Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoon Man
Moejoe, I never did have those things taught to me as child. My parents were as socialist as they come (my father dodged the draft and whatnot, not making him socialist but it doesn't hurt) and neither of them supported this country.
I stand for the flag, not despite the history of our country, but because out of that bad (maybe despite the bad) has come and still may come, some good things. I don't believe in blind nationalism, if we were to start adopting policies which I was wholly against (and yes, I do have a definitive line for this) I would leave and not speak well by it any longer. There are also people who I hold great respect for that have bled and died for the people in this country, and I see the flag as representing them. Aye, it is emotional, but it is what I believe.
Yes, it is just a piece of cloth, and there have been many atrocities committed in its name, but there have also been many acts of good will. I will not look back on the history of this country and gaze only at the good, but I will not condemn the future of the people in this country because of the bad either. A country is not its leaders or their beliefs, it is the people within it.
Yes, our country was founded on a set of ideas, ideals, and beliefs that, for the most part, I think were right and should be worked towards. We'll probably never reach the country that anyone saw or had in mind, but in falling short will we have failed at becoming something better than what was had before? I would like to think yes, but I can't say for certain.
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I would say your father by dodging the draft was supporting a notion far greater than country. The notion of being a human being. I have nothing but admiration for those who refuse to take up arms and kill unquestioningly (and lets face it, if you're in 'service' that's what you do. You serve at a master's whim without question.)
But again, you're not really giving any answers here. More hyperbole about people dying and bleeding for the same romantic notion that you can neither explain nor truly defend without descending into fantasies and second-guesses about the who and the whys of the past. You say that your country was founded upon a set of ideals, which ideals? The ones popularised in your schoolrooms, where you pledge allegiance or the true historical facts about taxation and slavery? It's all a form of propaganda that you have bought into. A fairytale that you choose to believe and which, if all the flags were gone tomorrow, you would still believe because it has become so ingrained (even beyond your own logic, faulty as it may be).
I will never, and I fully understand, why an adult chooses these fictions over reality. It's much easier to understand the world when it's black and white, when the rules are simple. Us and them. North vs South. God vs the Devil. Freedom vs Whatever Country the US has armed and his now invading this week. These are what flags and nationalism does best. Nationalism, patriotism, takes the complex events of human history and human social interactions and reduces it all to pithy, bite-size chunks of belief-o's that you can eat at breakfast without a second thought. What good would soldiers be if they couldn't be easily controlled by this propaganda? If they couldn't be riled up into killing machines by these fairy tales they're told? It's about control, and you have none when you give into these notions. The freedoms you think you're defending are the ones you give away when you salute a flag.