Beach patriot

I grew up in Italy, where patriotism is not overtly expressed. The only time you will see lots of Italian flags waving about is when Italy wins the WorldIMG_1004 Soccer Cup. And perhaps on a few other occasions.

The opposite is true here in the U.S. There are flags everywhere. I don’t mean that in a negative sense, eh, please don’t get me wrong. It’s just different, that’s all.

But…a flag stuck on top of a…beach umbrella?

2 Comments

  1. I think in Europe generally you see fewer flags flown because we have grown up with the idea that patriotism is the same as nationalism. Two World Wars in half a century led people to believe that “flying the flag” was bad news.
    Things are different now. I don’t know what it is like in Italy but we probably see as many foreign flags flying here as Union Jacks. This is the result of successive British governments preaching “multi-culturalism” for the last 60 years. The danger is that this can lead to a divided society not a cohesive one.
    Personally, I think the US has got it right. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your culture and your country and showing it by flying the flag. I think that this is why the US, a country built from immigrants, has a stronger culture than the UK.
    However, it is important to remember that politicians will often try to highjack a strong patriotic culture for nationalistic purposes. That is when the World gets dangerous.

  2. When I had my port put in, the nurse told me (I don’t remember how we got on the subject) that houses in the US that fly flags are 40% less likely to be broken into, probably because crooks think the flag-flyers are conservatives, and more likely to have guns…and more likely to use them.

    I think they guess correctly.

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