February 14, 2004
How to explain bumper stickers?
Posted by Curt at 04:44 PM in Bitching and Moaning | TrackBackWhy are the anti-war activists and the anti-capitalism activists and everyone else who might be suspected of having it in for the U.S. government so desperate these days to assert their patriotism? I’m no supporter of activists of any stripe, but it seems to me that they do themselves a double humiliation by insisting that their blind obedience and self-abasement before some idiotic cause does not preclude them from also blindly obeying and self-abasing themselves before a flag. I have my doubts about the sincerity of a lot of this rhetoric, but even if all of the braying to the effect of “Peace is patriotic” or “I’m just as patriotic as anyone in this country even though I think the U.S. should be exactly like Sweden” were sincerely meant, it’s still rather contemptible. Why not be unpatriotic? Would that be insufficiently narrow-minded? Once again, we must have recourse to the under-appreciated sage Bill Hicks:
“I was over in Australia and [everyone asked:] ‘Are you proud to be an American?’ And I was like, ‘Um, I don’t know, I didn’t have a lot to do with it. You know, my parents fucked there, that’s about all. You know, I was in the spirit realm at that time; [I shouted:] ‘Fuck in Paris! Fuck in Paris!’ but they couldn’t hear me, because I didn’t have a mouth. I was a spirit without lungs or a mouth, or vocal cords. They fucked here. Okay, I’m proud.”
But of course, it’s better that they didn’t fuck in Paris, because than he would have been French, and it remains an open question whether the French possess a sense of humor (this article suggests that they don’t).
Can you imagine a Bill Hicks rant in French? I'm not sure it would even be possible.
Posted by: shonk at February 14, 2004 05:06 PM"Une fois j'ai visité l'Australie et tous m'ont demandé: "Êtes-vous fier d'être américain? Et j'ai répondé: "Uh, je ne sais pas, j'ai été exclus de cette décision. Mes parents s'y sont baisés, c'est tout. J'étais dans la domaîne spirituelle; j'ai dit: "Baisez à Paris! Baisez à Paris!" Mais ils ne pouvaient pas m'éntendre, parce que je n'avais pas une bouche. J'étais un esprit sans des poumons ou une bouche ou des cordes vocales. Ils se sont baisés là-bas. D'accord, je suis fier."
I say it sounds less angry and more cynical and dirty. What do you think?
Posted by: Curt at February 14, 2004 05:59 PMDefinitely. Especially this:
“Baisez à Paris! Baisez à Paris!”
Posted by: shonk at February 14, 2004 06:59 PMI view patriotism as an irrational commitment. There is much that's good in America by the standard of my life and my values and I have an affinity for that good. But that's simple self-int, not patriotism.
Posted by: John T. Kennedy at February 14, 2004 07:23 PMI view patriotism as an irrational commitment.
Can't someone be fond of his country's (not government's) history, traditions, culture, etc without being irrational?
Posted by: Jonathan Wilde at February 14, 2004 10:20 PMI view patriotism as an irrational commitment.
Can't someone be fond of his country's (not government's) history, traditions, culture, etc without being irrational?
Posted by: Jonathan Wilde at February 14, 2004 10:26 PM"Can’t someone be fond of his country’s (not government’s) history, traditions, culture, etc without being irrational?"
Sure, if those things are valuable in and of themselves. If one values them simply because they are from one's country, then I'd say that's irrational.
Posted by: John Lopez at February 15, 2004 02:00 AM"Can’t someone be fond of his country’s (not government’s) history, traditions, culture, etc without being irrational?"
Sure Jon, but I dispute that that's patriotism.
I'm fond of America for many reasons but it would be irrational to be loyal to it. Fidelity to principle is someting else, but again I dispute that it's patriotism.
Posted by: John T. Kennedy at February 15, 2004 03:45 AMI fall into those aforementioned anti this and that groups, but don't start thinking "oh god, one of those bastards is going to start ranting about how I'm wrong all over the place". Quite the contrary in fact, I agree with you. Peace is patriotism? Since when?! Peace is peace. Patriotism is nothing more than having love for a clump of dirt and disliking any other clumps of dirt that make their home on this planet. It's not peace at all. I'm sorry that people are begining to say things that are blaintenly dim witted on the oposite side. I think it's partly because being against bush and the actions he has taken is becoming somewhat fashionable. I'm not trying to make excuses, but some people just start prattling off because they've heard someone like that girl from the young and the restless who sided with sean penn talk about not liking the un-named wars that we've been in, and they go into "wow i heard someone famous say it on tv so i'll start talking without knowing what the fuck i'm talking about" overdrive. It's the same sort of rhetoric that bush uses to push things by, like you said, drapping himself and his cause in the flag. My personal favorite is the one from bowling for columbine where bush says "one way for the people of this country to express our unity is to have congress pass the law making the military budget our number one priority." or something along that line. It's exactly how you said it. If people are going to be against things then they shouldn't become them.
Posted by: Alyssa at April 10, 2004 08:24 PMPowered by Movable Type 2.661
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