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Australia
Tony Jones, ABC | June 2003
ABC's Tony Jones argues the world is in danger of being absorbed by the U.S.
"Australian cartoonists have played to a popular cynicism that Australia is becoming America's deputy sheriff, or worse, its lap dog."
As 1941 drew to a close, Singapore was about to fall and with it the long-held Australian illusion that the umbrella of the British Empire would shelter its colonies for eternity.
That brolly was blown away by a Japanese monsoon.
In his grim New Year's speech, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin made a plea to America for help and so shifted the U.S. from one sphere of influence to another.
By 1942, General Douglas MacArthur had set up his South West Pacific headquarters in Queensland. Australian historians still argue whether this was the start of a long-term commitment to defending our mainland or just a temporary real estate deal.
Whatever interpretation is put on it, it is inarguable that U.S. military power turned back Tokyo's military expansion and, from Canberra's perspective, saved Australia from invasion.
The ensuing bond, some would say obligation, led Australia to become the only other nation to commit troops to all of America's major land wars: in Korea, in Vietnam and during both conflicts in the Persian Gulf.
Frontier societies
A formal alliance was signed in 1951 and behind it was a deep cultural connection.
Both were frontier societies and English beachheads that expanded across their respective continents during the 19th century. Both nations are longstanding federal democracies.
Both communities adapted to later waves of diverse ethnic migration, and both populations think of themselves as ingenious, informal and direct.
Even a few darker political legacies are shared, including the displacement of native peoples.
It is not surprising, then, that Australians have taken up Americanisms faster than Europeans, from V-8s to Frigidaires, and from sitcoms to slang.
Many young Australians have adopted U.S. street fashion and its argot, where their parents are likely to have been Day Dream Believers and their grandparents card-carrying Mouseketeers.
Australian artists, actors and writers once sought the bright lights of London, but if they venture beyond Sydney and Melbourne today, they are more likely to be found in Los Angeles or New York.
On the other hand, the transpacific relationship is tested by the sheer size and power of America.
Part of the Australian character is to distrust authority and much centre-left opinion has been suspicious of U.S. governments since Vietnam.
In recent months, Australian cartoonists have played to a popular cynicism that Australia is becoming America's deputy sheriff, or worse, its lap dog.
America's cultural juggernaut
Many, while strongly supporting free enterprise, also distrust America's more ideological forms of capitalism.
To suggest Australia's public health system might be slipping towards a U.S. model is politically potent.
On the other hand, conservative Australians share a view that not only Australian security but prosperity, too, is guaranteed by support for American values, and its military, diplomatic and business initiatives.
This camp is scornful of anti-Americanism, though the divide is not simple. Australians mix and match from an assortment of feelings about America depending on the time and subject.
Australians are both captives of and enthusiastic participants in America's cultural juggernaut. From Errol Flynn to Russell Crowe, mad, testosterone-charged antipodeans have leapt on the cart.
And for years, funny, feisty, tough-minded Oz women have been hauled onboard, too.
Back home we watch them hoisting Oscars with a peculiar mixture of pride and loss.
You get the feeling that the new lord of the world, for whom the juggernaut was built, will simply absorb us all in his munificence... if we let him.
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