232 The Journal of American Culture Volume 32, Number 3 September 2009 Honorable Mention Winner of the 2008 William M. Jones Best Graduate Student Paper Award Flag Display Post-9/11: A Discourse on American Nationalism Phillip M. Bratta The emotional reaction to the September 11, parts, as a wallpaper screen on cell phones, on all 2001, attacks (hereafter referred to as 9/11) was types of attire, from boxers and socks to winter varied. The anger, fears, and panic of Americans coats, collectibles, pins, and many more. As back- were caused by hijackers who managed to gain ground for television broadcasts and government control of four U.S. airplanes and crash them into speeches, flags were ubiquitous. Flag purchases the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The skyrocketed among retailers. As Samuel P. Hun- tragic events left over three thousand dead on that tington, citing the New York Times, notes, ‘‘Wal- morning and sparked a crisis in the nation. Be- Mart reportedly sold 116,000 flags on September cause the United States has experienced few in- 11th and 250,000 the next day, compared with cidents where attacks have occurred on its soil, 9/ 6,400 and 10,000 on the same days a year earlier’’ 11 shocked the nation, and Americans reacted in (1–2). Numerous companies and factories myriad behaviors. In America post-9/11, more pumped out vast amounts of American flags as strangers conversed; citizens donated large sums Americans hurried to stores and the Internet to of relief monies; more people signed up or purchase ‘‘Old Glory.’’ changed career paths in order to be firefighters; Most Americans watched the 9/11 events un- some people arrogantly shot convenient store fold on television. In the following days and clerks because of an aggression and hatred to- weeks Americans tuned in to get the latest on the wards anyone who appeared to be a ‘‘terrorist,’’ events and aftermath. The news channels pro- most often those who appeared of Arab descent vided the means to see and hear more details of (several of the clerks were actually Sikhs, not the 9/11 attacks, a photograph depicting the rais- Muslims). Some wore buttons that stated ‘‘I am an ing of the American flag by three firefighters over American Sikh’’ with an American flag under the the rubble hours after the attacks, and President caption, and underneath the flag, ‘‘God Bless George W. Bush’s speeches to the nation, Con- America’’ (Robin 47). Many quickly hung fifty gress, and other government bodies in the world. stars and thirteen stripes in their windows and on Television provides images. Encoded in these im- their porches. ages are ideologies. Thus, the television experi- American flags were hung not only from win- ence of 9/11 plunged the American mind into dows and porches. They also appeared bound on ideological narratives that could not be separated automobile bumpers, tattooed on various body from the American flag: to be patriotic was to Phillip Bratta is a recent graduate from Columbia College, Chicago, where he received a BA in cultural studies. He plans to attend graduate school in Fall 2010 for an MA in sociology. The Journal of American Culture, 32:3 r 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Flag Display Post-9/11 Phillip M. Bratta 233 display the flag, and refusal to display the flag was triotism and nationalism. The two ideologies are unpatriotic. The ubiquitous influence of television often misused and become synonymous. Patrio- helped construct the patriotic behavior of Amer- tism differs slightly in that it is a belief in the icans. When someone says the word patriotism, principles or ideals of the country or Nation- most associate the ideology with the flag. Many State. Patriots are proud of the ideals of their people displayed the flag and believed others dis- country and what their country does when they played the flag for patriotism, to be patriotic, and feel their country has been moral or ethical. When the love of the country. their country does something wrong, patriots ac- Throughout American history, the flag has knowledge the wrongdoing and make attempts to been deployed in crucial and contested moments correct the situation or make changes to avoid to function symbolically as a unifying national similar mistakes in the future. There is no idea of force. In addition, many cultural mythologies their superiority to other nations or a role to im- were encoded onto the flag. The mythologies re- pose their principles on other nations. For Amer- emerge post 9/11 and help construct the patriotic icans, patriotism often refers to redundantly narrative Americans tell themselves about what expressed ideals—freedom or liberty, democracy, happened the morning of September 11, 2001. individualism, equality or egalitarianism, law, and This study offers explanations for the fixation on the American dream. the flag and how it conflates the ideologies of pa- Examples of extreme nationalisms occur triotism and nationalism by deconstructing three throughout history. The German Nazis are the post-9/11 cultural images: (1) an NBC ‘‘Special epitome of excessive nationalism—self-perception Report’’ following the fall of the Twin Towers, (2) of superiority and extension of their beliefs to Thomas E. Franklin’s Ground Zero Spirit, and (3) other nations. Another example is the Balkans President George W. Bush’s September 20, 2001, region that has suffered massive ethnic cleansing speech to Congress. It is also relevant to note that and violence as a result of nationalism. Ernest these three images have different levels of fluidity Gellner defines nationalism as primarily a polit- in meaning for the flag: flexible in the NBC ical principle, which holds that the political and ‘‘Special Report’’; semifluid in Ground Zero the national unit should be congruent. A nation- Spirit; and fixed in President Bush’s address. alist sentiment is the feeling of anger aroused by These three flag images appear at specific times the violation of the nationalism principle, or the and days to capitalize on the national sentiment of feeling of satisfaction aroused by its fulfillment. A the American people and, correspondingly, Amer- nationalist movement is one actuated by a senti- icans purchased and displayed flags feverishly. ment of this kind (1). Nationalism is the force While sympathy and empathy for the victims of attempted by a nation to establish a Nation-State. 9/11 and their families need to be acknowledged, Once a Nation-State is established, nationalism the overreaction and desire for relentless flag dis- also sustains it and serves as an ideology and sen- play are unproductive and destructive, both for timent that underscore the pursuit of national in- the United States and other nations. As this pro- terests and superiority over other nations/Nation- ject will reveal, the flag instigates and fuels the States. Nationalists believe their country is always most dangerous ideology our future will deal right and unquestioningly support the Nation- with—nationalism. State’s institutions and leaders. Flags are more than just symbols for patriotism or weapons for nationalism. A flag, as well as a Framing Flags and their Function name and anthem, is essential for any nation to exist among other nations. Its representative and symbolic functions construct cultural mytholo- Flags provide a means for two ideologies, and gies and narratives that in turn charge nationalist it is important to distinguish between them: pa- sentiment. As scholar Anthony D. Smith remarks, 234 The Journal of American Culture Volume 32, Number 3 September 2009 It is necessary for a nation to possess a name; in a in ‘‘societies,’’ where they are sociological entities ‘‘world of nations’’ it could hardly function without with a reality that their members can be con- one. Much the same can be said about the national flag and the national anthem, though these are more public nected without ever becoming acquainted (An- symbols, and on display—even the ‘‘unwaved flag.’’ derson 25–26). This same scenario can be, and Together, these three symbols signal the uniqueness and the setting apart of the nation, and all of them help was, repeated in the novel and newspaper. The to accord the nation respect, even awe, as in the idea and imagining of the nation are created in the American ceremony of saluting the flag. And they all particularize and popularize the nation, as the sole and readers’ consciousness, and they begin to identify irreplaceable possession of its members. (38) themselves with a community. Readers begin to understand that others are active in the same way The flag functions specifically for the nation, so they are and have a commonality. that it may claim authenticity. People are assim- This concept of ‘‘homogeneous, empty time’’ is ilated into national ideologies by the deployment evident in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries of this cultural artifact. It operates as being owned for the imaginings of a nation with a different by those who salute it but simultaneously has no medium—television. Its invention in the first part owner. This is more apparent in a society that has of the twentieth century revolutionized concep- equality, freedom, and democracy as its funda- tions of nations and the world. While live broad- mental principles because it constructs the para- cast was not available until several decades after digm that deep down everyone is the same and the advent of television, the medium is now able desires the same things. The flag unites people to provide minute-to-minute/minute-by-minute who are tied up in conflict and turmoil, provides coverage of world events. JFK’s assassination, the the nation with its consciousness, and, even Chicago riots in 1968, Neil Armstrong’s walk on though its meanings are fluid, expresses and at- the moon, and many other events in the following tempts to fix meaning onto itself.