Is patriotism inevitably political? As I’ve learned what Provo has in store this year for its annual Freedom Festival I’ve been surprised at how political it all seems. Though I initially wished the city had gone in a more ideologically neutral direction, I’ve also been wondering lately if such a direction even exists.
This year’s Freedom Festival includes a few things that strike me as overtly political. For example, when I received the free Freedom Festival Magazine in the mail I was surprised to see the words “Family, Freedom, God, Country” printed just below the title. In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Provo, Utah, is supposedly one of the most conservative places in the nation, and I know there is a whole segment of the population that has no problem whatsoever with intertwining ideas about God, family, and country. Moreover, while some people might make the argument that these words aren’t in themselves all that political, I would disagree. They are keystones of the conservative lexicon and thusly connote the ideology that lexicon is commonly used to propagate. If nothing else there are also many people who would feel that “God” shouldn’t be construed with “country” (atheists are only one, obvious example), and I think the recent controversy over Proposition 8 has revealed the political weight of a word like “family.”
If the language used to describe Provo’s Freedom Festival left a faintly sour taste in my mouth, the performer list for the Stadium of Fire (which is a concert, firework show, and big part of the Freedom Festival held in BYU’s football stadium) left me in stunned silence. Of course the event includes the usual list of generic pop stars (this year it’s the Jonas Brothers), but in this case it also includes Glenn Beck. When I discovered this fact I realized I had apparently been under the wrong impression all these years; I thought the Stadium of Fire was supposed to be wholesome family fun. Bringing in Glenn Beck (a kind of poor-man’s Rush Limbaugh who, like Rush, peddles in the basest kind of demagoguery) clearly politicizes the event. I don’t care what he says during his performance, as a political figure he inevitably brings all the baggage of his public persona. In that light, I would never bring my family to listen to someone like Beck and its no wonder that this year’s event still isn’t sold out.
Despite my personal frustration, the point here isn’t really to single out Provo’s Freedom Festival but to use it as an illustration: one person or group’s idea of a (non-political) celebration can also be another’s definition of an offensively partisan activity. In this light it’d be easy to see other, less overtly political, performers at the Freedom Festival as expressions of one ideology or another. Someone like Miley Cyrus (who came in 2008) may seem fairly benign, but she does represent certain values and those values would be both painfully apparent and offensive to people who don’t agree with them.
So is it possible to celebrate patriotism without politics? More specifically, is it possible to find activities that accurately represent all, or at least most, members of a given community? I don’t know, but as I perused the list of performers from previous Stadium of Fire celebrations the answer seems to be a qualified no. In each case I can easily imagine people whose values would not be represented by the performers. (In fact in almost every case I can think of specific people in my actual community who would object to the guests and what they represent.) Because every statement, public figure, or event brings with it an ideological baggage, and because no community is ideologically homogenous, celebrations that purport to represent “our values” or “our community” end up being political statements that alienate people as well. In the end then, patriotism and politics may not be the same thing, but if recent events in Provo are any indication, they are inextricably intertwined.
