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theres a yin and a yang. Theres Sousa and theres Guthrie. Theres Greenwood and theres Peter, Paul and Mary. All have a place.
I think Greenwoods song, while not my favorite aesthetically, is reclaimable. And, OTOH, plenty of worthier works are quite as easily claimable for mindless patriotism (just as things are claimable for mindless religion, mindless internationalism, mindless Marxism, etc, etc)
While Greenwoods song was written in the 80s, I associate it with the time around the first gulf war. If its not great, and its manipulative thats ok - somehow for me its associated with the atmosphere that first demonized Saddam, then deliberately left him in place, when military action was wrapped up in the UNSC, that odd, strange time from mid 1990 to spring 1991. Its also a reminder of the very anxious mood of that time - in retrospect that war was the "cakewalk" that misled us for a long time, but at the time people were VERY worried about what would happen when our troops hit the "battlehardened" Iraqi army in fortifications that were said to resemble the Somme or El Alamein. I see it as a very much a period piece, not a core part of the patriotic repertoire.
I know some played it after 9/11, but I associate "God Bless America" much more with that time, and the historic and emotional redolence of that much less detailed, and thus more evocative song, more appropriate.
I think Greenwoods song, while not my favorite aesthetically, is reclaimable. And, OTOH, plenty of worthier works are quite as easily claimable for mindless patriotism (just as things are claimable for mindless religion, mindless internationalism, mindless Marxism, etc, etc)
While Greenwoods song was written in the 80s, I associate it with the time around the first gulf war. If its not great, and its manipulative thats ok - somehow for me its associated with the atmosphere that first demonized Saddam, then deliberately left him in place, when military action was wrapped up in the UNSC, that odd, strange time from mid 1990 to spring 1991. Its also a reminder of the very anxious mood of that time - in retrospect that war was the "cakewalk" that misled us for a long time, but at the time people were VERY worried about what would happen when our troops hit the "battlehardened" Iraqi army in fortifications that were said to resemble the Somme or El Alamein. I see it as a very much a period piece, not a core part of the patriotic repertoire.
I know some played it after 9/11, but I associate "God Bless America" much more with that time, and the historic and emotional redolence of that much less detailed, and thus more evocative song, more appropriate.
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