Sure JQ, sure.
I wrote a story years ago about Australia's south-west and how it should have been a French terriroty, and now with all the wine could easily be mistake for western France.
So you're seditious even towards your own country.
Well, I can hardly be seditious to yours, can I?
My mistake. I was thinking of "subversive". Less stringent.
This assessment fascinates me. Its an odd thing to be criticised for being "subversive" when one holds unblinkered critical views of something.
Given Amercian patriots in the War of Independence were clearly subversive, and the French suppporting them were underpinning that subversiveness, I think I'm in fine company. I read a great story a few weekends ago. Forgive me for not recalling the precise details. The British general who lost the final battle in the War of Independence tried surrendering his sword to a French general. The Frenchman declined to accept it and pointed instead to an American colonial general. The British regarded the colonials with such contempt that even in defeat they could not regard them as equals. I seem to recall that the English band played a song called "The World Turned Upside Down" as they marched in formation to surrender. The story is immensely appealling: the triumph of the underdog Americans, the gallantry of the French in refusing the accept the surrender, the bitterness and bewilderment of the superior force.
Is it subversive to show sympathy for those who struggle in righteous causes, even those I do not share or cannot entirely emphathise with? Possibly. The Scots are on their way to a doomed referendum for independence next year. Current polling suggests that the referendum will be defeated by a margin of 2:1. Yet I cheer them all the way, though the outcome would be the end of British union. Same goes for Catalonian independence from Spain.
Anyway, enough navel gazing for one day.
