Liberal Arts Blog — The American, French, and British Flags: What Do the Colors Stand For? Who Cares? Who Should?
Liberal Arts Blog — Friday is the Joy of Art, Architecture, Design, Film, and All Things Visual Day
Today’s Topic: The American, French, and British Flags: What Do the Colors Stand For? Who Cares? Who Should?
What were you taught at home or in school? Did the topic even come up? Should it? What would logic say they should stand for? If you were chair of a committee appointed to assign meaning to each, what would your recommendation be? Is ambiguity a virtue in this matter? Today, a few notes. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE US FLAG: Charles Thomson (1729–1824), Secretary of the Continental Congress (first link below)
1. “White signifies purity and innocence.”
2. “Red, hardiness and valour.”
3. “Blue signifies vigilance, perseverance, and justice.”
NB: How about the red representing red states, the blue states, and white peace between them? (on the model of the Irish flag — green for Catholics, orange for Protestants, and white for peace between them). Or red representing the principle of liberty, blue the principle of justice and white the reconciliation of the two? Or perhaps white could stand for the principle of truth, without which there is no justice, nor freedom.
THE FRENCH — logic and history evoke these possible meanings
1. “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” (Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite)
2. These were the colors of the Dutch Republic and the “three colors of liberty.”
3. White was the color of the clergy, blue of the aristocracy, red of the bourgeois or middle class. Is the flag primarily a symbol of national unity?
NB: White represents the King, blue and red are the colors of Paris. Alternatively, a traditionalist, Catholic view: “Blue symbolizes Saint Martin (Martin of Tours), a Christian saint with a shrine in Paris. Red symbolizes Saint Denis, a martyr and saint who was the Bishop of Paris. White symbolizes the Virgin Mary or Joan of Arc.”
THE UNITED KINGDOM — the merger of three countries, three saints, three crosses
1. England: the vertical red cross of St. George, the patron saint of England, on a white background.
2. Scotland: a diagonal white cross of St. Andrew, on a blue background
3. Ireland: a diagonal red cross of St. Patrick, on a white background
NB: Kind of a visual jumble? And, oops, what about Wales? The United Kingdom is actually comprised of four constituent countries, three of which collectively make up “Great Britain” (England, Scotland, and Wales). The fourth is, of course Northern Ireland. The flag of Wales includes the color green plus a red dragon. Can you visualize inclusion of either in the Union Jack?
FOOTNOTE: flags, colors, and the law of diminishing returns
1.) Does the law of diminishing returns set in rapidly after three colors in a flag?
2.) Is the flag of South Africa, for example, too busy? It has six colors.
3.) Or is it the exception that proves the rule?
https://swampland.time.com/2013/07/04/why-the-u-s-flag-is-red-white-and-blue/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Thomson
Why is the French flag blue, white, red ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Jack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_France
Here’s why Republicans are ‘red’ and Democrats are ‘blue’: USA TODAY may have contributed to it
Flag Colors | World Flags | Colours in Flag | Geography | Geo for Kids
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_South_Africa
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY ARE AVAILABLE HERE:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned recently or ever related to art, sculpture, design, architecture, film, or anything visual.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day. And to cement in your own memory something cool or important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that is close to your heart.
