Sunday 14 November 2010

Patriotism/Nationalism? Are We Missing Something?

Whilst the film "The Jazz Singer", starring Neil Diamond, was a box office 'flop', the final song of the film (America) sums up all that I believe America stands for - and in which Americans fervently believe.

Yes we have "Land of Hope and Glory" and "There Will Always Be an England" as examples, but they tend to suffer from what might be termed an 'English Reserve' (and yes, they do bring a tear to my eye, every time I hear them) By that I mean they do not immediately exhibit a 'passion', an unswerving belief in one's country - one that can immediately be felt.


"On the boats and on the planes, we coming to America, 
Never looking back again, we coming to America"

Unfortunately our immigrants no longer think that - they come knowing we are going to 'bend over backwards' to make sure that they can 'look back'.

"Every time that flag's unfurled, they come to America,
Got a dream to take them there, they come to America
Got a dream they gotta share, they come to America"

And why? Because the underlying ethos is - right or wrong - America is always right - and in the right.

"My country, tis of thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty"

Again unfortunately, our liberty is decided elsewhere!

Love them or loathe them, Americans have one trait that we lack, or tend to exhibit publicly at every opportunity - that of nationalism, one that has been surpressed by our political elite, both in Brussels and Westminster - more is the pity!

I supppose the difference between America and us is that, in the former's case, when threatened, they 'kick arse' immediately and the latter tend to wait until the 11th hour - and their backs are to the wall - before they even begin to consider 'kicking arse'.

Just thinking........................




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This one may be more fitting at the moment.
We sang this as children at school years ago.
I doubt if they do now.
As did the red squares at Waterloo.

Boney was a warrior, away-ay-ya.
A warrior, a tarrier, Jean Francois.
Boney fought the Prussians, away-ay-ya.
And Boney fought the Rrussians, Jean Francois.