Earlier this year the organisers of the rock music festival, the Big Day Out announced a ban on national flags being brought into the venue. In the wake of a small, transplanted Balkan war at the Australian Open, it seemed like a reasonable idea. Soon, though, a 'popular' outcry erupted. How dare anyone ban the carrying of the Australian national flag – especially on Australia Day?
The usual populists chimed in on the matter, and before long the poor organisers were back pedalling faster than a politician who discovers a room occupied by Brian Burke.
When the big day finally arrived, a substantial number of young concert goers decided to take their flags and to wear them, perhaps as a sign of both pride and disobedience.
It would be easy to mock those who think this was a rebellious act, the approval of a conservative PM seemingly having escaped their notice. But that is not the point here. I wondered why young people would even want to take national flags to a rock concert. There was no boxing match between the Violent Femmes and the Killers, no basketball game between Tool and Eskimo Joe. This was not a sporting event.
In the days after the Big Day Out, it was pointed out that the Australian flag had become a symbol akin to gang colours – something used aggressively to distinguish between insiders and outsiders, us and them, 'proud Aussies' and other, dubious, untrustworthy types. The flag had become a potent symbol of belonging.
There is much to ridicule and despise about the aggressive flag-waving of the Cronulla riot and Big Day Out kind. There is also a sense of belonging being sought, beneath this aggression, that is most interesting. Many young Australians are seeking something more than the shallow consumerism presented as the meaning and purpose of life.
There are only so many needs that can be satisfied through the market. There are other, deeper, needs that people are now beginning to see cannot be met by the cold, utopian vision of the free marketeers: needs for love, respect, acceptance and tolerance.
Like so many other aspects of contemporary life, the realm of social interaction is undergoing profound changes. Older forms of belonging are weakening, while others—often negative—are strengthening. New manifestations of belonging—such as on-line communities—are fitfully and tentatively being born. Identities are in a state of flux.
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