It’s Just a Country
Recently I had a silly email forwarded to me. It contains some tripe from some dude. Here is an excerpt-
In the days, weeks and months following 9/11, our country was bathed in American flags as citizens mourned the incredible losses and stood shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism. Sadly, those flags have all but disappeared. Our patriotism pulled us through some tough times and it shouldn't take another attack to galvanize us in solidarity. Our American flag is the fabric of our country and together we can prevail over terrorism of all kinds
Now, I actually watched the planes crash into the towers, on television, as it happened. Did it make me feel patriotic? No, it was just sad and terrible. Patriotism is pointless. This is just another country, not some heavenly body anointed by whatever deity you choose to believe in. We are not special just because we were born in the US. If you need to present a silly flag, a blind icon, to rouse some feeling of pride in your government, then maybe you need to stop putting those things up and really examine the system, your role in it, and what’s really going on in the world.
For that matter, at this juncture, all these repetitions of flags as symbols of something greater have only reduced their psychological impact. You lot have literally boiled the care out of people. Only the absolute hardliners, who don’t need a flag to get riled up anyway, and the easily swayed still think they matter or initiate some special connection to the land where our parents happened to birth us in.