Colonial Thinking

My regular readers may find this hard to believe but I spend a lot of time thinking about the blog and its direction. I have a basic aim (to showcase my writing) but within that there is huge variety in the subjects I write about. There are times when I wonder if what I'm producing is really one of those rant/opinion blogs that I so carefully avoid reading. Of course, I can wave the occasional fiction piece and claim to be a litblog, but many of the other posts are my opinion, pure and simple. So what the heck am I doing with this blog and is it drifting from its original purpose?

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a good article entitled Theming: How It Isn't Just About The Looks. Kamigoroshi makes the good point that having a consistent theme is important to a good blog and then he says this:

So if you think that people aren't paying attention to your blog enough, try focusing on something. It can be a set style of writing, it can be a set situation you're in; as long as you focus on one thing at a time…people will come. It may be slow but people will come regardless.

Well, that made me all defensive about my wandering, guess-what's-coming-next blog and I made this comment:

I’ve seen this advice several times now and always think of my blog - it covers just about any subject you care to name. It’s popular enough, however, and so I have to ask myself: are these guys right or are they wrong? And the answer, I’ve decided, is that you are right but not necessarily in the way you think you are. Yes, a theme is required, but that theme is not always subject matter. I have come to realize that my product is actually - lil ole me. My readers come back because I’m such a freak, they never know what I’ll come out with next. And, presumably, I make the subject matter interesting enough for them to read and comment.

"So I have to conclude: if you know everything about one thing, write about it. If you know a little about everything, write about yourself!

Since then I've done a little more thinking and discovered that I do have a theme beyond myself; it's just that it's not actually stated anywhere. My theme and the subject in which I connect with my readers is, strangely enough, what I can only define as "the colonial mentality". By this I mean a way of seeing the world that comes from having grown up beyond the shores of Britain and in one or more of her old colonies.

I know that this gives me a rather different perspective on things from those who have lived all their lives in Britain. When I returned to England in 1976, I found that it was indeed "home", just as colonials had always referred to it, but that the world view of its people was more focused upon their own affairs and less upon understanding the world beyond their little island. They were (dare I say it?) insular.

Which is not intended as a criticism. They knew the empire had gone and the major task confronting them was a redefinition of Britain's role in the world; no longer a great world power, was she to become a part of the Greater Europe that loomed in the future or somehow find a way to remain independent and free in spite of her small size? There were internal problems to be decided as well; devolution of power to the Celtic nations within the Union and the transfer from a manufacturing economy to something else (they're still working on that one).

So I found that my worldview was irrelevant in Britain. They had no need to understand the forces that were ripping through Africa or Australia's coming to terms with Asian immigration, Canada's wrestling with Quebec's urge to be separate or New Zealand's need for new markets as Britain disappeared into Europe. I felt like a dinosaur amongst my own people.

The move to America has changed that. Suddenly I find that my thoughts are relevant again and harmonize with those of many around me, both in the nation and on the net. The walls of insularity have fallen and I am allowed to reflect on a wider view of the world again.

The reason is that I am back in my natural habitat, the colonies. And, before my American friends get huffy and start protesting that they are not a colony, I must assure them that there are no colonies left, apart from the Falkland Islands and who would want to live there? What I am saying is that Britain's old colonies (no matter how long ago they departed the fold) have much in common in their thinking.

Consider how well the Americans and Australians get along together. Think about how many Southern Africans have ended up in Australia, mostly around Perth from what I hear, and how at home there they have become. Remember how unsurprised we are that New Zealanders and Canadians can understand each other. There is a cultural similarity between us that allows these relationships to survive, even more so now that the internet has destroyed the barrier of distance.

Part of this common outlook is what I call "the frontier mentality". It is not that long ago that these nations were hacked from the wilderness (and no, I'm not going to enter a long debate on the rights and wrongs of what happened to the native peoples - it happened and we live with it). Living that close to a time when survival was what mattered brings about a very direct and no-nonsense way of thinking that is rare in Britain.

I have come to see that it is no coincidence that, of the three "top blogs" I read every day, two are Australian and one American. We speak the same language and understand where we're coming from.

This is my natural element and this is what I blog: the simple thoughts of an unsophisticated and literal-minded old colonial. And, if this reaches others who think about the same things, then I am well pleased. Looks like a theme to me...