Collegiate Times

The past month or so seems jam-packed with days devoted to patriotic fervor. Bastille Day has just passed us and the Fourth was not too long before that. Perhaps there are other periods as dense with nationalistic celebration but, from my Western-centric point of view, these particular holidays strike me as unique both in their importance and in their being popularly memorable. I confess that, despite the drudgery of many years of French lessons in school and subsequently in college, I have never visited France, nor any Francophone country for that matter. I have, however, visited the United States — indeed I have lived here now for some six years — and have experienced the Fourth, and the unique brand of American patriotism, on many occasions.

I know how this looks like it's shaping up. Non-American goes on anti-American rant - film at eleven. And you're probably right to be skeptical about the fair-mindedness of non-Americans talking about America; the way Americans celebrate the Fourth does strike many Europeans, and possibly the residents of other continents too, as strangely prideful. I remember when I first arrived in the United States, driving from the airport, I was struck by the sheer number of flags on display on private residences. Things are not like this in the UK - well, sort of, but more on that in a moment. But we all know how people respond to things that are different, don't we?

However, I think, or, at least, like to think that the reaction I had was more than simply one of culture shock and that I can actually explain why things seemed odd to me.

The purpose of a flag, to me, had always been to demarcate one location or affiliation from another but this could not be the case here since all of these suburban houses were unambiguously on American soil. Proudly displaying the flag on the day that marks the independence of the United States, and thus the birth of the flag (in some form), from the British Empire made sense to me but draping it from one's house year-round did not.

Recently an American friend of mine proposed, to complicate this thought of mine, that perhaps the rationale for the publicity the flag typically receives in day-to-day American life is that the flag is simply beautiful on its face, rather than richly symbolic of a deeper patriotism. This may indeed be true and he offered up some truly novel anecdotal evidence relating the displaying of U.S. state flags and their apparent or perceived attractiveness but I'm not completely persuaded.

Despite my apparent protestations, the flag displays are eerily familiar to how things are in my neck of the woods: Northern Ireland. As you may know, Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the UK, has been the site of ethnic conflict between Protestants identifying with Britain and Catholics identifying with the Republic of Ireland. As a result of this identity conflict: some Protestants fly Union flags (don't call it a Union Jack unless it's aboard a ship, thank you very much) in their neighborhoods and some Catholics fly the Irish Tricolor in theirs. They even paint the curbs that line their streets the respective colors to mark out territory. This is exactly what a flag is for.

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