Anzac thoughts
Sophie Cunningham
April 26
A lot has been said about Anzac day over the last week or so but one argument that really caught my attention was the rage directed towards Catherine Deveny's tweets on Anzac, which have been summarised by Rod Benson. They included statements like 'Anzac Day. Men only enlisted to fight for the money, for the adventure or because they were racist.'
Blogger Kerry Goldsworthy fought back. 'If I read one more inane blog post, tweet (is there no-one who will save this woman from herself?) or op ed about ANZAC Day and its construction and commemoration written by someone who's never heard of either C.E.W. Bean or Alan Seymour but isn't letting their total ignorance of (1) the single fundamental fact about the creation of the 'ANZAC Legend' or (2) the first real challenge to it in Australian culture (New Zealand may have its literary or historical equivalent) get in the way of a good self-righteous rant, I'm going to break something valuable and then throw up on the shattered fragments. Yes some people glorify war. No others don't. Yes it's used to sell papers and get TV ratings. No that's not actually ANZAC Day's fault.'
While I am extremely uncomfortable with the way Anzac Legend has been mythologized - for many of the reasons that Jeff Sparrow outlined in his recent article in The Drum, and, for the reasons that Meanjin contributor Jim Davidson outlined in his article 'Sport with Guns' (published a couple of years ago now) on the militarization of sport - just how did Essendon and Collinwood get the monopoly to cash in on the Anzac spirit? - the response to Deveny is not just mindless nationalism. It struck me as a good thing that people were insisting on their right to connect with the day in their own way. This is something separate to the jingoistic insistence that all right-minded Australians should go to the dawn service. As Goldsworthy said, 'some of us have soldiers, sailors and air(wo)men in the family history and no we don't want to forget about what they endured.' My partner's grandmother was born on Anzac day itself. Yesterday we thought of her and her experiences in WW2: we thought of the isolation she endured, while pregnant, in a small Victorian country town, and the tenderness with which she wrote to this very young man, her husband, who had been sent off to fight. So, Lest We Forget - but we should be remembering what happened, not appropriated versions and associated mythmaking. We'll be publishing an essay by Paul Daley on this subject in September.
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Comments
26 Apr 10 at 20:46
I was in Hobart on ANZAC Day and in a very internal, dreamy kind of headspace when I came across some old servicemen preparing for their city march. Yes, I spared them a thought, wondered what they must have gone through, what values they had, and whether or not we still have these values. Despite having a great uncle who was at Gallipoli, I have been, for some time now, quite unmoved by this particular day of remembrance. Perhaps I’m just selfish, or unconnected to these national things, but to my mind it's become just another trumped-up event in the story of Australia. Perhaps getting back to the facts would help to rediscover a meaning that has real and deep and transferable resonance.
Is it wrong to be 41 years old and feel so apathetic about this?
...26 Apr 10 at 23:25
My goodness, I am surprised that someone as smart as Kerryn Goldsworthy would take the Deveney bait. She is paid to be provocative. She is paid to write outrageous things that generate outraged responses and get publicity for herself and the papers she writes for. If we all ignore her she will eventually sink into oblivion.
...27 Apr 10 at 9:05
I don't think there is anything wrong with it Nigel - I think that's what happens when the day becomes hijacked by special interest groups. It only works if people are left to make their own connections to the day and its meaning.
...27 Apr 10 at 10:04
But Deveny and her ilk won't be ignored, she won't sink into oblivion, and it is at her level that much public discourse takes place. Therefore it can only be a good thing that people as smart as Kerryn Goldsworthy are willing to call bullshit on their provocations.
...27 Apr 10 at 18:54
Well, Tim & Sophie, until I read this post I had no idea that Deveney had been shooting off her mouth about Anzac Day or anything else. Why give the woman more air? Lisa
...27 Apr 10 at 20:46
Yes, Deveny is a professional provocateur; yes, she writes to get attentions, etc, etc. Does that give her a free pass to say what she likes and go unchallenged? I would argue that constructively debating her opinions - tackling them with facts and logic and counter-examples - has more positive ramifications than it does negative. The same goes for any other pundit. It gives them "air", sure, but it also challenges their authority.
I'm not saying you're obliged to engage with Deveny, or even know who she is. I'm just trying to suggest that others do see value in engaging with her opinions because like it or not she is an increasingly visible participant in our public discourse.
...27 Apr 10 at 21:57
Tim, I'd like to think you're right, but it seems to me that the sort of uncritical dope who takes any notice of Deveney and her ilk (Andrew Bolt etc) is not going to respond to facts, logic or counter-examples. Entertaining mockery on You-Tube might work...but IMO reasoned arguments don't stand a chance. Lisa
...29 Apr 10 at 13:55
Who was it that said that the Anzac ritual is a propagation of one officially sanctioned memory of the war - and so the slogan should instead be 'Lest we remember' (-everything- that happened)? I think it's apt. (No disrespect meant to the Anzacs - just thinking out loud).
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