• U.S.

Americana: Ensign of Reassurance

3 minute read
TIME

Never in recent memory was a Fourth of July greeted with so ubiquitous a display of the Stars and Stripes. Flag decals could be seen on family and police cars, on buses and baby carriages. Flags fluttered from the usual poles, of course, but they were also being used in wom en’s dress and hat designs. On a New York City subway platform, a man was seen wearing blue trousers, a red-white-and-blue striped belt and a dark blue shirt studded with white stars.

Independence Day has always been a time of patriotic renewal, but flag fever has been sweeping the country for months. “Twenty years ago, flag waving would have been a harmless thing,” says Alistair Cooke, a naturalized citizen who for three decades has reported on Americana to his native Britain. “Now it’s something of an omen. Some of the flags are carefully pasted upside down—a reminder that the Republic is indeed flying a distress signal.”

Speeding Insurance. One simple explanation for the outbreak of red, white and blue is that free stickers have been made available in quantity. In February, 18,441,368 copies of Reader’s Digest included the little paste-on models. They were so popular that the Digest has since distributed 50 million more, with bulk orders from General Motors, the Department of Defense, Gulf Oil and Chemical Bank & Trust Co. of New York. They, in turn, have handed them out free. The stridently patriotic New York Daily News has-sold half’ a million. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks has a flag inscribed somewhat belligerently: “Our Flag; love it or leave.” And Tiffanys offers a 14-carat lapel flag “for those who are still as proud of the American flag as we are.” Price: $15.

To Fred Spence, 37, who lives in The Bronx and runs a delivery service, “It’s just a fad. You stop in a gas station for gas, and the man gives you a flag.” He has one on his car window and several in a cigar box on the front seat. In Detroit, a college student explained his windshield emblem: “The police like this sort of thing, and maybe, if I’m speeding and they see the flag, they won’t pull me over.” Cartoonist Al Capp, whose Li’ l Abner comic strips have been waxing increasingly patriotic, probably speaks for the less cynical majority when he says: “The flag looks better waving than burning.”

Like Alistair Cooke, other observers of American mores see flag flaunting as a combination of patriotism and reaction to a mood of disquiet. “All sorts of traditional values are being challenged,” says Harvard Sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset. “In a certain sense, by having a flag on the car, you’re saying that you’re not a hippie, you’re against campus demonstrations and that you believe in the traditions and values that are under attack.” Mark Doran, U.C.L.A. assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, says that “flag waving is a reaction on the part of the good guys who like their children and their wives and get real mad when anybody rocks their barbecue pits.”

Doubtless, a feeling of defensiveness accounts for some of the flag clutching. But obviously there is more involved. Those who attack the standard also attack what it represents. Those who flaunt Old Glory are using it as an ensign of reassurance that discontent has its limits.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com