Put Away the Flags

El_Kabong wrote:

again; the difference is you are comparing history to current events no one can change the past, obviously

glad you can be proud of all that comsumerism at the expense of a couple million lives in the past 2 decades...phew, at least you have your priorities straight, man! enjoy a big mac while you kick back in your comfy chair and watch superman. i'm sure the rest of the world will understand it's what's needed

El_Kabong wrote:

krispy kreme probably hasn't done anything on a global scale, does that mean GE didn't sell munitions to Hitler even after we got involved?

Abookamongstthemany wrote:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0703-29.htm

Published on Monday, July 3, 2006 by the Progressive
Put Away the Flags
by Howard Zinn

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking -- cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on -- have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours -- huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction -- what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.

Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy.

That self-deception started early.

When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession."

When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."

On the eve of the Mexican War, an American journalist declared it our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." After the invasion of Mexico began, The New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country."

It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to war.

We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people.

As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our secretary of war, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness."

We see in Iraq that our soldiers are not different. They have, perhaps against their better nature, killed thousands of Iraq civilians. And some soldiers have shown themselves capable of brutality, of torture.

Yet they are victims, too, of our government's lies.

How many times have we heard President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for "liberty," for "democracy"?

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail last year that God speaks through him.

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

Laz wrote:

what happened to freedom of expression? is not flag waving, as hated as it may be, a right guaranteed by the Constitution?

my2hands wrote:

you didnt read the article i am guessing

don't gimme no wrote:

It absolutely is. But it helps to know what you're supporting by waving that flag. I believe Zinn is educating people on what it really means and stands for. The American flag stands for anything but Freedom these days.

PaperPlates wrote:

Well Im glad you're not hung up in history, and focused on the here and now.


Btw, you bring up the US's past transgressions more often than you apparently know. Its a theme with you. So dont tell others not to compare history with current events. You sir, have the two terribly intermingled in your head.

moeaholic wrote:

just because you and zinn feel our flag stands for "anything but freedom" doesn't mean everyone else feels that way. if you don't want to display the flag of your country, then don't display it. big deal, it doesn't hurt me. but if i want to proudly fly my flag, don't shit all over me because of it.

don't gimme no wrote:

It's my sincere hope that someday the American flag will stand for more than blood and war, and that it will someday stand for more than spreading a false belief in democracy with the underlying yet very clear motive of fueling and expounding the evil and corrupt American empire.

don't gimme no wrote:

Great post, Moe. You made a great point and I'm glad you did. It seems only fair to celebrate the good on the anniversary of independence. But that's all your getting, damnit! One day! And then it's back to fighting for what's right and fighting for the day we can realize the dream that our founding fathers intending this country to be.