Overheard at Table 2: The Bellicosity of Toxic Nationalism

Grocery store.


You see a lot of different types of people at the grocery store, because hey at some point, everybody's gotta get groceries, right?


I don't know what it was that made me start noticing, but I started noticing everyone's t-shirts at the grocery store last Sunday, after church, when I went to pick up some stuff.


And the more I saw, the more I didn't want to believe it.


Now, a lot of t-shirts are sports, of course.  Here in Houston, we've got the Texans and the Astros, and I saw A&M, but other shirts were more to the point.


There's the ubiquitous "COME AND TAKE IT" cannon, which of course, refers to an old mythic battle between the white and the Mexicans.


But there were others.  There were some THESE COLORS DON'T RUN, which was obviously a holdover from the old Post-911 days.  And there were some Eagle and flag shirts, and there was one with the Punisher mask with the colors of the American flag on the face.


Then there was one that really got me.  American flag on the front and on the back it read, "If I charge, follow me.  If I retreat, kill me.  If I die, avenge me."


Which, on the face, is stupid: because if I kill you and you die and I avenge you, that means I have to kill myself, which I'm not about to do.  


But yeah, I know it's probably meant to be separate, but the point is, it's warlike.  It's warlike for no reason.  It's warlike just to be warlike.  It's all about war.  Everything about what we wear on our bodies, at least here in Houston, is all about hurting someone or killing someone.  We glorify mass slaughter as though it is somehow heroic.  We wear the American flag as though it is a license to kill.


We are so seeped in the disgusting nature of our own bellicosity that we wear it on our bodies like entertainment, for relaxing garments.  For Sunday... after church!  Hell, some of these people wear this shit TO CHURCH.


I don't know what the answer is, but I do know this: that our Nationalism is toxic, and it's eating away at our souls until there is absolutely nothing left of our humanity.   And if we don't do something about it soon, we are all going to die, taking the rest of the world with us.