As I was swapping through channels and reading blogs this morning, I was constantly bombarded by images of American nationalism/patriotism.
But it really struck home when I started watching a baseball game on ESPN. The asinine commentators would interrupt their baseball talks with comments about brave men overseas, fallen heroes etc. Ii was not only the incongruous setting, but the sweeping music, images of the `brave president', the wife welcoming the husband home, the morphing of FDR in to GWB etc that really turned me off.
In most parts of the world, nationalism has been a force for the worst kind of human excess. And whether you call it nationalism or patriotism, it comes down to the same human impulse: Person X is better than Person Y because of where he lives and who his parents were born. You can dress it up with talks about values, freedom and evildoers, but, to me at least, it remains the first step to Abu Ghraib. Those young MP inherently felt superior to the prisoners because they weren't American.
I know most people will be offended by this, but I really believe that excesses like Abu Ghraib is just an extreme manifestation of the same attitude I saw at Wrigley Field and on my TV and computer screens today. Once you start celebrating what makes you better and how you are somehow special, how long does it take for you to start thinking other people does not deserve the same consideration as you?
As I am not an American and live on the other side of the world, I may be wrong about this, but I get the impression that a lot of this is manufactured in the same way that Halloween or Valentine's Day is. I bet Wal-Mart does cracking business in flags, this time of the year. I know Memorial Day is special for military families. I am talking more in general. Most people seems to be happy to mouth platitudes about `fighting for freedom', or `defending America', as long as it does not cost too much money and they still get their tax cuts.
This is not some anti-American rant. I am South African, and am inordinately proud of what my country's new democracy has achieved in the last 10 years. But the overt and `cheesy' iconography used during our 10-year celebrations, also embarrassed me.
I don't know why this rubbing me up the wrong way - maybe it is because I have seen the damage that nationalism can do here in SA - but the fetish about the flag and the rest of the nationalistic display, just seems immature to me.