The front page of issue of the June 2007 The Australian Literary Review caught my eye. The Review, incidentally, is published by The Australian and circulated with that newspaper. It requires a substantial input from the taxpayers directly and indirectly. There was only one headline on the front page, a large one was about an article inside entitled “The Anzac Myth," by the Dr. Mark McKenna. (Dr. McKenna is a leading republican.) This headline was accompanied by these words, "The new love of Anzac is about Australians paying more attention to their history but about the making of historical myth, the foundation stone of a new sentimental nationalism. This is not what the Anzacs fought for. The Anzacs did not “sacrifice” their lives for the Australian nation. The nation has created their deaths as sacrifice to serve its own ends."
This is a surprising conclusion. There are other surprises. Whatever readers think of the Iraq War, Dr. McKenna says that one of the untold stories surrounding Anzac Day is the manner in which it has served to silence dissent over that war.
Hitherto we had known that the republicans wanted to change, and change radically, our Constitution and our Flag. It seems that other parts of our heritage are being targeted.
