Patriotism

Here it is, as promised. We have a nasty habit of taking words with clear meanings and making less of them. In doing so, we not only make our language more difficult to understand, but we also make the ideas that these words represent more ambiguous. There are countless examples of this occurrence, but I will use the one that I feel has been bastardized the most in the last six years and some change. The word, predictably enough, is the title of this post.

Case 1: Barack Obama. We've all seen the media scratching around for something to throw at the Illinois Senator and presidential candidate. Maybe it's just the fact that they can't find anything substantial that has caused them to go after his lack of a lapel pin displaying the American flag. Who the hell wears one of those on a day-to-day basis? I would consider it tacky to wear one on any day other than a distinctly American holiday. This is an issue that doesn't need my defense. Barack has done a wonderful job downplaying the issue. Wearing a lapel pin has nothing to do with one's patriotism. While an anarchist or soviet loyalist probably wouldn't wear one (except as part of a disguise), it's reasonable to believe that most people of a reasonably indifferent opinion on the matter would wear a flag pin some days and not others. In fact, the only presidential candidate (still in or dropped out) of whom I was able to find a picture with the flag pin was Giuliani. Apparently, that was his whole campaign.

Case 2: Flag merchandise. Right after September 11th, sales of American flag merchandise skyrocketed. By merchandise, I mean decals and magnets for cars, t-shirts, actual flags of all sizes, and miscellaneous other objects, as long as they somehow proudly displayed the Stars and Stripes. I recall hearing something about there actually being a shortage of flag merchandise following this. Since then, the patriotic merchandise market has managed to continue its boom with 'support our troops' ribbon magnets, and 'never forget' propaganda. What does this have to do with patriotism? Not much, really. It has plenty to do with consumerism, which is a uniquely American value, I suppose, but it has very little to do with love of one's country.

This all really boils down to something pretty simple. Patriotism is not external. I could go the rest of my life without buying, wearing, or even seeing a flag, and it wouldn't make me any less patriotic. There are ways of expressing it, just as there are ways of expressing any emotion, but ultimately, patriotism is internal. Express it as you would express any other type of love, by doing what's best for the country. Work hard, support American companies, and do your part to make the country look good. We used to have a pretty good handle on it. I'm not really feeling it anymore. Let's bring patriotism back.