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Writing on the Stall
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 A Note From the Captain In the last issue, there was quite a bit of talk about the over-zealous, blindly patriotic approach to the recent events in New York. I think it should be known that Writing on the Stall has always stood for telling the truth, and the truth is that we must not allow ourselves to be taken in by popular sentiments. Regardless of the rest of society, we should maintain a realistic outlook on life. Now, this approach has been called callous, cynical, rude, you name it, but I call it honest. Cleo wrote an incredible article on the subject of patriotism in this issue that you should read. However, I think the lesson to be learned from this goes beyond patriotism. It extends to all areas where emotions have been exaggerated to such a high degree by the public that one can't help feeling they ought to be as emotional as their neighbor. The most popular medium to perpetrate this insidious phenomenon is the ribbon. I'm not going to criticize you if you are wearing one, but I can't help feeling it smacks of desperation when you have to advertise your emotion and prove your support. With that, I leave you with the lyrics to Galactic Cowboys' Ribbon. quoting creeds of correctness cast in cannons of care convoluted compassion commiserating despair pin a ribbon on my heart if it proves I really care pin a ribbon on the air wearing walls within windows where all wishes are weighed wanted wages unwilling while we watch on with dismay  The Good News is I’m not a Communist… Some irreverent thoughts on baseball, apple pie, motherhood, and all other sundry reasons we wave flags by Cleo Perhaps, like all good personality flaws, it began in my lonely and neglected childhood . As a child I was, |
shall we say, less than athletic1. This meant that whenever we played baseball in P.E. I played left field…deep left field. No one ever managed to hit the ball that far (we were, after all, only ten or so), so this coveted position gave me plenty of time to think. It was here that I reached one very important conclusion: I hate baseball. This was, and continues to be, a rather subversive philosophy. Baseball is, after all, the great American pastime2. Eventually I also realized that apple pie kinda sucks…gooseberry is much better. And motherhood? Please don’t get me started. Needless to say, these revelations called into question my entire upbringing as a loyal, patriotic American, and I reached a rather startling conclusion: Patriotism creeps me out. Let me begin by saying that, though I do not consider myself in the least patriotic, I have a healthy appreciation for freedom, for the Constitution, and particularly for the Bill of Rights. These things are really what, as the patriotic yahoos would say, “make America great.” If we are to have an ounce of nationalistic pride, let it be for these reasons. That being said lets move on to the specific reasons patriotism is creepy. Patriotism involves feelings of national superiority. If the slogan “America—love it or leave it” has just crawled out of your mouth, allow me a moment of justification. America is a decent place to live; I’m not about to move to Abu Dhabi. But I cannot be blind to our nation’s flaws. Things like corruption, human rights violations, racism, classism, and other evils we attribute to other nations, happen right here too. We are not the great international moral force we pretend to be. These feelings of superiority are based on what I consider to be very shaky ground. Furthermore, national superiority breeds evil actions. Allow a brief oversimplification: if I think that I’m better than you, it gives me license to treat you unfairly. If one nation considers itself to be “God’s chosen people” or the perfect race or the ideal government, or whatever, history has shown that this nation will soon attempt to impose its will and its vision on others. I know everyone’s tired of Hitler analogies…but, hey, we also have Vietnam and Korea and other examples closer to home. Patriotism involves too much blind enthusiasm for my personal comfort. Patriotism involves a fair amount of emotional appeal. People unify behind a cause, an identity. This is very, very appealing to us as emotional individuals. How does this influence us as thinking, rational beings? When was the last time you heard logic proofs of the value of one political candidate versus another? When was the last time you heard military action justified in an intellectual manner? Instead we answer logical questions with still more flag waving. When it comes to politics and government, our brains rather than our emotions ought to reign supreme. In fact, freedom itself is based on the idea that the man on the street is capable of rational thought and the ability to make wise and appropriate decisions. It is, therefore, wrong, to replace this with blind enthusiasm for some ethereal cause. ______________________________ 1Just in case my mother is reading this…no, it’s not your fault. You’re not a bad parent…of course half of my non-jock genes are yours… 2I believe that it was Bob Hope who observed that sex is the national pastime of Tahiti and that we as Americans have really made a piss-poor choice of pastimes, comparatively speaking. |
