Why Burning the Flag Matters

[Warren DeMontague]

56. yes, it's an important symbol. But part of the problem w/ the human animal is our difficulty

in distinguishing the extremely effective and potent symbolic web with which we construct and define our reality, and the reality itself.

You don't have to look too far to see examples, all over the place- of people confusing the menu with the meal, the map with the territory. We live on a planet where a large # of people think it's perfectly rational to stage violent murderous riots over cartoons they deem offensive, of all things.

What this is, is a 'teachable moment'- not to the people who "need to respect my feelings about what is sacred" (although destroying someone else's property is a different story) so much as it is to the people who need to understand that it's okay to have symbols and totems and whatnot which you consider important, but the whole world isn't going to necessarily always agree, and you need to remember that 'important' is an internal, subjective opinion or judgment.

Getting people to consider the difference between their symbols and the things or ideas they represent isn't such a bad idea, at this juncture in human history- language and symbolic representation have brought us far; but we need to be aware of the constraints and limitations imposed by such a system, or set of tools, even as we plumb the depth of its usefulness.

This is not to say I think flag-burning is a good idea. But people need to remember that a flag is a symbol, and nothing more.