The Species Australus Nostalgus

Amanda Vanstone attempts to reconcile all the inherent contradictions in conservative nationalism with the simple test case of what song to play. She ends up looking foolish.

It is not her fault. The ideology she is following is unsustainable due to its inconsistency. Nationalism is predicated on exceptionalism but the nostalgia for British heritage and anglospheric power means conservative nationalism as practiced in Australia is undercut by subservience.

Exceptionalism fails it in the constitutional system, the heraldry and protocols, as well as defence and foreign policy. That leaves the only areas that Australia can practice exceptionalism in is immigration and citizenship.

Howard, Costello and Vanstone have that area cornered.
Permalink, The Species Australus Nostalgus, Mar 2006, cam
cam: Exceptionalism in Republicanism: Republicanism as espoused on SSR would have exceptionalism in heraldy, national protocol, defence and foreign policy (often known as independence), it would also have universalism as the guiding policy citizenship, immigration and economics.

Not surprisingly the Liberal Government\'s policies are in conflict with Republicanism.

cam
Guy: I thought Mandy was trying to be clever here...: I think as a Republican she was taking this line on God Save the Queen because the ridiculous might be necessary to shake Australia out of its stupor. People need to realise that their country is technically the consistutional slave of Britain still, and that this needs to change.

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