> Oftentimes, though, peer pressures, if not laws, make it feel as if
> we were living in the times of the Corporation and Test Acts (Cf.
> <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Ltest.htm>) -- you either take
> the sacrament of patriotism ritualistically or else will be at least
> excluded from public office, Kiwanis clubs, etc. (or worse).
You are very right. I dislike participating in patriotic rituals, but feel that I have to sometimes. Long march through the institutions, eh? The mustard seed planted on barren ground?
Jacob Conrad