the Outback Steakhouse) is itself American! I dare any reader to find an Australian food that is as well-known as this impostor.

In the legal sphere, the results are, disappointingly, just as obvious. I inwardly cringe whenever a student screams ‘Objection!’ at the judge in a witness exam competition – a breach of decorum that would raise eyebrows in an Australian courtroom. Yes, I know, I’m a pedant – there’s no need to point it out in the comments. But again, I’m sure that it would not benefit Australia to imitate the American legal system. Having worked in the criminal law space, I know that many arrestees complain that their ‘Miranda Rights’ have not been respected. Misconceptions about our legal system, such as this one, are perhaps one of the most pernicious results of American entertainment that floods our screens. 

It truly is a cultural deluge. Indeed, Australian actors and personalities are only said to have ‘made it’ once they have made the transition to the more lucrative American market (Rove McManus was called a failure when he could not follow the footsteps of Russell Crowe and Margot Robbie. We compare ourselves with our cousins so zealously, that we are dissatisfied with the small pond of Australia. It’s a common refrain amongst my friends at the VCA that, some day, they wish to move to the ‘big smoke’ of New York. For my part, I don’t see why enriching the Victorian cultural scene is seen as so banal.

This dynamic is nowhere more pernicious than the domain of politics. Ben Shapiro and The Young Turks battle for the minds of our young people, and American culture wars play themselves out in miniature on the Australian stage. I myself have been drawn into comment on Facebook news stories at how aghast I am at the actions of Donald Trump. And American elections? Legislated homophobia? The long history of slavery and segregation in…America? These domestic political machinations affect us not. one. bit. Worse, we can’t influence their outcomes, as Australians. 

It’s no mystery why we have reached this point, in a world drunk on American cultural exports. The news is no exception, and it behoves the ABC as much as the New York Times to report breathlessly on Trump’s latest outrage, or the Westboro Baptist Church. After all, it generates clicks from an Australian population desperate to tap into the dramatic political bloodbath across the Pacific. It represents the pinnacle of capitalistic news media, geared towards entertainment and consumption. It is outrage-porn at its finest, and American politics is a spectator sport.

As a result, political issues have been transplanted into our national discourse from across the seas, and in many cases, have no relevance to the everyday lives of Australians. Indeed, I fear we have begun to perceive problems that do not exist. It’s enough to make you sick, that we have been subordinated to such a point, that we see ourselves as living within the American cultural miasma. I am not saying this issue is unique to Australia, but that should be cold comfort. Global monoculturalism might be the dream of corporate media executives, but should be abhorred by any of us who truly believe that variety is the spice of life. 

Hamish Dundee is a fake name, so don’t bother looking him up.
Americans are the worst people on earth
14/4/2020 07:54:54 pm

I hate that American culture is shoved down our throat as well, but their country is just like a train wreck that's impossible to look away from. If you ever come across Americans on social media or internet forums who are so poorly educated and indoctrinated with American propaganda it really makes you question how this country expects to continue its cultural hegemony into the future.

idk down with American imperialism I guess

ouch!
18/4/2020 01:36:55 pm

that's certainly a ...nuanced opinion...

Am I the only one who has been rubbernecking at the US over the last 3+ years thinking,
'well that is a cautionary tale' or

'what an interesting time to be learning about norms and conventions in government, when just over there the inspo for the Australian Commonwealth is rolling in its own poo'

? just me?

I'd worry much less about 'American cultural hegemony', which arguably still exists only in the minds of Americans. that being said, we pick up what resonates.

that is to say, we try to chime in on a fraction of the socio-political discourses taking place in the US (that are miles ahead of us, as is the development of the law in general). say what you want about the US and their bizarre ways, (and spare a thought for the truly terrifying version of the pandemic people over there are living through) but the 'culture' you're referring to is really just crappy reality tv, and Australian tv is objectively worse (while it exists)

Yankee Doodle
18/4/2020 03:29:34 pm

To suggest that American socio-political discourse is miles ahead of our own (or even the rest of the Western world for that matter) is utter rubbish. A country which has no identifiable left wing (you're either a neo liberal or a "socialist"), and seems unable to rise above personal mud slinging and identity politics is not miles above our own. Our politics is socio-political discourse of course has its flaws but if we're being honest here is far more nuanced.

In regards to the development of the law, you are aware that there are very good reasons why none of the other common law countries ever look to American cases for reference or inspiration? The development is not enviable, and Australia, UK and Canada all have the states completely on their knees when it comes to the courts.

Lift your game here youngster.

Mike Hunt
14/4/2020 08:46:44 pm

Author hates that people like things he doesn't like, and that a nation of immigrants is influenced by a foreign culture.

Amanda Hugginkiss
14/4/2020 09:14:10 pm

Yeah but it's a shit culture to be influenced by brus. We have our own culture but overlook it for Yankee culture and that's grim lad.

I'm a stupid moron with an ugly face and a big butt and my butt smells and... I like to kiss my own butt.
15/4/2020 01:20:49 pm

Won't be long now until China takes its place, then perhaps you'll yearn for the days when our culture was not under the influence of a totalitarian communist dictatorship.

I doubt that even today already we would ever see an article like this on even De Minimus criticising China, Chinese people or Chinese culture and their influence over Australia, because of the weaponised accusation of racism or xenophobia which would be used used to shut it down.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Archives

    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

  • Home
  • ABOUT US
  • Podcast
  • Your Learned Friend
  • Anonymous Feedback
  • Art
  • Get published!
  • Constitution
  • Archive
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2017 >
      • Semester 2 (Volume 12) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8 (election issue)
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
    • 2016 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 9) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
      • Semester 2 (Volume 10) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8 (Election Issue)
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
        • Issue 13 (test)
    • 2015 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 7) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
      • Semester 2 (Volume 8) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
    • 2014 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 5) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
      • Semester 2 (Volume 6) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 12
    • 2013 >
      • Issue 1
      • Issue 2
      • Issue 3
      • Issue 4
      • Issue 5
      • Issue 6
    • 2012 >
      • Semester 1 (Volume 1) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12
      • Semester 2 (Volume 2) >
        • Issue 1
        • Issue 2
        • Issue 3
        • Issue 4
        • Issue 5
        • Issue 6
        • Issue 7
        • Issue 8
        • Issue 9
        • Issue 10
        • Issue 11
        • Issue 12