Aspirational Nationalism

1. Does anyone know what this means?

2. I may be an immigrant, and English may be — technically — my second language, but I dare say I wield English far more deftly than any number of English-as-first-language speakers. But it’s been a week or so since I came across the term “Aspirational Nationalism“, and I still don’t quite understand what it means.

3. Could it refer to a country that is aspiring to become a nation? Or perhaps a nation’s people aspiring towards unity? Or, a nation of people aspiring to become wealthier, regardless of who they have to step on; thus united by their servitude to capitalist whoredom?

4. Not since Kim Beazley dropped “Boondoggle” from his impressively vast vernacular* (which, if I remember correctly, was to describe another Howard government pork barrel promise) has a phrase so confused the general public. Though “boondoggle” is at least a word — a proper, recognised word — and not some political-PR-department-constructed wet dream:

5. “But what they might mean bolted together in this way is a mystery, although there is a certain iron clang to the construction which suggests it might sound better in German.”

6. As always, well said Mr Carlton.

* - Pardon the pun.

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