From: Phil Shannon [Email him]
Well, now the woke gendarmerie have come for the Australian national anthem, Advance Australia Fair:
The "conservative" Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, snuck in an announcement on New Years’ eve that the second line of the 142-year-old anthem—"For we are young and free"—will now become "For we are one and free." [Historic change to Advance Australia Fair, Australia's national anthem, in the 'spirit of unity,', by Andrew Greene, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, December 31, 2020].
This single-word change is rich in virtue-semaphoring, prostrating Australian national (i.e., white) culture and its relatively young Western Civilization status to a prior Aboriginal occupancy of Australia of around 60,000 years of nomadic tribal existence which was remarkably, but unsurprisingly, unproductive.
It seems to me, however, that the anthem revisionists could have gone further in their woke musical refurbishment. The chorus of "In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia fair" seems a bit, er, white, whilst "Our home is girt by sea" (everyone’s favourite line because of its muscular scansion, and that "girt" is a real corker) may be a tad "closed borders" for the uber-woke.
The woke lyricists have also left alone the line—"For those who've come across the seas, We've boundless plains to share"—probably under the impression that it conforms to multicultural orthodoxy, apparently unaware that at the time of the anthem’s composition in 1878, the immigrants were all white Europeans bringing civilization to an undeveloped country.
Phil Shannon is a veteran Australian (of Irish and French stock) working class socialist and latter-day VDARE.com supporter. See earlier letters from him here.
