Patriotic Shlock: The Endless Summer by Murray N. = Rothbard

Patriotic Shlock:=20 The Endless Summer

by Murray=20 N. Rothbard
by Murray = N.=20 Rothbard

This article first = appeared in=20 the July-Aug= ust=20 1984 issue of T= he=20 Libertarian Forum.

What=20 in hell is happening in America? This has been an Endless = Summer, an=20 odious, repellent, horrifying orgy of Patriotic Shlock. In = all my=20 years I have never seen so many blankety-blank American = flags being=20 waved, mindlessly, over and over again.

It=20 started on that rotten last night of the Democratic = convention, when=20 the massed delegates were all waving, instead of the usual = banners=20 for their nominees, American flags, duly issued to them by = the=20 smooth Mondale machine. The culmination was the acceptance = speech of=20 Geraldine Ferraro, in which La Ferraro droned on about her = immigrant=20 mother, immigrant daughters, and God knows what else, all to = the=20 tune of American flags being waved, and, yes, masses of = delegates=20 sobbing and hugging each other.

I=20 put it all down to one night's aberration, little realizing = what an=20 orgy of mass sobbing and flag-waving we were all in for. The = next=20 step, of course, was the infernal Olympics, in which = patriotic=20 shlock reached a new all-time low. Again, what in hell is = going on?=20

There was nothing at = all like=20 this in the last Olympics held in the U. S. =96 the winter = Olympics of=20 1976. There was no sobbing, no flag-waving, in fact there = was a=20 healthy realism by the media focusing on the transportation = foul-ups=20 at Lake Placid. But here, in L.A., in the home of Hollywood = shlock,=20 all of a sudden everyone went nuts, the audience, the media, = even=20 the athletes. The pattern began with the Opening Ceremonies, = a vast=20 exercise in tedium, when the flag-waving, the sobbing, and = all the=20 rest began, and never let up. Come on: 84 pianists in blue = tuxes,=20 simultaneously faking the playing of Rhapsody in = Blue!=20

And=20 it wasn't only ABC that went bonkers; the press was almost = as bad,=20 San Francisco's famous voice of the Peepul, Truman Democrat = Herb=20 Caen, writing two lengthy columns on the wonders of the = Opening=20 Ceremonies, how it "made everyone proud to be an American = again,"=20 "proud to wave flags again," etc. Yecchh! Also = characteristically=20 weighing in to do his muddled bit was philosopher Tibor = Machan in=20 Reason magazine, taking off on a few facts, all of them = wrong, about=20 the Olympics.

ABC=20 was disgustingly chauvinist, much more than in past = Olympics.=20 Cameras pointed shamelessly to Americans to the exclusion of = virtually anyone else; commentary was American-hype to the = nth=20 degree; behind every American athlete pictured was a huge = American=20 flag waving in the nonexistent breeze. ABC got so bad that = Olympic=20 authorities began to complain.

But=20 it wasn't just ABC or the press. It was the American masses, = the=20 audience themselves, that succumbed to the most = unsportsmanlike=20 behavior. The mob, bellowing "USA," "USA," the cheers for = every U.S.=20 point, the booing when a U. S. gymnast got less than a = perfect 10.=20 Probably the low point of the entire Games was when Carl = Lewis, upon=20 winning the 100 meters =96 typically, about 20 meters ahead = of=20 everyone else =96 grabbed a huge American flag, and = virtually wrapping=20 himself in the thing, ran around the Stadium. It was the = apex of a=20 truly obscene spectacle.

And=20 what ever happened to the old propaganda of the U. S. media = that the=20 Olympic Games are not a team, but an individual, sport, so = that one=20 shouldn't even count the medals gained by the various = countries?=20 That old hype apparently applied only when the Soviet Union = and East=20 Germany used to walk off with most of the medals. But now = that the=20 East European bloc was safely out of the way, Oh the crowing = and oh=20 the gloating about all the medals "we" of the U. S. were = racking up!=20

Hey, fantastic, so we beat up on the = British=20 Antilles, and all the other one-horse countries that the U. = S. paid=20 to show up. As usual, the American mob was ungallant from = start to=20 finish, as in the invasion of tiny Grenada, gloating about = the huge=20 U.S. stomping on minuscule opposition!

An=20 old friend of mine, a U. S. patriot from many years of being = obliged=20 to live in a hated foreign land, upon watching the opening=20 ceremonies, lamented, "It made me ashamed to be an=20 American!"

I tell you: Watching the Olympics made me = nostalgic for=20 the good old days of the New Left, and the ranting about = "Amerika"=20 or even "Amerikkka." One more day of this horror, one more = binge of=20 patriotic sobbing and flag-waving, and I will be ready for = the Jeff=20 Hummell Deviation (i.e. opposition to all nationalism, even = national=20 liberation against imperial States.)

And=20 for the first time in decades I look with favor on old = Herbert=20 Hoover, President when the last Summer Olympics were held in = the=20 U.S. (Los Angeles in 1932), who didn't bother officiating at = the=20 opening ceremonies because "they weren't important." At this = point,=20 I am almost ready to forgive Hoover his origination of the = New=20 Deal.

Murray N.=20 Rothbard (1926=961995) was the author of M= an,=20 Economy, and State, C= onceived=20 in Liberty, W= hat=20 Has Government Done to Our Money, For a = New=20 Liberty, T= he=20 Case Against the Fed, and many other books = and=20 articles. He was also = the editor=20 =96 with Lew Rockwell =96 of The=20 Rothbard-Rockwell Report.

Murray=20 Rothbard Archives=20 =