In America's desperate search for a religion of any kind, many have latched onto patriotism and the American flag as their preferred ways to find Jesus. Just now there's the decennial ranting about burning of the American flag is a heinous act punishable by law. That's come back every ten years since the hippie days. Republicans are nothing if not predictable.
But so what if anyone burns a flag. If it bugs you that much, I'll run down to Wal-Mart and get another one for ten bucks. Would that satisfy your aching heart?
Who cares if it's free speech or it's not; it just doesn't fucking matter and your Big Book warns specifically about making icons of things.
As is my decennial wont, I threw out a question asking people about what aspects of America make you proud but don't relate to the flag or the military. There was only one response and it came from my submariner friend from elementary school in Davis.
He listed off a number of things including the Internet and Caterpillar construction but I don't identify with them and I would be surprised if many do. He also suggested the Man on the Moon project and that I do see as part of the national character, except for what the Pentagon has done to the space program.
Many Americans identify with the space program and partly that's from the aspect of supremacy with Amerika über alles but, in this case, it was earned the hardest possible way and everyone felt like we were part of it.
That's the kind of thing I try to find since there aren't many good answers if you ask people to identify the national character of America; what gives the country a national pride.
Even though Germans can be hilarious, they often take a dodgy pride in their phlegmatic manner as a people who love, love, love their bureaucracy. Maybe that's something of their national character but maybe German engineering goes more to it since they take some pride in when they make something then they make it right.
Ed: every decent engineer wants that!
Fair enough but Germans seem to bring a little extra to it and that's why people buy Mercs.
Ed: America is too big for a national character!
Perhaps that's true and probably not a small number would say it's 'too big for its britches' but Russia is huge and seems fairly unified. They take the same dodgy pride in their stolid manner as Germans take in theirs but Vlad will still doff his shirt to make you laugh or lust as your case may be.
America has a generic nipple fear and Chelsea Handler enjoys ridiculing it.
That puritanical nipple fear can be hilarious on Facebook where people get so outraged over them. We do it for the children, you know.
Note: sure you do, you big ol' tub of economy-size margarine. You're jealous down to your toenails.
There's not much pride in Puritanism and America invented that one. Good job.
There's some measure of national pride in rock although that's shared with Brits. Germans kill at it but they also came up with krautrock which was their high-synth anti-rock. They still rocked hard but not with a row of guitarists across the front of the stage. I do have a high regard for krautrock and many of the bands which are part of it but there are also times when I'm thinking, fuck it, guitar bands are what I learned, what I like, and I'm fuckin' doing it.
That national pride is shared but it's still an identifiable thing in Western music. The Southern Rock bands took it too far since, even if you liked guitar bands, many thought they were too much of it. People almost certainly regard Southern Rock as American but that's back to a regional pride rather than a national one.
Cadillac Man has identified soda fountains as something with a uniquely American character but then it gets confusing as to whether this is national pride, nostalgia, or some of both.
Ed: you lost me with Chelsea Handler's nipples.
That's always a risk.
There's no punchline to this offering and there's nothing facetious about it. I really am curious about things Americans identify as 'part of me, part of my identity' and which don't have anything to do with the flag or the military. Militaristic pride is common to anywhere and having more of it has not typically been a good thing for whichever country has done it. Therefore, there's the interest in the other kind.
But so what if anyone burns a flag. If it bugs you that much, I'll run down to Wal-Mart and get another one for ten bucks. Would that satisfy your aching heart?
Who cares if it's free speech or it's not; it just doesn't fucking matter and your Big Book warns specifically about making icons of things.
As is my decennial wont, I threw out a question asking people about what aspects of America make you proud but don't relate to the flag or the military. There was only one response and it came from my submariner friend from elementary school in Davis.
He listed off a number of things including the Internet and Caterpillar construction but I don't identify with them and I would be surprised if many do. He also suggested the Man on the Moon project and that I do see as part of the national character, except for what the Pentagon has done to the space program.
Many Americans identify with the space program and partly that's from the aspect of supremacy with Amerika über alles but, in this case, it was earned the hardest possible way and everyone felt like we were part of it.
That's the kind of thing I try to find since there aren't many good answers if you ask people to identify the national character of America; what gives the country a national pride.
Even though Germans can be hilarious, they often take a dodgy pride in their phlegmatic manner as a people who love, love, love their bureaucracy. Maybe that's something of their national character but maybe German engineering goes more to it since they take some pride in when they make something then they make it right.
Ed: every decent engineer wants that!
Fair enough but Germans seem to bring a little extra to it and that's why people buy Mercs.
Ed: America is too big for a national character!
Perhaps that's true and probably not a small number would say it's 'too big for its britches' but Russia is huge and seems fairly unified. They take the same dodgy pride in their stolid manner as Germans take in theirs but Vlad will still doff his shirt to make you laugh or lust as your case may be.
America has a generic nipple fear and Chelsea Handler enjoys ridiculing it.
That puritanical nipple fear can be hilarious on Facebook where people get so outraged over them. We do it for the children, you know.
Note: sure you do, you big ol' tub of economy-size margarine. You're jealous down to your toenails.
There's not much pride in Puritanism and America invented that one. Good job.
There's some measure of national pride in rock although that's shared with Brits. Germans kill at it but they also came up with krautrock which was their high-synth anti-rock. They still rocked hard but not with a row of guitarists across the front of the stage. I do have a high regard for krautrock and many of the bands which are part of it but there are also times when I'm thinking, fuck it, guitar bands are what I learned, what I like, and I'm fuckin' doing it.
That national pride is shared but it's still an identifiable thing in Western music. The Southern Rock bands took it too far since, even if you liked guitar bands, many thought they were too much of it. People almost certainly regard Southern Rock as American but that's back to a regional pride rather than a national one.
Cadillac Man has identified soda fountains as something with a uniquely American character but then it gets confusing as to whether this is national pride, nostalgia, or some of both.
Ed: you lost me with Chelsea Handler's nipples.
That's always a risk.
There's no punchline to this offering and there's nothing facetious about it. I really am curious about things Americans identify as 'part of me, part of my identity' and which don't have anything to do with the flag or the military. Militaristic pride is common to anywhere and having more of it has not typically been a good thing for whichever country has done it. Therefore, there's the interest in the other kind.
5 comments:
Hate to always be a negative comment but aside from the Shenker brothers german rock is such a small niche and it isnt very appealing.
There are several bands like Ramstein and KMFDM but they maybe listed as industrial rock.
PS I am not a big believer in the labels in music as I find there are only two kinds good and bad
Flag desecration isnt really a donkey/elephant issue.
I find it offensive which it is meant to be but I believe most people feel the same way. Very few countries around the world allow flag desecration.
I find that the eople burning the flag are the same ones that are too lazy to actually organize well enough to mount a true demonstration and plan that could actually effect change.
Now I'm pissed (larfs).
German rock was such a small niche?? Nightwish is from Finland but they're on the same bus and they're one of the most bad ass rock bands ever. By size, there's no way they could match America's volume and they really didn't get into the game until Scorpions but they're regarded as mainstream now. It just ain't fair (larfs).
That 'every country does it' isn't an argument to me since many countries tolerate surgery on an infant's genitals and that kind of tribal witch doctor barbarism defies description.
No disagreement flag burners don't have much of an act. They're high in passion but low in eloquence. In my view, it's generally bad taste but doesn't mean anything except to those who use patriotism as a weapon. We have seen that in the attempted beatdown of Kaepernick. Be patriotic, you mongrel bastard. They do that but don't understand why he won't.
Scorpions is another guitar band not Krautrock.
That everyone else does it is important if it is a defensible position. And using genital mutilation as an retort is hardly a decent comparision since it isnt defensible and there are not an overwhelming majority of countries practicing it
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