Conservative Nationalism

Why is it that conservatism leads to certain pronouncements in areas like education that seem to conflict with their pronouncements on, say, nationalism? Lisa Prior makes a good point:

For some time conservatives in particular have railed against the practice of raising children to think they are brilliant, perfect geniuses regardless of their achievements. They have argued, rightly, that true self-esteem should come from hard work, striving and discipline rather than an innate sense of self-satisfaction.

Yet when it comes to nationalism, hollow self-satisfaction and undeserved self-esteem is precisely what has been championed by conservatives over the past decade. We have been told that Australia is the best country ever and anyone who doubts it is treated like a traitor. We have been told we should be proud of our history, never wear a black armband, never doubt the actions of our ancestors. Loving the country has meant focusing on triumphs and ignoring failings.

And what happened to Australia? Australia became a lazy, indulged, arrogant child. Rather than leading the world, we have devoted our energies to finding excuses to not even follow.

And how do we fix this? By taking the conservatives' advice on education and applying it to nationalism. Rather than dragging the chain on climate change and finding excuses not to join the rest of the world in mitigating its consequences, we should pour our energies into finding solutions and showing the world how it is done. Rather than protecting our fragile national ego, we should develop a sense of worth robust enough to accept criticism and strive towards improvement. Then the prospect of saying sorry to Aborigines will not seem so hard.

Perhaps we could even become the kind of country people come to when they want to do clever things, not the kind of country people leave when they want to do clever things, only to return once they are ready to settle down and need a backyard for the kids.

The corollary to that is that those migrants looking to Australia as a land of opportunity are better Australians than I.