Thursday 25 June 2015

Hazard

Banning miniature replicas of the General Lee is a bit much, I have to say.

But defenders of the Confederate flag, what, exactly, is this "Southern pride"? I really would like to know.

It is not about slavery. It is rarely about secession, or even about any claim to be entitled to that in theory. The South would seem the last place to question the recitation of Pledge of Allegiance, or the position of the United States Armed Forces, or the singing of The Star-Spangled Banner.

These days, it would not be about segregation, which in any case would have been introduced in the North at the time if the racial balance had been comparable, and which was and is informally practised there.

So, what is it? And why is this flag so important to it? What does this flag even have to do with it?

As I say, I really would like to know.

2 comments:

  1. Even your buddies Rid Dreher and Jack Hunter ("the Southern Avenger") have come around on the flag issue. Affected Yankees (Bill Kristol) and Brits (Peter Hitchens) are like Boston and New York Irish opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process, or London WASPs the same. They ain't gotta live, and in any case they don't understand. But you seem to.

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    1. You are very kind. With Kristol on one side, and Rod and Jack on the other, support for the Confederate flag has become a neocon thing.

      You are right about Northern Ireland. Powellite integrationism on what was once Fleet Street is as far removed from anything there as NORAID collecting tins between the Guinness pumps are. Or were. Does one still see them?

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