Balls to the Flag

So where do all these flags come from (and I don't mean China)?

There seems to be, as with so many things, no simple single answer to this. Those who have read Orwell's �1984� may recall the �two minute hate� during which all party members would get together in their canteens and yell, scream, cry and shout abuse at a projection of the figure of hate, Goldstein. They shouted not because they hated this scapegoat character but because they were afraid of what others would think if they didn't shout.

I think this is how politicians work. Everyone has the stupid flag flapping behind their stupid head in their stupid ads not because they love the flag, not because they think people will think more of them for having a flag but because they fear people will think less of them if they don't. This is so all pervasive that not to display the flag is now an act of extremism. Adbusters seems to be the only major outlet of pretty much anything that dares to stand up to the bullying flag with its �Brand America� and the realization that the flag is now the plaything of corporations; a ubiquitous symbol used not to shift units but to prevent the cessation of the shifting of units.

On cars, trucks and front lawns the American flag seems to mean something different and rather more difficult to pin down. It seems to me to be almost a nervous reaction. The �Environment". "Flag! �Invading weaker nations for oil". "Flag!� �Globalization and exploitation of foreign workers�. "Flag!� �Bloody Friends on every TV set all round the world three times a day�. "Shut up, not listening, flag!� It is as though the flag alone will make up for the fact that the USA is a bully, the most aggressive, selfish, messed up country in the world. The flag is a smokescreen, a salve because of what people in this country think or want to think it stands for.

Even the most liberal, aware, and intelligent of people will, in the end stand by the flag. But the flag, just like patriotism is not merely misused, it is not abused--it is, it really is, a bad thing in itself. And suddenly I have hit on a revelation. The problem is entirely one of perception: Americans see the flag as a symbol of self-reliance, of standing up to big government, of defending the little guy, of rooting out corruption.
But here's the rub. People in the rest of the world see in their flags the ignominious history of their own countries. The poor have been shat upon by the rich in their respective countries throughout history. Only Americans have had it drummed into them from birth that their country is based on rebellion, on insurrection, on standing up to the British. Nation as anti-nation. Americans are taught that America was founded not on slavery and the slaughter of the indigenous population for grab-while-the-grabbbing's-good self-interest but on freedom and the desire for self-betterment. Bullshit, of course, an inversion of the truth, but when all your formative years were spent having this double bluff propaganda of �conformity and belief in your country is rebellion and rejection of your country is for lily-ass pussy conformists,� it is very hard to let go, to really let go of the flag and to truly say �no� to the smokescreen.

This is all part of the big truck and confederate battle flag mentality that says that tough, independent, kickin' guys stand behind the weasely, pampered, rich-kid president. Bizarre but there it is.

The black population find it a lot easier to see the stars and stripes for what it actually represents and to reject it because their history is one of subjugation and abuse so extreme that it has been hard for the powers that be to dress it up in a positive light. In some ways they have managed to sidestep the propaganda sausage machine that has turned out the flag wavers and defenders. This puts the black population at an advantage in terms of clear vision.

Of course those of us not born in this country also have this advantage of clarity about �Old Glory.� I was brought up to believe my own set of propaganda in my own school but it was never quite so blatant. In Britain, only the Fascists display the Union Jack. The British tradition of which I am most truly proud is that of healthy skepticism. No, that's wrong. I'm not proud of it. How can one be proud of something one has had no part in forming? See, I've been here too long. I'm beginning to fall for it myself. But the skepticism: If teachers had tried to tell us that Britain is the greatest country in the world they would have been greeted with a classroom full of cat calls, raspberries and �yah, bollocks!�

Our propaganda had to be more subtle and so we learned how wonderful Churchill was and other than that it all seems to have been the propaganda of omission. We didn't learn about the empire. We didn't learn about the slavery, the mass murder, the serfs in our own country, the generalised evil of the monarchy. The oppression of Ireland, Scotland, Wales; all this was missing from history lessons, replaced with making models of wattle and daub houses out of matchsticks.

This American flag love can be explained in one of two ways. The first is the out-and-out love of country and never mind the bombs, pollution and all the rest. The second path is that taken so often by the liberals who still wave the flag and use the love of what is great about the USA as their reasoning. Love of the natural beauty and the democratic ideal, etc. etc. But all the positive attributes of the USA are also available in other countries and usually to a greater degree, with the possible exception of the vast stretches of open space�soon to be filled with factories and unemployment lines, subdivisions, and the Golden Arches.

To love and extol the virtues of ones own country even though one knows that other countries have equal or more to offer makes no sense. The negative aspects of the US far, far outweigh its positives�and, believe it or not, those are not aberrations, they are the founding aspects of this nation. But every time one sees an American flag and a tiny, tiny subconscious part of the brain connects to the terms �majesty�, �grandeur�, �freedom� and �self reliance� the mists are drawn over the vision just a little more.

I have been to many countries and with the exception of Turkey this is politically the least free of them all. People�s thoughts are very controlled here. I haven�t been to Iran or Israel or Afghanistan and I am aware that those places are a lot more restrictive or at least a lot less subtle about the restrictions they impose. But every sighting of the American flag and subconscious connection with �freedom� that we�re supposed to have is a step back from seeing America for the restrictive nation it is. And that�s right up there with the big boys.

�When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag.� So said the prescient Louisiana Governor Huey Long way back in the 1930s. And have you noticed how restrictive regimes always make much of their flags? Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Israel, Turkey and Iraq. All big flag-lovers. Conversely, look at the truly, relatively free nations such as Australia, New Zealand, France and Britain where true dissent is allowed and not ignored. The flag is noticeable by its relative absence.

The American flag is a smokescreen. Nationhood divides people in ways that allows the rich, the powerful and the corrupt to maintain their hold on the power. �You may be poor as a wood-louse and we may be spending your tax dollars on bombs instead of health care. I may be hugely wealthy and creaming off the tax breaks handed to me out of your pockets by other hugely wealthy and corrupt people but at the end of the day we�re all American and that�s what counts. It�s �us against them,� Americans against the British/Russians/Terrorists. Thinking that way, you�re prevented from thinking that actually, perhaps it should be the poor and the powerless against the rich and corrupt, and nationality is merely a question of which sticky out bit of rock you happen to have been born on.

So here's the bottom line. The flag is a lie. It is an advertising tool just as the Nike Swoosh is an advertising tool. �God Bless America� and �Proud to be an American� mean no more than �Just Do It.� Both companies, Nike and America (�) present a bad product as a good product through simplification. It is not time the liberals took back the flag. It is time the intelligent weaned themselves of the desire for that symbol altogether--and time we told everyone we meet that �country� should come a distant second to what really counts: fighting for a better and fairer world.

Send this article to a friend Printer-Friendly Version