I Drew This

This story, about a man flying a Nazi flag in his front yard has caught my attention.

At the risk of contributing more to the obvious offence that something like this would cause, I really can’t see a problem with it.

I have pretty strong civil libertarian leanings: people should be pretty much free to do as they please and I agree with the old “I disagree with what you say but I’ll fight for your right to say it” adage. (I think that’s actually a quote by someone famous—possibly for saying it—but can’t remember who it was.)

So if you want to fly a piece of material up a pole, if that’s your thing, go ahead. I’d much rather people did that than hand out religious propaganda in the streets. Flying a flag is pretty innocuous, as statements go. It’s like painting your house in your football team’s colours: very bad taste but mostly passive and harmless. If the guy is kicking people’s heads in during his spare time, sure, ask him politely to step into the van. But it’s his house, his flag, his flagpole. If you don’t like it, ignore it. Go fly your own flag.

But the RSL response, instead of being offended or “sickened”, I would like to have seen a more enlightened response, along the lines of Voltaire (just looked it up – couldn’t stand not knowing) but with a twist, something like “our servicemen and -women fought for his right to put up whatever flag he wants. It would be nice if he respected those soldiers enough not to put up that one”.

As a postscript, it seems the Attorney-General has paid the man a visit.

Mr Atkinson said the man told him he only put the flag up for a party a few weeks ago and had simply neglected to take it down.

He was also angry at the media for invading his property but accepted that the flag would be offensive to some people.

Which brings to mind adages about books and covers. It also says something about how we, through the media, are quick to polarise an issue. And in a culture that embraces ironic consumption, you just can’t jump to conclusions.