symbols are not the thing that they represent

There is a bit of stupidity being blown out of proportion at the moment by our creepy little prime minister John Howard. The Big Day Out people don't want people to bring flags to the event because of the way they can be used by thugs and bullies to dominate and antagonise others... the way racists produced the Cronulla riots. So what does our nasty PM do? He gets in on the act in typical divisive fashion to make out that the Australian flag is something special, almost holy. Yes, he is using it to divide, antagonise, and bully. This is exactly the kind of behavior the Big Day Out people wanted to avoid!

Howard is such a fool if he believes his rhetoric. Flags are nothing but fairly empty symbols. If someone tears up, burns, a symbol it doesn't affect the original thing. He is one of those kind of bullies that indulged in the race riots.

What passes for mass media here in Australia cravenly scurries after him, lapping it up, fostering the division of course... and they wonder why people are getting sick of them. They remind me of Gollum in Lord of the Rings, but without his charisma.