Since my rant on nationalism/patriotism in The Stud gets a new passport, the observation of patriotism has become a growing theme of my year abroad, both at home and in America. Taking a momentary break from travel, I now find myself thrust back into fray of politics, culture and the endlessly fascinating comparison of America and England.
The first example is of patriotism is the royal wedding. Prince William married Kate Middleton and, while he is likely to be the next King (screw Charles), what really has changed? Not much, and one could argue that point even if it was his coronation, or if he was directly next in line. Of course, people went mad in England, but there were many who found it all a bit of a fuss, much ado about nothing. I personally know some English family friends who flew to America to visit my parents because they wanted to miss all the fuss of the royal wedding; now if that is not desperation, what is? It is unfortunate for them that, from all reports, the royal wedding was a larger deal in the States than here. Personally, I did not watch it.
But as I woke up on the morning of the second of May, I read a bunch of ambiguous facebook statuses regarding Bin Laden and was asked to ‘like’ ‘Now that’s how the US outdoes a Royal Wedding.’ I hopped onto BBC.co.uk and, sure enough, I read for the time, Bin Laden had been killed.
Both events have inspired great amounts of joy (I guess that is the right word, I’m not sure) and patriotism, both in England and America. The traditional English revelled in the marriage of Prince William, but more in the pageantry and distinguished honour of the royal wedding, a sentiment that I feel matches the reason for the existence of the monarchy. The monarchy does nothing, but it looks honourable and distinguished. The Queen “rules” in theory, but has no official power and no official duty besides looking nice, in a national, symbolic sense.
But now onto Bin Laden’s death. It has brought out many facebook statuses, profile pics of the American flag, the works. It seems patriotism is a drug best served lazily. Are we so overjoyed that we dedicate one facebook update to Bin Laden’s death. If you’re so overjoyed, plant a tree or some shit, I don’t know. But what strikes me odd about this ordeal is that all this patriotism comes at the hands of the death of one man. I wrote extensively about America’s lust for power, intolerance to appear at all weak/ coke addiction in American terrorism and a subsequent comment, so it strikes me odd that A) we define our national image by who we have killed and B) that all this hubbub comes down to Bin Laden. I mean, we still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan ... just saying. Today, outside the White House, crowds chanted "USA! USA!," for hours on end.
I would like to say that, despite being adamantly opposed to the death penalty, I don’t give a fuck that we killed him. In some perverse manner, I think it is better that he resisted arrest and got shot doing so, instead of getting captured, tried and hanged. I think back to Saddam’s capture and execution. As barbaric as that practice is, it was more barbaric that so many people watched it on youtube. If Saddam brought out so much hate in Americans that they craved the opportunity to watch him die, what sentiments would Bin Laden’s execution bring out of Americans? There were parties in the street for the Royal Wedding, would there be parties celebrating Bin Laden’s execution? That's not far-fetched, we're already celebrating his death. If so many of us watched Saddam’s death on youtube, would the DVD of Bin Laden’s hanging sell more copies than The Lion King?
So England’s (probable) future King just got married and America killed their most wanted criminal, ten years later, not in a cave, in Islamabad. The cynicism in me would ask if all of the deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq were worth it, but I won’t go there, Bin Laden's death (to an undeniable, if small, extent) has made the world safer. Rather, I would just like to juxtapose the pride, the glory and the patriotism behind these two events; for, after these events, we as citizens, now feel a greater sense of self-image and all our bad feelings have turned into good feelings.
I could ask, what does it say about America that we measure our national pride by who we’ve killed when England measures it on meaningless ceremony, and I could rant (once again) about how depressing it is that America has rested their self-identity on the death of a terrorist for the past 10 years, but I won’t. Rather, I just find it interesting the way that people get their fix from patriotism. I’m not going to say that England or America’s showing of patriotism is better than the other, but all I would really ask is that my readers think about why they feel the way they feel. The Royal Wedding is undisguised, meaningless patriotism for the sake of patriotism, but my area of concern or suggestion of disingenuousness is that Bin Laden’s death is disguised as national security, but, make no mistake about it, both events have produced the same high. Do you really feel safer that Bin Laden has been killed? If that's the truth, have we been holding our breath for the last 10 years? Or have we just gone on with life, thinking "that sun-bitch better run n' hide." Or is that, 10 years and thousands of deaths later, we’ve finally got the man we’re after; we can now spare our blushes? Does this mean we’re leaving the Middle East? Such a question seemed idealistic at times, stupid at others, but irrelevant always and that’s what is most depressing. Simply put, Bin Laden's death means absolutely nothing to me if it is not a step forward for bringing our troops home; and, right now, I see little signs of that ever happening ... LW
No comments:
Post a Comment