Worth Dying For Quotes

“At its core the raison d'etre of the EU is to get France and Germany to hug one another so closely that they can't get a hand free with which to thump lumps out of each other.”
― Tim Marshall, Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags

“but previously part of Germany. As Paul Levy, who was then Head of Information and who actually drew up the final design, explains: ‘The Germans were against fifteen because that would suggest a politically independent entity. They proposed fourteen. That was unacceptable to the Saarland. The French proposed thirteen, an Italian said, “Yes, but thirteen is unlucky.” So they adopted twelve to be symbolic of everyone.”
― Tim Marshall, Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags

“What does it mean to try to encapsulate a nation in a flag? It means trying to unite a population behind a homogeneous set of ideals, aims, history and beliefs –an almost impossible task. But when passions are aroused, when the banner of an enemy is flying high, that’s when people flock to their own symbol. Flags have much to do with our traditional tribal tendencies and notions of identity –the idea of ‘us versus them’. Much of the symbolism in flag design is based on that concept of conflict and opposition –as seen in the common theme of red for the blood of the people, for example. But in a modern world striving to reduce conflict and promote a greater sense of unity, peace and equality, where population movements have blurred those lines between ‘us and them’, what role do flags now play?”
― Tim Marshall, Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags

“Planting the US flag at the site of the Twin Towers did presage a war. Tom Franklin said that when he took his shot he had been aware of the similarities between it and another famous image from a previous conflict –the Second World War, when US Marines planted the American flag atop Iwo Jima. Many Americans will have recognized the symmetry immediately and appreciated that both moments captured a stirring mix of powerful emotions: sadness, courage, heroism, defiance, collective perseverance and endeavour. Both images, but perhaps more so the 9/ 11 photograph, also evoke the opening stanza of the American national anthem, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, particularly its final lines: O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? At a moment of profound shock for the American people, the sight of their flag yet waving was, for many, reassuring. That the stars of the fifty states were held aloft by men in uniform may have spoken to the streak of militarism that tinges American culture, but to see the red, white and blue amid the awful grey devastation of Ground Zero will also have helped many ordinary citizens to cope with the other deeply disturbing images emerging from New York City that autumn day.”
― Tim Marshall, Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags