From where I’m sitting, I don’t see that many flags (granted I live in a more rural area.) I hear the young people singing “I don’t want to be an American Idiot,” and I hear more globalization propaganda than American idealization.

I also think that your opening sentence is interesting. Your friend was “apolitical”. Does that make her unbiased? That she was apolitical doesn’t mean she is a neutral party. Apolitical is a statement by itself, though of what in this case, I do not know. I sense a slight implication that you were impressed by her apoliticism, otherwise I don’t know why it would be mentioned.

We are not Mennonites – we are not called to be apolitical. Catholics are called to work both within the systems of government and without, with healthy respect for what is good and unyielding opposition to what is evil.

If your point had merely been that national flags do not belong at the Eucharistic table, then I would agree with you. If your point is “[America's Current] Nationalism [As evidenced by a proliferation of flags] is Idolatry”, then I think your article is unfinished.

What really reminds me of totalitarian states is the Pledge of Allegiance in school – every freaking day. My wife tells me it continued throughout her entire time in a Catholic high school. Not to mention the anthem when San Francisco plays San Diego. Why ?

Of course it makes sense that the most dangerous system on the planet would brainwash its citizens from childhood on, the things government/business gets away with here are simply astounding.

Why some parishes have a flag in the sanctuary beats me. What happened to “neither Jew nor Greek” ?

National pride has to be one of the dumber follies of humankind – it’s not an achievement to be born somewhere. Speaking of dumb – what’s with this song, “And I’m proud to be an American, WHERE at least I know I’m free” ?

Personally, I find my affinity tends towards regions these days, the Pacific Northwest, the Champagne, the Toscana, Normandie etc.

Lastly, the most awful trick people fall for is to identify territory with nation/political system…you know, when one is told to leave the country if one doesn’t subscribe to pillaging at home and abroad.

The Act that makes it a crime in New Zealand to deface their national flag with intent to dishonor it also says anyone who wants to can use it in advertising (as long as they don’t put any words or symbols on the flag itself). And it appears that, for the past thirty years, there have been various efforts — including some led by government ministers — to change the flag.

The Government is not the Country. The Government is not the population.

The Government maintains military forces in 120-140 countries around the world. The government is bankrupting the country and destroying the currency doing so.

Mr. Obama was expected (at least by the niave) to end the wars in the mid-east. Instead he has shown himself a reliable tool of the status quo. His policy is indistinguishable from that of GWB. The fraud of Democracy where people are allowed to choose between two sock puppet parties that do not differ in essentials is becoming clear. If it is not clear yet, it will be just as Anthropogenic Global Warming is being revealed for the fraud it is.

Joe Sobran quoted Chesterton on the nationalist failings of Kipling. Something like “Kipling loves England because she is Great, not because she is English.”

After this government collapses due to overextension (as every empire does sooner or later) will today’s “Patriots” still love America when she is a “second rate” power? I don’t know. But true patriots – who view the government of today as profoundly un-American in fundamental principles – will. And they will be the ones to restore an America true to the founders principles.

Catholics have an important part to play in this. A true catholic by definition has a loyalty that lies outside and above the government. That is why they may be persecuted at some time in the future. The State (the modern Baal) will brook no divided loyalty.

Well, regardless. There is something to the idea that American exceptionalism plays a role in our culture not similarly shared elsewhere by, to use the President’s misguided example, “Greek exceptionalism.”

The United States is a “self-made” nation, in a way that virtually no other country on earth can claim. So much of its national “mythology,” so to speak, is invested not simply in the people and events that created it, as is seen elsewhere, but in how it is governed–in its identity as the first real constitutional republic since the fall of Rome.

It was different from the rest of the world. It was *designed* to be different from the rest of the world–to be, the Founders hoped, superior to how other countries did things. (Seeing as much of the world has since followed suit, to a greater or lesser degree, they might have been on to something there, but that’s another debate.)

That view of America, not simply as “the place where we live” but as “the nation we made”–and more, “the nation we made the best in the world”–has been at the core of the United States’ self-concept, almost from the beginning. It was only amplified by the country’s rise to superpower status in the 20th century.

If the US seems to be “swimming in propaganda,” that’s probably the biggest reason why. It’s a key part of what binds the country together.

(It’s probably worth noting that if there was ever anything akin to American exceptionalism, it was *Soviet* exceptionalism. The Soviet Union, like the US, was a “self-made nation,” one where its identity was almost completely wrapped up in how it did things. For the purposes of this post’s discussion, the main difference is that the USSR explicitly tried to impose its “mythology” as the religion of its people, whereas the United States’ policy was to explicitly stay out of its people’s religions…which itself became a part of America’s own “mythology.”)

Idols are things that are worshipped as gods.

That the author of this post equates them shows either ignorance or a bias to promote his point of view.

The comment boxes, especially ES and Dan, are quite good.

Well, Mr. Iafrate wrote:

“and the ONLY nation to have used a nuclear weapon?”

Thank you FDR and Harry Truman!

MM wrote:
“Sadly, American exceptionalism is pervasive, the notion that America is somehow different,”

My experience is that America is different. Look at the large number of people who continue to come to this country (perhaps yourself MM?). Why do they and, for some, making a huge sacrifice to do so? Living in a large community made up of over 50% immigrants (including immediate family members), one hears amazing and exceptional stories of lifes that have improved by coming to the US. I have heard this from immigrants who have come here in the past 10 years from the likes of China, Malaysia, Afghanistan, etc. I realize the same can be said for immigrants arriving in Canada and parts of Europe, though the US has long offered a special, dare I say exceptional, attraction for immigrants. (Which begs the question why some are so hostile to immigrants from south of the border).

ES:
“To reduce every instance of flag-flying to a display of excessive pride, or nationalism, or idolatry, is unjustified.”

Amen. Any blanket commendation of idolatry based on flying the US flag can be simplistic and judgmental.

Do you know why? So that Roman Catholics like you will continue to give unquestioning allegiance to a social and political system that is inimical to the values of the faith you THINK you subscribe to.

1.) There is the argument from out-group bias. This is a cognitive bias that is possessed by those looking at a group from the outside, and the most common distinguishing elements (such as the display of a flag) are understood from the outsider’s perspective. To someone who comes from a different country, where a national symbol is used differently, common American usage can stand out. That this is so does not justify a conclusion of nationalism or idolatry.

2.) Confusion of message-received with message-intended. The flag is a sign. The flying of the flag is also a sign, but what is signified need not always be the same. To reduce every instance of flag-flying to a display of excessive pride, or nationalism, or idolatry, is unjustified. Don’t commit the fallacy of textual agency: that a sign means all by itself whatever you say it means. That you can read your city-scape as your friend suggested, after alerting you to out-group bias, does not mean that your friend’s interpretation of the city-scape is accurately reflects what each flag-flier intends.

That being said, I think that the differences between a recently established country, like the US, with so many disparate groups gathered here, in comparison to a country like Italy or like Spain (where I’ve lived), where ethnic and hereditary homogeneity are not only higher, but history goes much deeper but one was unified more recently, shows up some interesting results. I remember seeing the flags displayed in both countries, but more often in Italy. I never got to the south of Spain, and so maybe I could be wrong, but my hunch is that where there is more diversity, there will be more displays of a symbol that marks unity. In this context, flag-flying could be a way of providing a reminder to your neighbor (who just moved from another country and doesn’t want to assimilate, or who lives in Rome and for some reason really hates the risorgimento, or who lives in Turino and calls all those south of Pisa “Africans”) where he is.

I think we could also look at how many groups of Americans (as many African-Americans were attesting after Obama’s election) feel like they have been on the outside of the trajectory of the American story, a lot of which has been a struggle of dissolving the barriers erected by those (who claim to love freedom) against the others who simply want the same opportunities but have been defined by the majority as not qualifying (be they black, female, Asian, gay, or something else). Flag-flying could be saying that we deserve equal treatment, and this flag means that we are not to be targeted for what you see as making us different.

Conversely, for those who miss the “good old days” when Uhmeruhkah was Uhmeruhkah, flag-flying could be a way of trying to remind everyone what’s been lost.

He thought of it as a bastard patriotism.

I thought Obama handled the subject very well when asked about it:

Ed Luce, Financial Times–
“Could I ask you whether you subscribe, as many of your predecessors have, to the school of American exceptionalism that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world, or do you have a slightly different philosophy? And if so, would you be able to elaborate on it?”

Obama’s answer–
“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I’m enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world. If you think about the site of this summit and what it means, I don’t think America should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an Alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe. We should take great pride in that.

And if you think of our current situation, the United States remains the largest economy in the world. We have unmatched military capability. And I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional.

Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we’ve got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we’re not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise and that includes us.

And so I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent–and depends on–our ability to create partnerships We create partnerships because we can’t solve these problems alone.”