An introduction to a man who doesn't need one, the great the only, Psaaaaaam.
(The following is not the personal view of this blog. Viewer discretion is advised.)
Since the dawn of civilisation, there have always been people in positions of influence in nations who realized that the best way for their nation to gain more power over their populace was if that populace felt there was a threat to them. There are many easily observed cases, and probably many more that haven't been recognized, where two different governments collaborated to make sure that their respective citizens felt threatened by the other nation so that they could justify creating armed forces to increase their power. The cold war between the US and the USSR is probably the most potent example of this phenomenon to date. The US government benefited tremendously, in terms of control over their population, by the threat of nuclear war posed by the USSR, and vice versa. There has been much speculation that the attacks on the trade centre of September 11, 2001 were condoned or even partially orchestrated by people with great influence in the American government.
Another tactic used by power-hungry people of influence in government is to instruct their armed forces to perpetrate atrocities against other people, thus exacerbating the animosity against their own populace, and giving them greater power to expand their armed forces, and control them. They are adept at hiding the facts from their population, so that they can let their own citizens believe they are the "good guys". There are several highly visible examples of this too. For instance, many Germans still don't believe that their government under the Nazis was attempting to purposefully exterminate entire cultures of people just because of their lineage. Similarly, many Americans still don't even consider the possibility that the war in Vietnam was a deliberate genocidal atrocity committed by their government. Many Canadians don't understand that in the creation of their nation, the same sorts of tactics were used by their government on the First Nations people in North America as the Nazis did on the Jews in Europe, except that the Canadian government was far more successful at hiding this fact from their citizens.
Mandatory conscription has always been a part of these processes of subjugation. Membership in the army comes with having it beaten into you that you do exactly what you are instructed to by your superiors when you are told to, whether you believe it is a good idea or not. There are stories of Americans in Iraq torturing Iraqi people by order of their superiors, and then never being able to absolve themselves of their guilt and shame because their indoctrination is telling them what they did was right while their heart tells them what they did was wrong, a conflict they can never resolve.
The strongest symbol used by a government to ensure compliance from their population is to indoctrinate them with pride in their flag. The principle purpose of a national flag has always been to incite people to be willing to kill people from other countries to increase the power of their own nation. At present, there are Canadian troops in Afghanistan who are told they are doing what they are doing "for their flag". This blinds them and distracts them from the real reason that they are there: because they care about human beings no matter what their race or nation and they want to defend them. If a soldier saves innocent people from harm by the murderous, self-righteous Taliban government, it is a self-defeating practice to heap praise on the Canadian flag or nation rather than honour and respect the individual soldier as a humanitarian with great courage and personal conviction.
Elvis Presley was drafted in 1958 by the American government to serve two years in the military. Following these two years he went on to continue his very successful career as an entertainer. He used the American flag in his shows as a way to capitalise on American devotion to better his own career. During his two years of service, he never encountered open combat situations. He was not exposed to the horrific nature of war enough to cause him to consider the harmful effects that the flag has. He was an unwitting and unwilling participant in a scheme that has been perpetrating itself since the dawn of civilisation: rallying troops to be ready for war. There has never been a military solution to a problem that didn't always end up as something worse.
When you watch Elvis Presley sing his American Trilogy with the American flag rising up behind him in glorious grandeur and national pomp and pride, try to forgive that flag for all the war and suffering and indoctrination and ignorance that it represents. Just because history has orchestrated a flag's influence to be a proud call to arm yourself so that you can kill whoever stands against your nation, does not mean that it has to continue being that way. Watch with an air of sobriety and give consideration to the amount of injustice and brutal inhumanity that has been caused by its use. Remember that it was people acting in the name of that flag that are the only people in the world to ever slaughter entire cities of people in one devastating explosion, causing the greatest numbers of deaths this world has ever seen from one action.
By all means though, if you wish to feel pride in your ability to turn a symbol of destruction into a symbol of love and charity, then do not hesitate to feel pride when you look at that flag. It is, after all, a symbol that was intended to foster pride. The only harm is that it has been used throughout history to turn those feelings of pride into feelings of superiority and persecution. Keep the pride, but don't let it put you above or below any other human beings. We are all in this together.
Thanks for your attention,
Psam.
