Last Refuges...

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has just approved a proposal to pass a constitutional amendment which would make it a crime to "desecrate" an American flag.  The vote was 11-7.  Who are the patriots?  Who are the scoundrels?

What is a flag?  It's a piece of cloth.  That's all.   There is nothing sacred about a piece of cloth.  Who is harmed by the "desecration" of a flag?  No one.  What utility does it serve to attribute such magical power to a symbol that the law must protect it from those who do not subscribe to it's mystical power?   None whatsoever.  Unless you believe that it is a good thing when men are stirred by symbols to incomprehensible feelings of loyalty and devotion and are, then therefore susceptible to manipulation by evil men and scoundrels.

So the purpose of this law would be to protect the dainty affectations of scoundrels, who, as we all know, take refuge in patriotism.  In other words, the purpose of this law is essentially religious.  The flag is the bible, the cross, the alter of nationalism.

Nationalism is a religion.  It's values cannot coexist harmoniously with the values of any other mainstream religion.  Nationalism demands of us greed, selfishness, and brutality.  It demands that we place our interests first.  It demands that we worship our ancestors who fought in wars.  It demands uniforms and parades and brass bands and cemeteries and monuments and medals and solemn oaths and hymns and eyes teared over with myopic miasmic melodrama-- crocodile tears-- and myth and lies and "saints".   We always say that these "saints" sacrificed their lives for our noble cause.  We act as if our armies are not equipped to kill and destroy, but to preserve life, even at the expense of their own lives.  

We ask, are you willing to die for your country-- as if this is a good idea-- instead of the honest question: are you willing to kill for your country?

  I know why militarists and nationalists love the flag.   Because they are idiots.  Anyone who has examined the history of western civilizations over the past 500 years cannot have missed the fact that nationalism is responsible for more carnage and evil than any other single factor.  From Napoleon to Hitler to Stalin, humans have done more evil to each other in the name of nation and state than they ever did in the name of any other religion.

``Without a strong value system, our children cannot distinguish good from bad or right from wrong," says Orrin Hatch, one of the Lewinsky conspirators, who may have a point here, but one that has nothing to do with flags.

The simple question is, what values is Orrin talking about?

Most of us agree that selflessness and the love of justice are good values.  So is compassion, mercy, and toleration.   Hatch's logic is hypocritical:  the exact purpose of a flag is to arouse patriotic  fervor in the service of selfish nationalist impulses.  A flag is used to stir patriotic feelings, and patriotic feelings are used to persuade men to join armies, where they are taught to act with aggression and strength, to obey orders without question, to kill for no reason known to themselves.  In other words, to over-ride good values and replace them with bad values.

A constitutional amendment banning "desecration" of any national symbol is nothing less than an intrusion of the state into religion.  If Orrin and the other Senators want to bow down and worship the flag, they are welcome to do so, in their own cathedrals, on their own time.  Keep the government out of it. 

Copyright © 1999 Bill Van Dyk  All rights reserved.

Headline from 1989 Supreme Court Ruling