Jesse Mulligan: Five reasons to feel resolutely upbeat

Our enemies define us. Photo / Balazs Gardi

Opinion

1. Competition is good

Just as Roadrunner wouldn't be the same without Coyote, so Dean Barker wouldn't be the same without Jimmy Spithill - our enemies define us, and bad guys make the heroes shine brighter.

2. We're in it together

When was the last time New Zealanders laughed, cried and cheered as one? Neither the royal baby, nor the Hobbit nor even the Rugby World Cup unified us in quite such a positive, nation-building way. We're all on the same team for once, and I can't think of another way you could spend $36 million and achieve that.

3. Even if we lose, we win

New Zealand fingerprints are on every boat in this competition, and even our rivals have Kiwis doing all the important stuff on board. No result can do anything but enhance our international reputation for innovation, research and development. How good is it to be providing something to a global audience that isn't just scenery?

4. We got our quadrennial Peter Montgomery fix

Why is he so criminally underused? If Ian Smith can commentate rugby, surely we can put PJ in charge of, I don't know, the golf? "CANADA'S OPEN IS NOW LYDIA'S OPEN!" Or something.

5. We're already world beaters

With or without the America's Cup, this week was a triumph for New Zealand. On Friday Lorde fended off Miley Cyrus to reach the top of the US iTunes charts, in a victory of Antipodean talent, originality and style over ... a privileged child star making out with a sledgehammer.