How would you feel if a different country BURNT your country flag?

[Linkachu_ 0]

I was just watching the Aborigines burning my national flag, the Australian flag. How would you feel if another country SPAT and BURNT your flag - Not that I'm ever intending to do it.

Oh plus those aboriginals assaulted the prime minister

[Ammonsa 308]

lolwat. A different country? They belong to Australia as much as we do. More so.

In regards to actually burning. It doesn't bother me that much, honestly. Like, I understand why other people would be bothered. I don't know why I'm not. I guess I'm just not that patriotic or something. Or maybe I just don't find value in the Australian flag. It doesn't inspire me. The Union Jack inspires me. The American flag inspires me. But not our flag. There is such a symbolism present in those flags that I just don't see in ours. Maybe if it looked nicer or something idk.

Maybe I'm a bad person.

[Knuckle 484]

Australia was always a country for the Australians; those dirty Aborigines just tried to take it by getting there first

[Teto 2609]

Probably wouldn't care a whole lot if someone from America/Australia/wherever burned a Scottish/British flag. I'd just be like "well okay then as long as you don't actually try and burn us, I don't really care".

[Cascade 741]

I don't really understand getting upset at a flag being burned, it's just a flag, it can be replaced, etc. I don't really see the patriotic, emotional side to it. :/ Probably because I think patriotism is annoying in general but eh. I wouldn't care either if one of you guys burned a Scottish/British flag in front of me lol.

[Sahaqiel 1232]

I'm just like, who cares, yeah? People have their opinions. Besides, I would think it's like, kind of counterintuitive to burn the flag anyway. They had to purchase the thing first. So they gave the US money. That's like, the thing the US is most obsessed about probably, and also one of the things other countries might hold against it. So it's like well, you paid us to burn our flag. Good job.

It's when petty opinions or beliefs start to harm actual people that an actual problem arises. Otherwise it's just a fire hazard that's probably releasing dangerous chemicals into the air because our stuff's made with polyester. They're probably damaging their brains by inhaling near the thing. Ignorance is ignorance. Stereotypical Anti-American patriotic/religious groups in the Middle East are a lot like stereotypical anti-Muslim patriotic/religious rednecks in the US. Both blindly hate each other for reasons that no one should care about. So it's more the blind hate I'm concerned about, than the actual flag burning.

Sahaqiel

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

It'd make me uncomfortable if like, i was at the flag burning but.... Aside from them I don't really care. I'd only feel weird being there because radicals are kinda scary.

[Chimetals 344]

I'm just like, who cares, yeah? People have their opinions. Besides, I would think it's like, kind of counterintuitive to burn the flag anyway. They had to purchase the thing first. So they gave the US money. That's like, the thing the US is most obsessed about probably, and also one of the things other countries might hold against it. So it's like well, you paid us to burn our flag. Good job.

It's when petty opinions or beliefs start to harm actual people that an actual problem arises. Otherwise it's just a fire hazard that's probably releasing dangerous chemicals into the air because our stuff's made with polyester. They're probably damaging their brains by inhaling near the thing. Ignorance is ignorance. Stereotypical Anti-American patriotic/religious groups in the Middle East are a lot like stereotypical anti-Muslim patriotic/religious rednecks in the US. Both blindly hate each other for reasons that no one should care about. So it's more the blind hate I'm concerned about, than the actual flag burning.

Sahaqiel

i died laughing reading this.

i never even had school spirit, so i dont really get the whole burning flag business. but im also the last person that would join the military, so patriotism isnt exactly my forte. i dont really wanna switch nationalities or anything, though, so i guess ive got some form of attachment.

[Arachne 25]

Well, if they're just burning a Canadian flag there's no problem. That's seen as the only honourable way to dispose of a flag here. Spitting on it's another matter, of course. It would depend on the reason for me. If it's during a riot over a sporting event, I'd be pissed, but as a legitimate political demonstration I can understand it.

Desecrating a flag is a very symbolic gesture, but I guess it depends on what you think said flag symbolises. In the case of aborigines burning the Australian flag, the flag probably represents colonialism, and considering that it took Australia until the late 90s to stop claiming its current sovereignty as terra nullius, there are some serious issues there. I really don't know much about the situation there, but from what I've heard it seems pretty heated when it comes to land rights. It's pretty confusing here, too, since treaties were only signed in some places, and any action to reconcile broken treaties is glacial at best. The main times I've really seen anything significant done was during the Oka Crisis and the apologies for the residential schools.

[pheonix561 2080]

Arachne how do you know so much about Australia

[pheonix561 2080]

Man Tom Wait's Waltzing Matilda isn't the same song as The Pogues' Waltzing Matilda

[Ammonsa 308]

Man when I saw The Wall Live at the end of it Roger Waters sang Waltzing Matilda and it DID make me proud to be Australian. We're in a stadium built for the Olympics in 2000. There's thousands of people. We just watched the best concert ever. A 60 something British dude sings Waltzing Matilda perfectly and it might sound cheesy, but, everyone stood up and sang along. It was the greatest gathering of community I've ever been present at.

Like I said in my previous post, if Australia inspired me it might bother me more but it doesn't. Well, our national anthem and our flag I don't care about. But I think only because...well. They're crap?

If our national anthem was Waltzing Matilda, or Khe Sanh, or And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, I would CARE. Those songs emotionally move me. They make me identify far more with Australia than this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcMuf8wE52k

Same with our flag. It just expresses to me...nothing? And it expresses pain to the indigenous people. I don't see why we can't make a NEW one or use theirs, or even the EUREKA stockade flag would be better.

Also Pheo I think the song you heard by the Pogues was And the band played waltzing matilda. It's a completely different song. About World War 1.

Also Australia GENERAL

[Princess Valhalla Hawkwind 39]

Arachne how do you know so much about Australia

[Ammonsa 308]

The truth is Arachne and I switched places a year ago and have lived in eachothers respective countries since then.

[pheonix561 2080]

So now I'm trying to decide if there's any american folk songs that make me feel patriotic. I mean, if there's anything I'm patriotic about, it's american music. But there's gotta be a song people identify with better than the national anthem, right? I mean sure, it's a good way to describe our country, but that doesn't mean I can sit here and say "Yeah! YEAH!" to it.