I've been thinking about the whole Flag thing lately, and I'm beginning to wonder if we've had it wrong this whole time.
When we (Canadians) come to the U.S., I think we tend to be struck by the number of flags, and associate that with a fervent nationalism. But I'm beginning to wonder if that's an assumption -- Culture 101 says we use symbols for lots of reasons.
Here's a thought: don't we deck the halls each year with Christmas paraphernalia? For a whole month? A visitor coming to Canada at Christmas would assume that Canada was an extremely religious Christian society.
The little Anthropologist in my ear (who's in Vancouver now, by the way) would probably roll her eyes and patiently explain that the flag means different things for different people at different times in different contexts.
Fair enough, but I'm still curious: does the national flag as emblem mean something different in Canada than the U.S.? Is the quantity of flags in the U.S. significant in terms of patriotic pride, or is it just a more versatile symbol?
No comments:
Post a Comment