Pageantry

Watched some TV last night- Univision, the spanish-language station. Today is Mexican Independance Day, and last night the national pageantry was in full force. Thousands packed into the Zocalo in DF, and then Fox went up to make a short speech from that balcony- there's something so sci-fi about that. Maybe it was my dreamlike state at the moment, but there was something so glitzy and surreal and ridiculous about it. Its easy to look at another country's nationalism as something sort of quaint or funny- perhaps thats a part of my unconscious arrogance as an American.
But there was also something inspiring about it. Blind patriotism and national pride is not something I'm fond of in the States. But in Mexico, or another "3rd world" country, there is a completely different context. It brings something to mind.
My anarchist writer friend Shon was talking with Aurora's pal Rejin, who is Middle-Eastern. They were discussing things, and later I said something to Rejin, who was very impressed with Shon, about his staunch anti-nationalism as a professed anarchist... this was after we were discussing Iraq. Rejin said that in her view, nationalism can sometimes be a good thing- that the people in Iraq who are setting off carbombs and killing innocent people aren't patriotic Iraqis- for the most part they've come in from outside of the country- and that the nationalistic Iraqis who care about their country are the ones trying to stop the violence.
While I doubt I'll ever have a comfortable relationship with nationalism... I can understand regional pride, the deep emotional tie people have with the soil and trees they grow up with. The pageantry of another nation's rituals seem so naked to the eye of an outsider. Then again- as with any ritual, there's something the eye misses- exactly the invisible thing that gives it weight- history- a story- a myth.