You're not the boss of me now

[cyrano]

There's an article about the Malcolm in the Middle soundtrack (which apparently is the only place I can get a copy of the TMBG song they use) and a proposal for the Gilmore Girls soundtrack which I'm hoping is as cool as the music I'm hearing on the show. (Which, in case I haven't plugged it here, is very charming. The characters have depth, the writing is clever and witty, and the actors can handle deep characters with witty and clever writing. I salute them, and look forward to October 9th when some foolish programmers have arranged for GG and Buffy to be on at exactly the same time.)
Merlin's birthday party was last night, and I think I spent a couple of hours on the phone with my mom. It was a while, in any case.

In an aside that is bound to make me less popular than I already am, I'm already finding the ubiquitous placing of the US flag to be mildly distasteful. It's a shame that these people forgot how passionately patriotic they were until the tragic incident last Tuesday, and it's nice they've suddenly remembered that they live in one of the most ambitious democratic projects in the world since Classical Greece, but they're really beginning to trivialise the symbol of that project.
Thus ends the unpopular viewpoint for today. Tune in tomorrow when I say that people who are willing to give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither.

Comments

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

Trivialize? How so? Name some examples.

Well yes, Americans are a) incredibly self-centered and b) have the world's shortest memories. By December, if not sooner, the usual bickering about which minority group is the biggest victim will have returned.

Trivial

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I don't know what things are like in LA, but around here we have flags hanging from most of the highway overpasses, draped in windows, printed out on color printers and tacked to garage doors (sometimes backwards but that's just nitpicking), and it seems sort of like the 'whoever puts up the most lights has the biggest spirit of Christmas' contest that will start in a month--whoever gets the most stars, the most stripes, is the most patriotic.
And a friend of mine has had hir loyalty questioned by a neighbour who felt that the flag se was displaying 'wasn't big enough'.

Re: Trivial

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

Ok. It ain't like that down here. About 20% of the cars I see have some sort of flag attached and about 15% of homes (even in the ritzy neighborhoods where I tutor). You're right, that's over-the-top. But you should have put that in your original entry.

Did I predict December for the return of the "biggest victim" argument? I meant today. Should look at the NY Times before I make such prophecies. :-)

Well

[bryant]

Different people have different needs, and different ways of dealing with 9-11.

[relsqui.livejournal.com]

Headline from the SF Examiner, last week some time (Thursday, I think): AMERICAN FLAG SHORTAGE. This is news?! No one has ever explained to me how patriotism and nationalism differ, and the latter is what drives people to sacrifice their lives (and thousands of others) for a cause the rest of the world may not agree with.

I only half-agree about liberty vs. safety, by the way. Very few of the safety measures they're implementing would have stopped the terrorists, but that's not my point. I don't think they seriously violate any inherent liberty. Everyone's going to be paranoid for a while, but that would have been true anyway. What's so drastic as to actually prohibit travel? Besides, the airlines are private businesses--if they want to arm their pilots (or whatever), that's their affair.

Freedoms

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I don't consider the right to two pieces of carry on luggage to be protected by the Constitution. My main concern is not what's going on right now--I'm more concerned with what happens when a bunch of Congressmen realise that, to get elected, they're going to have to go back to their constituents and say 'Look! Look here! I've been *Tough on Terrorism*.'
My prime example of this is the 'War on Certain Drugs' and the 'Zero Tolerance' tactics which dispensed with a lot of Search/Seizure and Reasonable Proof requirements that were becoming troublesome.

Re: Well

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yep. And I won't go around tearing down their flags, or mocking them in public. I'll just go to my journal page and say 'this makes me feel like they're cheapening something important to me'.
If they come to my journal page, they want to know my opinion. There it is.
*hug* by the way, in re: the AltaVista thing.

Re: Freedoms

[relsqui.livejournal.com]

::nods:: You're probably right, but I'm still naïve enough to wait until it happens before deciding it's inevitable ^_~.

Re: Freedoms

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Oh, and welcome to the journal. I don't /think/ I know you, but....

Re: Freedoms

[relsqui.livejournal.com]

(Sorry I took so long to reply; LJ was not cooperating.)

Thank you : ) and no, you don't--I was browsing by interest and came across the name of one of my favorite tragic heroes ^_~ so naturally I had to check it out.

[mallen.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I find flag ubiquitity distasteful. Perhaps that is because I am less cynical. Perhaps not.

I'm not sure I equate displaying a flag with patriotism either. It's not like anyone's going to put up a 4 x 3 piece of cloth with a graphic of a giant middle finger with the legend "FUCK YOU, TERRORISTS" under it on overpasses up and down the 101.

That's pretty much how I see the flags at this point.

On your other point about less freedom != more security, I must wholeheartedly concur.