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LOS ANGELES TIMES
July 16, 1996
The Importance of Being Ritualistic
By Dennis Prager
It hit me this past July 4: Americans, especially the young and
the urban, feel less and less American because of the absence
of ritual.
The power and necessity of ritual hit me when our 3-year-old
son asked my wife why she had hung a big American flag at the
front of our house, the only house within blocks that displayed
one. "It's America's birthday,'' she told him.
The beauty of ritual was evident at the Hollywood Bowl, when
20,000 of us sang "America the Beautiful" along with
the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; when I saw American flags
atop the philharmonic basses, when we hummed American songs along
with the orchestra; when fireworks lit up images of George Washington
and the bald eagle.
Yet, many people have forgotten what is distinctive about America
and can't convey a sense of Americanness to their children.
Also, the ideal of multiculturalism has replaced the ideal of
the melting pot. While Americans always regarded themselves as
multiethnic, much of the country now adheres to a vision of America
as multicultural. America's motto is being transformed from E
pluribus unum -'"From many, one" to "not one,
many."
Among many well-educated Americans, American ritual has either
corny or sinister connotations The very term "flag waver" connotes
a person flirting with fascism. Compare the elite's reaction
to someone wearing a flag pin with someone wearing an AIDS ribbon.
Just as the country's motto has been inverted, so, too, the concept
of love of country has been inverted. When asked about his understanding
of loving America and patriotism, I heard a leading liberal congressman
talk only about his love of the Constitution. While loving tile
Constitution should be part of loving America and of patriotism,
they are not synonymous. To understand why, imagine a man who,
when asked if he loved his wife spoke only about how much he
loved her values.
Thus we have abandoned ritual, and without ritual there is no
memory.
This understanding of the indispensable role that ritual plays
in remembrance is the secret to the survival of a much smaller
people than Americans: the Jews. Ritual is the means by which,
for thousands of years, Jews have been able to remember who they
are. Conversely, Jews who do not practice Jewish rituals assimilate.
Take the most widely observed Jewish ritual: the Passover Seder.
The purpose of the Seder is to remind Jews that God took them
out of Egypt.
Without ritual, we either lose our national memories or retain
only negative ones. Both are destructive to any group.
Without rituals to commemorate Independence Day, Americans are
losing any meaning associated with our country and its birthday,
it becomes just another day off, symbolized only by hot dogs
and occasional fireworks. Without rituals Presidents Day, for
example, is merely a day for department store sales. Indeed,
obliterating Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays as holidays
and substituting the meaningless Presidents Day represents the
elite's deafness to ritual and symbolism.
The ultimate de-Americanization of an American holiday takes
place on Flag Day in some schools of the Los Angeles Unified
School District. Students are encouraged to bring in the flags
of the countries they or their ancestors came from. Perhaps on
Presidents Day, we will begin honoring the presidents of all
those countries.
On the other hand, we widely and meaningfully observe Thanksgiving,
precisely because it is tied to a ritual: the Thanksgiving Day
feast.
Next July 4, display a flag, sing American songs and play American
music, attend a parade, read from the Declaration of Independence.
One of the world's youngest peoples needs to learn this secret
to survival from one of the world's oldest. |
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