Welcome to statist USA

It’s Sunday afternoon in America. and the football game is about to start. You’re sitting comfortably in your living room on your favorite leather recliner chair with a can of cold beer.  In front of you is your brand new wide screen LED television set. On your lap are a big bowl of popcorn and a jumbo bag of Cheetos. On your huge ultra-high-resolution screen you see a close-up of the American flag waving in the breeze at the stadium. Then you hear the national anthem begin playing.  

Do you put aside your beer, popcorn and Cheetos to stand up and salute the flag with your right hand over your heart until the anthem is finished? Or do you remain seated? Have you ever stood up at attention to salute the flag when you were by yourself or with family and friends at home watching the game?

Be honest now. I bet you have never done that or even felt in your mind the slightest obligation to do that. I bet you remain seated every time. If so, does that mean you are disrespecting our nation’s flag as well as all the brave soldiers and cops who have sacrificed and died for us since 1776?  Should you and everyone else who does that be condemned and ostracized from proper society for being unpatriotic and disrespectful of the American flag?

Do you have an American flag hanging on your living room wall or on a pole in a corner of the room? Do you, with your wife, kids, neighbors and friends, stand at attention in front of it at least once every day saluting with your right hand over your heart while reciting out loud the Pledge of Allegiance? No? I didn’t think so. Who does that, really? No one does that. And no one, including you, thinks it’s disrespectful of the flag and our nation under God for not doing that.

So why then is it considered flagrantly and unforgivably unpatriotic and disrespectful at the stadium with the crowd or in the public school classroom with the class?  Isn’t it because ostentatiously showing respect for the national anthem and Pledge of allegiance in public are statist rituals meant to be performed together by the whole crowd – not individually when no one else is watching? 

It’s a group display of patriotism thing. You do it because of the social pressure exerted upon you do it because everyone else is doing it. If you don’t stand with the group in public you are being disrespectful, but it’s not disrespectful if you are home essentially alone.

That doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense, does it? You see, it really has absolutely nothing to do with the American flag or the national anthem. It’s about conforming to the statist expectations of the crowd. When anyone declines to conform to the statist expectations of the crowd – even in situations where non-conforming is a fundamental constitutional right – you have the mob of irrational statists screaming for retribution and punishment.

Statism is an irrational worship of the state as an entity which supersedes the rights and interests of the individuals who created it. Statists are advocates of the practice of forcing individuals to conform to their idea of state worship. It’s a group thing characterized by both legal and social pressure to conform. And it’s politically non-partisan to the extent that conformance is demanded of every individual irrespective of political Party affiliation.

This is why Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem has generated such a firestorm of controversy among the statists. He’s refusing to conform to their irrational expectations involving state worship. He’s not worshipping the state in public with the crowd as he and everyone else is expected to do. We’re all expected to act in public like a herd of lemmings.

Missouri State Senator Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat, likewise refused to stand while her colleagues recited the Pledge of Allegiance in the state Capitol, explaining that her silent protest on the Senate floor was intended to show solidarity with the San Francisco 49ers quarterback. That prompted statist Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder to release a statement calling her protest an "occasion for great sorrow." He said he worried about "the example she is setting, particularly for our young people."

"As part of the privilege to represent your country, we have an expectation that our players and coaches will stand and honor our flag while the National Anthem is played," announced the statist U.S. Soccer team in a statement after star player Megan Rapinoe declined to do so before a recent match in Thailand.

A statist high school teacher in California actually thinks she has the authority to lower a student’s grades in her class for the “offense” of not standing up for the Pledge of Allegiance. “She told me I was being disrespectful and I was pretty mad,” explains the student who is Native American. “She was being disrespectful to me also, saying I was making bad choices, and I don’t have the choice to sit during the pledge.”

A statist Chicago Vietnam War military veteran and retired city alderman has proposed a city ordinance which by law will force all people to stand when the Star Spangled Banner is played. People should face the flag with their hands over their hearts and men should take off their hats, the proposal provides. The proponent acknowledges that it’s unlawful to force a person to stand but he thinks the move would signal that the city acknowledges the reverence that should be displayed during the National Anthem.

Public school students in the State of Louisiana have been told by the statist education authorities that they would be punished for sitting during the daily Pledge of Allegiance ritual in the classrooms. Failure to conform in public to their irrational expectations of state worship amounts to disrespect in their minds.

The obvious irony of all of this is that it's really the statists who disrespect the nation, our Constitution and American values – not the individuals who are merely exercising their fundamental American constitutional rights.

Welcome to statist USA!