Flag and crown

 

It is claimed that the proliferation of national flags is a spontaneous expression of patriotism, and not a nurtured meme creating a hostile space.   

A reasoned debate about this is probably not possible.  The sudden growth or extensive deployment of national flags normally only takes place in contested space, although there are examples (the USA is the obvious one) where it is simply normative.

But there is a subtle aspect of this which I haven’t seen commented upon.  The proliferation of national flags is actually in part about the Americanisation of our culture, as our culture unconsciously evolves under the effects of media representations.

I’ve observed before the way that school balls are now called ‘proms’, schedule is often pronounced ‘skedule’, and bridesmaids often walk ahead of brides.  It is what we have heard and seen, and what we’ve allowed to colonise our language and habits.

So, in this context, it is important to recognise that the flag actually performs a very similar function in the USA to that of the crown in our own culture.

When loyalty is sworn formally, it is to the flag in one place and to the crown in the other.  The contrasting National Anthems focus on the star spangled banner and on the King.  The British can be puzzled by American flag etiquette, Americans when they see Britains bow to the monarch.

Which doesn’t mean the Union Flag and the American Head of State are not highly visible and don’t have significant respect shown to them.  It is subtley more important to realise that they haven’t ever really performed the same function as their equivalents on the other side of the Atlantic.

So the desire to have a flag on every drive now is, in part, an unconscious desire to be more like the Americans, a simply norm which has been absorbed from them. 

As well as being, for some, far from an unconscious wish to replicate aspects of current American political opinion – such as aligning with the way the American Head of State and Deputy Head of State call out what they identify as our approach to free speech.

Which leaves aside the issue of the universal display of the Head of State's portrait which is often an indication that a dictator is in power.  

And leaves aside the what those of us who fly the national flag from church towers know: even the best quality flag is eventually blown to pieces.  Cheap material only really works for the display of a flag during, say, the brief period of a football tournament.