In Zild I think we're deeply suspicious of overt displays of patriotism. When I was at school every school had a flagpole which was only used to fly the NZ rag at half-mast when someone who was considered to be something of a local hero karked it. It was innocent of any ornamentation at any other time. I remember the desultory slap of the ropes used to hoist the flags against the pole itself more than anything else.
We wonder when we see national flags flying. What's the problem? Who's died? Is there a war on that no one told us about? My funnybone was in overtime the whole time I was in America
I used to walk to work through Parliament every day when I worked in Wellington. Every couple of weeks, the parliamentary flagpole minder would be out there hard at work putting up flags for various countries, depending on which dignitaries were showing up for a cheap lunch that day. The Zildish flag would always fly from the top of Parliament, but you forgave them that one; too many MPs need a visual reminder of where they live.
Our national anthem gets aired very rarely. It has none of the musical complexities of "The Star-Spangled Banner", it has little of the punch of "Advance, Australia, Backwards", it has none of the innate majesty of "God Save The King/Queen (pick one)", it has little of the inanity of most other national anthems (e.g. did Canada NOT exist before Wolfe went and had his ticket punched on the Heights of Abraham, for Gawd's sake?). I remember the words of ours perfectly:
"Trod-on nations, smell my feet.
Chew my toenails, aren't they sweet?"
Seriously, though, we suffer the same basic superiority complex as Australia (although, obviously, with more justification): Who the hell would want to live anywhere else? [he said, writing from the wilds of deepest, darkest England]. We don't need the patriotic fervour which the US whips itself up into. We don't need to constantly remind ourselves of who we are and what we stand for (although usually that's because we don't know). Whatever Helen says, I suppose.
It's all bollocks, anyway!
