>On Tue, 2 Jul 2002, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > Most apartment bldgs in nonpoor neighborhoods of Manhattan have flags
> > displayed - a real shocker, in this hotbed of secular humanism.
>
>But nationalism was the original secular humanism, no? And in its origins
>it was consciously meant to be a substitute religion -- to replace god
>with society, and the the worship of god with the worship of the nation.
>
>Michael
civil religion. and the argument, as i've advanced it here before, is that all groups, but especially large groups, must evoke common meanings that they attribute to symbols such as flags, clothing, hand gestures, and other symbols that become part of their collective engagement with one another and their sense of identity with those others, others whom they'll never meet but feel an affinity with.
i think it's a real hoot that recently chuck0 tells us that the waves of patriotism that manifested themselves shortly after 911 were about showing signs of solidarity with fellow americans, but the flag doesn't seem to be open to such an interpretation. until one actually _knows_ why people put flags up, i'd say it's a little hard to maintain that they are about the kind of patriotism he, joe g. and, of course, i reject. as i said months ago, i suspect the flag means something quite different from blind support for the govt and the like.
i don't have time to lookit up, but there has been plenty of research on what people mean when they raise the flag, what it symbolizes for them.
kelley