Global Flag

The indomitable Stephen Parrish recently had an interesting post (originally by his brother) about the idea of a global flag. I had never really thought about this idea before, but since I'm more of a believer in globalism than nationalism, it is an idea that really resonates me. Evidently it also resonates with a number of other Americans. The basic idea seems to be that we would still display national pride, same as we display state pride in the US, but that we would place the global allegiance first -- same as we place the national allegiance first in the US.

I don't necessarily think that some sort of world hegemony is called for, but that's not really what this is about. You can't go to a university these days without hearing a lot about globalism, the global economy, et cetera, and I think that this rising global consciousness is a good thing. It isn't that we shouldn't have a sense of national identity, or be proud of where we come from (on a city, county, state, or national level) -- it's that we should also be conscious of our membership in the global community to which we belong, rather than thinking our hierarchy of citizenship ends at the federal level.

Also, this particular post of Stephen's included a link to this quiz that helps identify which American presidential candidates most match your views. I definitely learned something about many of the candidates from this quiz (I don't follow politics that closely), so I thought it was worth passing along.