Scott Morrison: “The great thing about the United States, it is a great democracy and it does have great institutions and we have a deep and wide relationship with the United States which is incredibly important to Australia. We are both like-minded and [a]like in so many ways – our values, our partnerships, economics, security …” This is a myth.
The myth that Australia and the USA are like cultural peas in a pod has been furiously peddled in recent months, especially by conservative politicians and their mates in the alt-right media in Australia (read Murdoch and his pontificating minions).
The myth implies that Australia and America are closely related nations, that they share the same values, that their political institutions are based on the same democratic principles, that their strategic interests are the same, and that their free-market economies are in sync. This myth underpins Australia’s commitment to the ANZUS treaty with the USA, a commitment that borders on the craven.
It is also dangerously misleading. It’s time it was called out. The fact is that, in so many respects, America is a profoundly foreign country. It is alien to many things that define contemporary Australia.
When thirteen American colonies signed the Declaration of Independence on 4 July in 1776, they were in the midst of a revolutionary war against Britain. Out of this historical struggle came the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights, laying the foundations of America’s liberal version of representative government and the American obsession with the freedom of the individual (including – especially – the freedom to have and to use guns).
Australia’s origins could not be more different. There is nothing revolutionary in our history apart from a few surly rebellions (for example, the Rum Rebellion of 1808; the Eureka Stockade of 1854), and they went nowhere. The glum compromises that coagulated into the tediously written Australian Constitution had none of the philosophical excitement or revolutionary fervour of the USA’s Constitution. There was no declaration of independence from Britain – after all, Australia’s Constitution was originally an Act of the British Parliament!
The two countries have evolved from their different origins into very different cultures today. As the 2020 presidential election has demonstrated, America is deeply – possibly fatally – riven along gender, class, racial, economic, and regional lines. The dominant influence of fundamentalist Christian organisations (in effect they are businesses) is only the tip of a distorted ideological religiosity that underpins a great deal of contemporary American social and political thinking and action, at home and abroad.
While there is some evidence that American-style fundamentalist religious organisations are beginning to penetrate Australian politics (hello Scott Morrison), Australia is significantly more secular than the United States (although secularism is a particularly contentious concept). Moreover, historically the state has played a major role in developing the social, political and economic institutions that have built the Australia we have today. The hyper-individualism of historical America has no equal in Australia’s historical development which a French observer, Albert Métin, interestingly described in 1901 as being based on “socialism without a doctrine”.
The ideology of possessive individualism that is fundamentally central to America’s culture and politics is foreign – even alien – to Australia. It results in a political culture that cultivates a naive belief in the minds of many Americans in their country’s “manifest destiny”. This leads them to imagine (incorrectly) that what is good for America is good for the world. Since the end of World War II, America’s cultural imperialism has been glaringly evident in its movies, television, print media, and social media that have the much of the world in its grip.
This cultural imperialism reflects the fact that America is a major military power – a superpower. No other country in history, currently, matches the capacity of contemporary America to wage war – which it does with a frequency that is frankly terrifying. The size of its military permits it to demand fealty from its smaller allies, as is evidenced in Australia’s shocking record of Australian troops and materiel being regularly sent off to war with the Americans (remember Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East …).
Like all big military powers, America should never be trusted. As one leading right-wing US commentator (John Mearsheimer) has noted, a big power like the USA will (indeed must) always act in its own interests. If those interests align with its allies’ interests, fine. If not, the allies can go to hell. (Let us never forget Trump’s sneering at US allies.)
Clearly, Australia is not in America’s league when it comes to military capability. We are a small country (though with inflamed “middle power” pretensions), with only limited capacity to defend ourselves. Our economy lacks the complexity and dimensions of the US economy. While we have abundant natural resources, we have never built a manufacturing base into our economy in the way the US has done over the years. Our population is less than eight percent of the American population.
The notion that Australia and the USA are closely aligned culturally and strategically needs therefore to be repudiated. It can lead – and in the past has often led – to Australia parroting American platitudes internationally and at home (remember “All the way with LBJ”), gazing on all things American with ridiculously adoring eyes, slavishly following America’s lead in international forums and, as noted earlier, going to war on America’s side. We behave like a delirious dog having its belly scratched when a US president tells us we are America’s “sheriff” in the Asia Pacific.
Australia has very little in common with the USA historically and culturally – and increasingly, in strategic terms. Understanding this point is now is essential because the USA is a big power in decline. Witness its failure to contain the COVID pandemic raging among its peoples. Its economy is in the doldrums. Its international standing is the lowest it’s been in over a century. While the end of Trump is happily in sight, it is unclear that President-elect Biden will be able to arrest these and related problems festering at the heart of the American dream – a dream that is fast becoming a nightmare.
It’s time for Australia to get over its adolescent hero-worshipping of all things American. The mealy-mouthed words of Scott Morrison at the head of this post reveal all that is backward and counterproductive in Australia’s relations with the USA today.
Dr Allan Patience is an honorary fellow in political science in the University of Melbourne.
Comments
16 responses to “America is a foreign county for Australians”
I’d have to agree with the writer- I spent some time in the mid-west (Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado) working on farms. and enjoyed myself immensely, I was a young farmer and was there to travel and learn. The people I met were hardworking, technically progressive in their chosen field, and with a deep suspicion of strangers and their motives and – naive to a fault as to the rest of the planet. Generosity and hard partying ensued when affidavits had been established,but they always had to be- It was cute at first but after some months the feeling of being a foreigner increased in a way that it never did in Europe. There is an deep underlying harshness in social relations that hopefully is not recreated here. I believe in the American experiment and wish them well in extricating it from the corporate perversion it has become, but they is not us.
I don’t accept the claim of Australian adulation of American culture. Certainly we have it shoved down our throats. But adulation? Hardly. Personally I don’t think the idea that America is a profoundly foreign country is lost on most Australians. I lived in the US for the best part of a decade. The longer I spent there, the more utterly foreign I felt. To me Americans come from another planet, if not the 4th dimension.
Yes yes Allan. Could I also add that my amateur understanding of American history is that for well over 100 years they were continuously at war with somebody – from indigenous people to the many many others. Surely this explains the gun culture (hopefully sub-culture) and the shoot first ask questions later culture of the “Westerns”. Also, they were “settled” more by private interests rather than government as compared to us. We have a lot to thank the convicts for perhaps!!
Scott Morrison would like us to resemble the worst of the USA. But note, the union movement has not been destroyed despite LNP’s worst efforts. Eureka actually began the collective struggles against rapacious banks, and the debunking of nobility to snobbery has been another fine trait. Queen Victoria loathed the name Commonwealth, and the ethic of egalitarianism has enabled the terrific response to Covid. These ethics need restoring, extending and improving, not forgetting. There are ALP Premiers doing their best, although we wait for another decent federal ALP opposition. Even the idea of a government of Labor is unheard of in the USA whereas Europe, NZ and even presently benighted Australia can be or are extensive social democracies.
Unfortunately we are not culturally different enough. We have had so many decades of Hollywood, the Murdoch Media (there’s a paradox given he used to be Australian), and now the NYT/Washington Post, that we are now closer to the US than we were. Therefore it is important to work to separate ourself more. Though that is hard as our fellow English speaking countries are also mostly in thrall to US culture.
A positive strength for P&I are the many posts which generate genuine FOOD for THOUGHT!
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Comments can help draw out a built understanding by additional experiences and knowledge pertaining a particular post.
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A positive strength for P&I are the many posts which generate genuine FOOD for THOUGHT!
Post + Comments = Revelation of built understanding.
Comments can help draw out a built understanding by additional experiences and knowledge pertaining a particular post.
The comment does not need to be necessarily in agreement or disagreement but a built diversity which allow possible growth of understanding.
Reading more may include: https://eand.co/
PS cut and paste !
I think this piece is too close to being advocacy posing as analysis. We have much in common with the US, which Charles Fox described as a country founded on Whig principles. Whiggism (the self-interest of rich and powerful people alienated from monarchical government, which ultimately becomes the government) dominates our politics. Its bogus principles of freedom and dignity are leading the US into hell apparently more quickly than Australia, but we are close behind and may not stay there. The Liberal Party, which has dominated Federal Politics, since its 1940s foundation, has been the agent of the US in Australia. Its blatant hostility to socialism, as practiced in China, is leading Australia into destitution, possibly more rapidly than the US.
Our performance in the struggle against COVID-19 indicates that the rule of science is stronger here than in the US, despite the US being the major contributor to science in the 20th century. In the 21st, the rule of science is stronger still in China. The fact that we have performed better than even the most civilised countries of Europe may be the result of our isolation, so we should consider ourselves lucky.
Australia’s future engagement with Asia as enhanced by RCEP, one perspective: https://indianpunchline.com/indias-farewell-to-asean-as-it-boards-rcep-train/
Thanks, Allan – so much that needs to be said to encourage Australians to value and retain the best of our rich culture, which can continue to learn the best from other cultures.
Judith Brett has pointed out that the much earlier US Constitution was written at the time when there was more emphasis on the idea of the king. Hence the US president has a huge stand alone role, thankfully not echoed by our attitude to PMs.
Excellent analysis.
Nations have interests, not allies, which determine big decisions like peace or war. Not scraps of paper.
Note the ANZUS treaty – it only requires consultation.
While there are economic benefits in a link with the ‘Great Power’, they also diminish when the power is in decline…and looking after itself ‘First’.
The colonial idea of ‘Loyalty’ – compounded by the Colonial Cultural Cringe (my term when the necessary adjective is added) has led to Australian token participation in 8 frontier* wars since Sudan, 19C. Not a down payment which guarantees an insurance payout in future.
* Invading other countries with small forces also encourages Australian romantic Marsophilia – ‘Other People’s Wars’ in the title of one book. In a circular way this reinforces the ‘mateship’ myth as in the Patience article.
A good piece, Allan. When Tony Abbott went on about the “Anglosphere”, it showed how little he knew America. Its culture is way different from ours. The Trump show is unimaginable here (thank God for that) and pretty incomprehensible. So is the Right to Bear Arms. Mind you, there is a great deal to like about the USA and Americans (I have worked for two American companies and have a US degree). Our foundation came after Britain had mostly finished its religious conflict and become much more pragmatic, which is reflected in our mundane culture.
Allan,
I could not agree with you more. My first contact with the U.S. was when I was conscripted into the Army and sent to Vietnam 50 years ago last Remembrance Day (November 11th 1970). On several occasions American soldiers called into 8th Field Ambulance at Nui Dat where I was a Medic. Two things struck me, their daggy uniforms, they looked sloppy and unkempt and the shocking state of their weapons . I passed through “Camp Charlie” near the Sai-gon airport on my way back from R&R in Sydney in August 1971.Like all American bases, and highlighted again in 1984 when I passed through Angeles City near Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, they are a slice of American life away from home, plonked in to a foreign land .The impact of American culture in other countries is profound where ever they go.There is no respect for the local customs, ethics or morality.
I went to the U.S. about 20 years ago, mostly on the West Coast .Infrastructure seemed haphazard and unplanned . Consumerism was rampant and wasteful The number of fast food restaurants along the major highways was overwhelming.
Our adulation of American culture is sickening to say the least. Our dependence on America is a major concern , particularly as its culture seems to be in terminal decline.
The respective responses to COVID of the two countries have illustrated the differences better than any learned articles could do no matter how well argued.
A profoundly true point. I was shocked this year at how quickly COVID was politicised in the US – eg wearing a mask branded you a Democrat; not doing so, a Republican. Of course the toddler-i-chief guaranteed this by calling the pandemic a Democrat hoax. They have this myth of rugged individualism in the US – so do we, of course, but we hold it more loosely. Particularly saddening was the refusal to make sacrifices for others, which I have to say that we in Melbourne, by and large, did pretty well.