you got your patriotism in my nationalism! (you got your nationalism in my patriotism!)

In class, DKJ says “it’s not just American propaganda, it’s Norwegian propaganda, it’s Swiss propaganda, it’s Russian propaganda; it’s universal.”

So why is it so hard to make all our varying propagandas compliment each other? Not universalize the propaganda, but universalize the understanding of the propaganda.

The Iraq war:
Iraqis have a sense of patriotism. They love their country, as Americans love America. (Although this to me is difficult to say, because there are so many different types of Americans because there are different Americas: Canadians are Americans; Mexicans are Americans; Peruvians are Americans; yet they all have their own names in association with their countries. Individuals from the United States of America are not the only “Americans.”) REFOCUS! To think that Iraqis are looking at the American infiltration, or “liberation” as the American government would like to believe it to be, as a good thing, as a liberation from their government, is insane. How would we in the United States feel if Canada decided that they needed to “liberate” us, because they don’t feel we have control of our own country. We would feel violated. We would feel as though our validity as a country had been tainted and abused. Canadians would be being patriotic, and sharing their patriotism with the U.S., but we in the U.S., would feel tainted, and our patriotism would be viewed as askew and even terrorist by the Canadians that are trying to “liberate” us. Oh wait, our patriotism is terrorism to the Iraqis…and theirs is patriotism to us.

So maybe patriotism does not need to be universalized. But, like I mentioned before, the respect of it needs to be universalized. Let Americans be proud to be Americans. Let Iraqis be proud to be Iraqis. And don’t try and liberate anybody!