Flags and Free Speech

Here at Society and Money, the vast majority of our posts, comments, and links refer to the money half of our title. Why this is I can only speculate, but for my part I believe it has something to do with the impersonal nature of economics which allows me to point to a chart and tell someone they are wrong. The society part must include more detailed, nuanced arguments which are difficult to convey in a blog. However, today I bring you a post that has nothing to do with economics or money.

San Francisco State University is investigating a group of students for burning a flag. I know this is a contentious issue. There are arguments with merit on both sides of this issue. I recognize that the flag is a symbol of our country, and that an insult to the flag is an insult to our country. However, if someone wants to insult our country, our freedom of speech traditions would seem to protect their right to do so. In the polarized political landscape we inhabit, "conservatives" have been in favor of making flag burning illegal, while "liberals" have defended the act as a first amendment right, although many exceptions exist. Personally, I think that it is usually better to err on the side of freedom. If someone wants to burn our nation in effigy, that is a freedom we should respect.

But what if someone burned another flag? The flag of an organization that most of the world considers a terrorist group, responsible for acts of war and murder on an international scale? What if someone burned the Hezbollah flag?

College Republicans are under investigation for disrespecting the flag of Hezbollah. "After students filed a complaint claiming they were offended because the flags bore the word “Allah,” SFSU initiated an investigation into accusations of incitement, creation of a hostile environment, and incivility." This will be interesting to watch. Burning a flag is an insult, no question. But is that insult something that should be punishable? If the school decides that it is, it will have amazing repercussions across the country as people on both sides jump in to "end the insensitivity and insult" to their symbol of choice, banning any act they find offensive (Note that Nazi flags have a cross on them. Indeed they consist of nothing but a cross and circle on a field. Should the Church sue to prevent the desecration of Nazi artifacts? Discuss).

I doubt that any actual punishment will result from this investigation, but the fact that there is an investigation seems to show a double standard in respect for the United States of America and Hezbollah.