Thursday, October 25, 2007
News Ugly new passports and clip-art patriotism
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Thu, Oct 25, 2007 at 4:12 PM
Michael Currie Schaffer on the United States' ugly new passports:
Apparently, someone forgot that passports are mainly meant to be read by, you know, foreigners. Plastered like a NASCAR vehicle with cheeseball patriotic clip-art that might have been swiped from the Colbert Report's opening credits, the new books spill jingoism the way traveling Americans once spilled hard currency.
Clip-art patriotism and tchotchke patriotism aren't just tacky. They're phony.
Patriotism is about the way you live your life, not the objects you affix to your suit jacket. Do you do things that help your country and countrymen? Then you're a patriot, even if you dance to the "Internationale" in Che Guevara boxer shorts.
If I sound grumpy, it's because I am. Too many flag-in-lapel-types support the atrocities I describe in my column this week for me to feel glib about "cheeseball patriotic clip-art."
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