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Feb. 9th, 2004 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
I know it's stupid, and perhaps morally wrong, but I'm still tempted to support a constitutional amendment for banning the public burning of the American flag. Here's why.
When I was a kid there were a thousand taboos, things you just couldn't do, although there was no reason to prohibit them. There really were Seven Words you Couldn't Say on Television. You could be arrested, here anyway, for cursing in front of children. Using the Social Finger could get you arrested for assault or for creating a public disturbance.
Thanks to our buddies in the ACLU all these things are allowed now. The Seven Words are used more on television than any other. If, in driving to work, you don't get the finger or are not sorely tempted to give it, you're very lucky or you're some sort of saint. And cursing isn't a good enough way to express outrage any more. If you're really ticked about something, you have to set fire to a Hummer dealership, or pull your pistol and shoot the guy who cut you off at the red light, or plant a bomb somewhere.
So let's pick something stupid and harmless, like burning the flag, and ban it. Now the protesters can say "Hey, dude, we're going to protest and burn flags!" The media shows up, the cops wade in with their nightsticks and break a few heads, make a few arrests.
The cops get to beat somebody up. The protesters get to be the martyrs they always wanted to be. The Left gets to tut-tut and feel good because the US has been proven to be the evil repressive society they always said it was. The Right gets to feel good that someone is finally standing up for Family Values. The Press gets juicy footage to drive up the ratings.
Everyone gets what they want, everyone's happy, and nobody has to fly an airliner into a skyscraper.
It's worth thinking about.
When I was a kid there were a thousand taboos, things you just couldn't do, although there was no reason to prohibit them. There really were Seven Words you Couldn't Say on Television. You could be arrested, here anyway, for cursing in front of children. Using the Social Finger could get you arrested for assault or for creating a public disturbance.
Thanks to our buddies in the ACLU all these things are allowed now. The Seven Words are used more on television than any other. If, in driving to work, you don't get the finger or are not sorely tempted to give it, you're very lucky or you're some sort of saint. And cursing isn't a good enough way to express outrage any more. If you're really ticked about something, you have to set fire to a Hummer dealership, or pull your pistol and shoot the guy who cut you off at the red light, or plant a bomb somewhere.
So let's pick something stupid and harmless, like burning the flag, and ban it. Now the protesters can say "Hey, dude, we're going to protest and burn flags!" The media shows up, the cops wade in with their nightsticks and break a few heads, make a few arrests.
The cops get to beat somebody up. The protesters get to be the martyrs they always wanted to be. The Left gets to tut-tut and feel good because the US has been proven to be the evil repressive society they always said it was. The Right gets to feel good that someone is finally standing up for Family Values. The Press gets juicy footage to drive up the ratings.
Everyone gets what they want, everyone's happy, and nobody has to fly an airliner into a skyscraper.
It's worth thinking about.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-09 07:28 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-09 07:35 pm (UTC)