If you believe everything you hear, ‘flag waving’ and ‘patriotism’ are the root of all evil. But actually, such a view is itself founded upon white supremacy.
One thing that was noticed by one of my favorite writers a long time ago, G K Chesterton, is that the demonisation of ‘flag wavers’ is based on a profound moral inconsistency. It’s OK for the Irish or people in Africa, but not for others. In more current terms, many would call that relativism: aka, different standards for different people!
And so it was that in the era of imperialism, anti-patriotism was purely a matter of selective outrage. It is impossible for any remotely rational person to conceive of how anti-patriotism and anti-imperialism could both be right. One necessarily cancels out there other: if you’re anti-patriotism, then you are by necessity pro imperialism, because basic logical, moral and practical consistency demands you demonise the national liberation struggles of those in Zambia, or Ghana, or Xinjiang, or Taiwan.
We can clearly see then that Chesterton was someone who himself took up the deeply patriotic cause of anti imperialism; which by implication is also an anti-racist cause as well! That said, people have however raised the question of Chesterton’s own racist attitudes, such as his antisemitism for example. But whatever his consistencies and moral failings, it is clear that anti-imperialism and patriotism are natural allies. Patriotism, by definition, implies conscientious striving for moral improvement, rather than the complacent arrogance and moral indifference of national chauvinism and racism. Countries are a work in progress; not unlike specific individuals like Chesterton or indeed Orwell, who actually wrote a punishingly honest essay about his own moral failings with regard to Jews.
But if the media and the neoliberals and other rogue ideological fanatics and bourgeois roaders still insist on criticising ‘flag wavers’ and ‘patriots,’ they how can they be anything other than profoundly racist against Stormzy, who went on stage with a modified Union Jack to protest against racism against black people?
When out of touch filter bubble idiots like the BBC criticise ‘flag wavers’ and ‘patriotism,’ both of their criticisms are by necessity directed against Stormzy.
Stormzy took the courage to go on stage and wear a modified Union Jack to point out the existing problems of racism in the UK. The flag was monochrome, showing in a very stark manner, the continuing problems of this kind.
Is Stormzy now to be demonised for seeking a better moral voice for the country?
Does his patriotism and his desire to redeem the flag rather than burn it now now make him persona non grata?
I love this country, and it’s because I love it and don’t need it, that we need to do a WHOLE LOT BETTER.
Is there any real way to read what he did other than this?
One journalist says:
Stormzy is fiercely proud of his black British identity and the culture that made it possible. It is in every affect, from his diction to his dress.
But of course, the flag burners want to burn Stormzy. They see no difference between Stormzy and Morrissey, who had a much less edifying Union Jack stunt some years ago: although some might have dismissed both the song and his notorious 1992 Finsbury park stunt as a prank, he only seems to go further down the rabbithole over time.
If you see no difference between the authentic patriotism and morally serious flag waving of Stormzy, and the plastic patriotism and hypocritical desecration of the flag by Morrissey, then maybe you’re the real racists?
Just a thought…
WHITE SUPREMACIST MUCH???
Oh and while we’re at it.
Presumably Hong Kongers, Tibetans and Kurds are to be considered haters for taking pride in their flag, their heritage, their history too?
It just doesn’t make any sense at all.
True patriotism has nothing to do with saying the country can’t be criticised.
Racism and imperialism and national chauvinism are, by imperishable moral necessity, deeply unpatriotic.
Indeed, they are a form of treason!
Racists, warmongers, colonialists and British supremacists are enemies of the people.
So, don’t be fooled by elitist purple property intellectuals in their Southern bubbles. Anti flag waving is not only anti human nature, it’s also profoundly racist; every bit as much as racism and the associated moral disease I’ve just mentioned (like warmongering) are racist.
And one of the most disturbing elements of the racism from these racist elements to open up a vacuum where idiots like Nick Griffin or Paul Golding to try and co-opt and monopolise the flag.
Anyone who conflates legimate, healthy, universalist, pluralist patriotism with national chauvinism and racism is empowering the National Front, the BNP, the KKK, Britain First and other thug groups.
Idiots like David Duke, Richard Spencer, Nick Griffin and Paul Golding like to lay claim to some kind of ‘alternative wokeness.’ This kind of elitism from failed intellectuals is perfectly echoed in the ‘standard issue wokeness’ of their neoliberal and otherwise woke counterparts.
Both kinds of wokeness amount to the same thing in the end:
Making perfectly natural, universal human instincts the domain of some of the very worst and most corrupt and hateful elements in society.
If we have to choose between the establishment elites vs thugs like white nationalists and fascists, I for one refuse the bargain.
I’m with Stormzy.
True patriotism is pluralism.
True patriotism is universalism.
Anyone who says otherwise is a useful idiot for white supremacy!
NB: As always, the views expressed above are solely those of the author and do not represent anyone else.
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