[lbo-talk] American Religion (Was Irrationality of the Masses)

[jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net]

> Wendy Lyon wrote:
> 
> >> Not my experience in Canada, either, where most people would describe
> >> themselves as "Canadian nationalists", but don't worship their country 
> >> with
> >> the same blind fervour as many Americans.
> >
> > Well, I think that nationalism expresses itself in different ways in
> > different nations, and one country's particular means of expression
> > may be misinterpreted outside its borders.  An Irish friend of mine
> > once told me that she viewed Canadians as "stupidly nationalistic", on
> > account of their tendency to plaster the maple leaf all over
> > themselves whenever they leave North America.
> --------------------------------
> Heh. Did you ever wonder why they do so "whenever they leave North 
> America"?. They sport the maple leaf very self-consciously so as not to be 
> mistaken for Americans, who are not liked abroad. People joke about it. 
> Inside the country, there are very few ostentatious displays of the Canadian 
> flag on cars, lapels, or in front of homes, except during the world hockey 
> championships.
> 
> Let me amend that. A very ugly Canadian nationalism, with a lot of 
> flag-waving and anthem-singing and not a small dose of racism, does assert 
> itself whenever there is an independence referendum in Quebec. That's when I 
> get a good sense of the alienation my American friends feel on a daily basis 
> south of the border.
> 
> Marvin Gandall 

The story that Canadians plaster the flag as a way to point out that they 
are not Americans, and therefore not "one of the worlds oppressors" is 
pretty well taken for granted but I'm not so sure it's true. When my uncle 
hopped around South America and Africa between '47 and '52 he 
noticed that Canadians tended to put their flag on their backpacks, 
motorcycles and some of their clothing. Granted he didn't encounter 
thousands of Canadians in his wanderings but enough that he noticed 
the maple leaf on practically every Canadian and commented on it in his 
journals at the time. Americans were hardly reviled world wide so soon 
after WWII.

John Thornton