The history of the future is written in its past, aka our present, just as the history of the past is written in its future. So the sin of presentism definitely applies to this wee essay. But I can start with some things that are known knowns (thanks to Donald Rumsfeld for such clarity).

It’s 30 years since I last published in Meanjin, and more than 50 since my father did (Miller, 1967). So nothing Oedipal there. His contribution was part of a critical celebration of the magazine’s first quarter-century. Occurring just after his return to Australia, it was a moment of cultural nationalism that became associated with two prime ministers: John Gorton and Gough Whitlam. Assertions were readily made of the nation’s distinctiveness or otherwise from Britain and the United States (its putative cultural, political and military affines) but generally in ways that excluded key aspects of difference—language, migration, religion, indigeneity and gender. The real demography of the country was subordinated to a masculinity that was more aware of class and national distinctions.