This morning, while watching a news report on CNN, I heard a "sound bite" that helped me to understand how 17th century absolutism continues to influence our society today. The news report was about our current war in the Middle East. The "good news," according to the report, was that there is plenty of fresh recruits eager to go overseas to fight. "Our country," said the reporter, "is responding to the call of our colors." When I heard that, I realized that instead of being controlled by a king, we are now manipulated by the call to patriotism. Today, we are no longer ruled by an ambitious 17th century king who believes he is exercising his divine right over his people for the purpose of increasing his power through conquest. The king has been replaced and the power of the state is now concentrated in the ideology of "Uncle Sam" and our "flag." .
I can site many examples in our recent history where patriotism has been used to blind us "peasants" to the possibility of disobedience. Worse, I can site examples where we have spoken out against "Uncle Sam" and, not unlike the peasants of 17th century France, we suffered severe consequences including loss of life. One such example occurred during the Vietnam era. Four college students at Kent State were shot and killed when college students exercised their right to free speech and spoke out against our participation in the Vietnam "conflict." Another example occurred during the McCarthy era when a type of witch-hunt took place. Individuals who were rumored to be unpatriotic and having connections to the communist party lost their careers, livelihoods, and reputations. In most cases these people did not have any connection what so ever to the communist party. I suspect that their lives were destroyed in the name of patriotism as examples demonstrating what happens to those who oppose current policy.
Recently, people took to the streets in San Francisco to speak out against "the flag" in protest of our current war in the Middle East.