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Seems to me that patriots and flag wavers are the hapless victims of a controlling authority that benefits from their unwavering and unquestioning support. Authority figure A tells said patriot at an early age that the flag (and country) means A, B, C and that to not support the flag, or gesture towards the flag with a militaristic salute or pledge to some bearded sky captain is antithetical to the meanings laid down in A, B and C. But the meanings of A, B and C are arbitrary and simplistic (they have to be to appeal to the patriots who in many respects remain childlike in their understanding of the world) and otherwise applicable to everyone whatever soil might be beneath their feet or whichever piece of cloth flies over their buildings.
Following on from this line of thought, I'd venture a guess and say that patriotism and the veneration of flags is the result of early indoctrination that has gone unquestioned in the individual beyond the age of reason.
Patriotism (and by extension the veneration of flags) might then be understood as the unquestioning belief beyond logic in an emotive and simplistic vision of what has never been, what is not and what will never be.
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