Flags are too Nationalistic?

Germany plays Argentina this afternoon in a World Cup Soccer quarterfinal. The whole of Deutschland is plagued with Soccer fever in anticipation of the match. But if you fly your German flag in support of the national team, you may be an ubernationalist attempting to force your xenophobic feelings on the unwilling around you.

There are bars in Germany where they promise not to even display the nation's colors less someone find themselves in the midst of "patriotism, chauvinism, and colonialism", reports National Public Radio. One business owner has had his large German flag ripped down twice by leftist rather than right wingers. They have done so to protest that such displays are too much of a reminder of the country's past.

If we were talking about the World War II era swastika flags there could of course be no argument about impropriety. Yet how can the mere flying of a national flag, an act almost universally accepted as a show of love for and pride in your country, be offensive? Especially as the current one was not officially adopted until after World War I, and out of use during Hitler's reign, what type of extreme nationalism can it possibly imply?

Indeed, it appears at least vaguely schizophrenic, and arguably hypocritical, to shown up at a soccer event to root for your national team yet essentially pretend that the squad is not German. One non-flag bearing soccer fan opined that nationalism leads to racism, and that nationalism is 'easily sparked by many people being patriotic in one place'.

So if you unashamedly root for the German soccer team as the German soccer team you risk becoming a racist? Absurd. It is understandable that modern Germans may be skittish about their history, but it is just plain stupid to assume that the black-red-gold tricolor in some way symbolizes evil. Even merely potential evil.

Go Deutschland! It would be sweet now for Germany to win the World Cup simply so that the anti-flag crowd would be forced to endure the almost certain and incessant waving of the flag by the revelers who would celebrate such a victory. After all, even imperialist, xenophobic racists need to let loose occasionally. Still, if that happens, Poland had better watch out.