I was thinking about America and then the term Patriotism Wow! sprang to mind. A sort of Patriotic version of, what we saw in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, Catholicism Wow!
I think the two comedians quoted at the bottom sums up the American view of the flag. Something that us Brits don’t understand. All I can think of it that as the country isn’t that old, so they have to something to grab hold off. The English don’t need to do this. We don’t put our trust in a piece of cloth.
We don’t need to show how much we love our country by swearing allegiance to the same piece of cloth. We just know how much fear it gives our enemies so we don’t need to glorify it as other countries do to their flag.
We do, occasionally, see people hanging the Union Flag or the cross of Saint George. Normally seen around the time of when England is in football tournaments. This seems to be the only time that the flag can be flown at home without any strange looks.
There are downsides, it does make you look like you are a bit mentally unbalanced. Either that or you seem to be a little bit of a racist. This is more likely to be thought if you just fly the St George’s cross and not the Union Flag.
Basically, if you’re British then the thing you do to show patriotism is not to outwardly show it. Just say no to flying the flag outside your house. All you need to know is that you’re British and that’s enough.
“Hey buddy, my daddy died for that flag.”
“Really? I bought mine. Yeah, they sell them at K-Mart and shit.”
“He died in the Korean War.”
“Wow, what a coincidence. Mine was made in Korea.”
No one – and I repeat, no one – has ever died for a flag. See, a flag … is just a piece of cloth. They may have died for freedom, which is also the freedom to burn the f***ing flag, see. That’s freedom.
Virginia Graham had a terrific show, which I guested four or five times. She was a great character. Didn’t give a sh*t about what people thought and loved to stir things up. She was always saying sweetly, “Let’s you two fight” – in other words: “Why don’t you two guests of mine rip each other to shreds?” I did once. I ripped up Representative Bob Dornan, the red-headed maniac from Orange County, when he’d just become a congressman. He talked about “these hippies desecrating the flag” and “the violence of people who are blow up math buildings” and protested about protesters getting violent. So I called him on it: “Wait a minute. A flag is supposed to represent everything that a country does. It doesn’t only represent the good things. If you burn the flag, you’re burning the flag for what you perceive to be the bad things the country has done. It’s only a symbol. It’s only a piece of cloth.“
