Anthem

As one might assume, I tend to have the usual lefty insouciance toward sacred icons, including flags and anthems and ceremonies and such. Not that I dislike or disrespect those things themselves; I'm not talking about throwing on a Free Mumia shirt and lecturing passersby about Columbus exterminating the Indians, man, every time I see the Stars and Stripes.

What I have little patience for is the way in which many people choose to mindlessly hump these totems, as if to absolve themselves from the arduous work of, say, paying attention or being honest with themselves. The thing becomes a substitute for thinking, and turns into a mere accessory for the lifelong spectator. It becomes empty symbolism in those circumstances. I would, for example, be in favor of a flag-burning amendment, so long as it was taken to its logical conclusion, and also prohibited competitive eaters and assorted losers from using it as a t-shirt or a doo-rag. But then, for people like that, concepts such as patriotism and national pride are merely accessories to be worn at convenient moments.

Such is the contrived hoo-ha over NBA forward Josh Howard being caught on a cell phone disrespecting the national anthem before a charity game. Does Howard come off as a spoiled, ignorant asshole? Sure. Is it a big deal? Um, no. Don't tell anyone, but the world happens to be full of assholes.

And the writer makes a very good point about the overt conflation between organized sports events and nationalist rituals, which in a mob can be rather coercive in nature. But you wouldn't know it from reading the "comments", most of which are barely literate, and some which read as if they were cribbed from the wall of an Aryan Nations outhouse.

There's no logical reason to precede every game with these rituals, nor is there any reason for the Yankees to compel participation by chaining off the stairs during the seventh-inning rendition of God Bless America. But we go through it because we're told to, because everyone else is doing it, etc. And instead of finding meaning in these compulsory doxologies, we then go right back to whatever we were doing.

Maybe it would be better if we were left the hell alone at recreational activities, and were pestered at home to do meaningful things on an individual level, instead of engaging in these collective distractions. None of these things mean anything if people don't actually live them.