Cultural cringe – Wikipedia

This is a post about the state of Australian politics at the moment and an attempt to identify a reason for the cultural ennui and public irrationality. It does not reflect my approach to life.

Cultural cringe – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cultural cringe, in cultural studies and social anthropology, is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries. It is closely related, although not identical, to the concept of colonial mentality, and is often linked with the display of anti-intellectual attitudes towards thinkers, scientists and artists who originate from a colonial or post-colonial nation. It can also be manifested in individuals in the form of “Cultural alienation”…

The cultural cringe is tightly connected with “cultural alienation”, that is, the process of devaluing or abandoning one’s own culture or cultural background. A person who is culturally alienated places little value on their own or host culture, and instead hungers for that of a – sometimes imposed – colonising nation…

The issue of cultural alienation has led the Australian sociologists Brian Head and James Walter to interpret the cultural cringe as the belief that one’s own country occupies a “subordinate cultural place on the periphery”, and that “intellectual standards are set and innovations occur elsewhere”.  As a consequence, a person who holds this belief is inclined to devalue their own country’s cultural, academic and artistic life, and to venerate the “superior” culture of another (colonising) country…

via Cultural cringe – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The cartoonist from The Sydney Morning Herald Alan Moir has the style of a  Cultural Cringer down pat. The flip side of the cultural cringe is a belief that we can do anything and that we always strive for ‘worlds best practice’ on just about everything, covered with an image of an anti-Cultural Cringer. He can save the world with little more than a slogan or two. Then there are the related attitudes of antipathy and cynicism. And if that is all pointless and self-defeating, why not just follow the footy or cricket and go out for a drink with the mates. We love comedy in Australia. We know what’s going on.

The cultural cringe is probably one of the main obstacles to a republic in Australia. One of the main effects of the cultural cringe is to discount truly Australian models for a republic. We base most of our arguments for models on what has happened overseas while ignoring our unique political system. A common response by republicans is to flip over into an anti-cultural cringe stance where everyone is cool and everything will work out right regardless of the quality of the model for a republic.  That won’t work either.

Lessening the impact of the cultural cringe and reactions against it – and the inherent anti-intellectualism of both these cringalicious stances – will in time be one of the things that the change to a republic will improve for Australian culture. When we are willing to look as issues honestly and realistically then we would be better placed to deal with difficult issues constructively. That is something that would only be apparent in hindsight. Both of the cringalicious stances think they are promoting the best for Australia but both use an external reference point.