It's the latest fad. The new craze. Flags, flags, flags. Get 'em while they're hot. In volume and size, they obviously fully represent our patriotism. And we, so gullible a nation, have fallen hook, line and sinker for this latest Madison Avenue brain scrub, rushing out to the mall— the mall— because they've actually convinced us going shopping will somehow bring Osama bin Laden to justice.
It's insane. And it's both dangerous and sad to realize how completely gullible we are as a people. How ready we are to conform and fall into the sweep of national mood. Flags everywhere. People running out and buying cars to “save the nation.” The US government giving $20 billion to bloated airlines who stuff their chief executives' pockets with million-dollar bonus packages while continuing to allow felons and illegal aliens to run their security checkpoints.
If there's a way to make money, US industry will find it. And, in the wake of ongoing terror, it seems like we, as a nation, have reverted to type, becoming, once again, the naive, guileless children who still believe in Oswald in the book depository, while industry and government have a field day under cover of national crisis and patriotism. How much money are these flag makers pocketing? And how obscene is it to profit from this tragedy?
I've received numerous inquiries about whether or not it's right for me to post that mock TIME cover with George Dubya on it. I've been asked if I should, perhaps, remove my scathing criticism of the 2000 election.
I didn't like Bush then. I don't like him now. I don't know what more he could be doing or what more effective measures he could be taking. It's unlikely anyone else could be doing a better job, and we certainly could have someone far, far worse. It's not fair to kick the president over this war, but it's equally unfair to exempt him from a reasonable examination of his policies and performance. Instead, all we get is whitewash and the First Cheerleader ramping up his Good Ol' Boy routine while sneaking even more tax cuts for his country club buddies through Congress. But, shame on me for mentioning that.
I've, to date, been unsuccessful at making anyone understand, censoring my genuine, reasonable complaint about our government and our leaders, even in this time of crisis, robs me of the very freedom all this haughty flag waving is meant to represent.
Wave your flags, certainly. Tie dozens of them to your minivan or S.U.V or pickup. Blind drivers trying to see around you with your garrison flags snapping in the breeze in the bed of your pick-up. But, while we're at it, let's not be completely blinded by patriotism. In order to truly unify and motivate and inspire the nation, patriotism, in this politically correct era, has to be administered and packaged and dosed out to all of the people in a non-threatening, non-fascist way.
Bear in mind this flag-waving elicits an involuntary shudder from many Black Americans and Jewish Americans and Mexican Americans and (certainly) Arab Americans and Other Americans. For many minorities, the Star Spangled Banner is just as often a confederate flag in white face, a means to similar ends of intimidation and marginalization. The flag can and often is received by these communities as very pro-white, which is not to say anti-minority. But the chilling prospect of these pod people with the eight flags tagged to their Chevy sends quite a different message to many within these minority folds. America The Beautiful sounds, to many, like America For Americans, patent code for White Americans.
Economic stimuli like low air fares and zero percent financing mean nothing to people who have nothing. Comforting many of these communities is simply beyond the power of a government so fully vested in well-to-do conservatives who have no clue whatsoever of the jungle rule of survival a great many Americans face every day. The gulf between Them and Us has never been wider, and the greater tragedy of this new war is the rallying of White America, in a plangent strum that is certainly heartwarming and glorious to behold, but is, for many of us, merely a spectator event. We applaud and cheer and are brought to tears by this great coalescing of America, but it's not our America that's being coalesced. And the sloganeering all sounds like code. Patriotism as observed through a chain link fence.
This is why I don't like talking about 9.11. Because a great many people who want to discuss it or want me to discuss it really don't want to hear what I have to say. They want another voice in the chorus. Wave This Flag Or Else.
I support my country, my president and my military. I hope they find bin Laden and his pals and beat the living snot out of them. I'm willing to make reasonable and unreasonable sacrifices in this effort to purge a terrible evil from the world, and build a new nation that is more terror-resistant.
And I'll dutifully wave as the parade passes by.
Christopher J. Priest
November 2001
10 Comments
Frankly, any conspiracy competent enough to have kept the lid on JFK for all this time is also competent enough to have maneuvered Oswald into doing the job and thinking it was his own idea.
And, frankly, as odd as some of the coincidences in Oswald killing JFK are, they're a lot easier to swallow at this point than the idea that anyone in Washington is able to keep a secret that big for 40+ years. Weird, improbable stuff like the "magic bullet" happens all the time without violating physical laws.
scrawled by Dave Van Domelen | September 10, 2008 11:53 AM
Hi. Long time fan, first time commenter.
As an expatriate, it shames me that folks in the U.S. have let themselves be dumbed down by so much fear-mongering and xenophobia. I wince every time I read/watch the news at how McCain is now neck-n-neck with Obama because of the Palin bounce. With the accessibility of the Internet, don't folks bother to even investigate and get to the root of the country's ills? Folks really don't deserve Democracy.
scrawled by Wilfredo | September 10, 2008 2:31 PM
I'm not quite sure I buy the polls. I know of a LOT of people who haven't voted in a long time, some who have NEVER voted, who will be coming out for Obama. These people are not counted in any poll. I think McCain should beware the non-polled--there's probably millions of them.
DVD: they changed the parade route, dude. Oswald couldn't do that. I'm no conspiracist, but I just don't buy Ozzie. I like your idea--sure, somebody could have made him think it was his idea. But I'm convinced he was not the lone shooter and that there was a conspiracy.
Which is what I liked about Stone's "Nixon," where Stone suggests part of the reason Nixon fought for his tapes was he'd been obliquely threatened by CIA director Helms, that the JFK assassination, which Nixon refers to repeatedly as, "That Bay of Pigs thing," was certainly real enough, and Nixon feared his tapes would allow the truth to come out.
Now, mind you, we're talking about Oliver Stone, here. But an awful lot of people got coincidentally dead, including LBJ. I think people kept the secret because they were scared to death, and most anyone who might have any concrete knowledge about any of it is long dead now, with the files all locked up so we can't get a look at them.
In fact, the classified files part is what fuels the conspiracy theories. If you're right, if this was just Oswald, then just let me see the files and I'll shut up. Assuming they haven’t been doctored...
The film all but points the finger at USAF Lt. General Edward G. Lansdale as the chief bottle washer. They cover his nameplate with a potted plant, and Oswald's fantasy footage places him in Dealy Plaza in press photos which later mysteriously vanished.
scrawled by priest | September 10, 2008 4:38 PM
Took me a bit to realize I'd read this before -- about the point where you started giving Bush the benefit of the doubt was where I realized it couldn't be current. We were all giving him the benefit of the doubt in those days, before we heard about the "Bin Laden determined to strike inside the US" briefing or saw his response to New Orleans.
It's been interesting to see the rest of the country come around to our way of thinking. I live in Arizona, one of the most reliably red states in the country, and a friend of mine went to France for most of '05 -- she was surprised to leave a state where people had just propelled Bush to a second term by a thirteen-point margin, and come back to one where, well, most people agreed with her.
Other than that, it's interesting how timely your post still is. I'm not seeing as many SUV's on the roads, but the Republicans continue to wrap themselves in the flag and subtly (and not-so-subtly) endorse xenophobia.
It's funny how, since the primaries stopped, they've stopped talking about immigration -- part of it is that McCain's always been moderate on the subject and only threw red meat to the base during the primaries because he had to, but part of it is also that they started to realize that Latinos are going to be voting in this election and scapegoating the fastest-growing population demographic in the country is a pretty piss-poor way to win elections.
scrawled by Thad | September 10, 2008 5:38 PM
I don't mean to be pessimistic here, but there are folks who claim they will vote for one candidate, for appearance, and then will vote for the other.
Now regarding the xenophobia, it didn't take long for the climate to get ugly. Now it's almost like it's chic to be racist. I'm shocked that somebody like a Lou Dobbs or a Glenn Beck generates enough ratings to stay on the air. This to me implies some complicity from the viewers.
Ugh, I just depressed myself.
scrawled by Wilfredo | September 11, 2008 12:33 AM
Hey Priest you're right! I've been a fan of yours ever since I read The Client, and you are by far my favorite writer. But on this subject you were right on the money about the flag waving. After 9/11 all I could think about was how some people were trying to profit off it. I was a junior in high school at the time, and I could easily see right through those things. The sad thing is the fact that nothing has seemed to change. People are still caught up in the whole idea of "support the troops(code word for war) or you're unpatriotic." I also love the fact that you brought up how the flag induces some fear in minorities. I don't cower in fear every time I see it, but the flag is two sides of a coin for me. One is the great ideals that can make this country truly beautiful, and the other is the terrifying past of this land. I love the Bill of Rights, but it's hard not to think every now and then that one of my ancestors lost his foot because he sought freedom.
scrawled by E-Man | September 11, 2008 1:19 AM
Dobbs... yeah... way over the line. I get the feeling the guy's gonna suit up and go after every Latino lanscaper he can find.
scrawled by priest | September 11, 2008 12:51 PM
"It's unlikely anyone else could be doing a better job"
I kinda hope you don't still feel this way...
scrawled by Matt Adler | September 11, 2008 2:53 PM
I was actually amazed when I read this. Much as I disliked Bush in 2001, I never dreamed that would actually be his *high* point.
scrawled by priest | September 11, 2008 5:46 PM
I pretty much knew from the beginning he was going to find an excuse to attack Iraq, and knew as soon as 9/11 hit that that was it.
Which is part of why I'm so mad at the Democrats who claim they were misled and had no way of knowing the whole thing was a sham. I was 20 years old in '02 and I knew it was a sham; they're either lying or less competent to vote on authorization for war than I was at age 20.
scrawled by Thad | September 11, 2008 6:36 PM