DID CHAIRMAN MAO HAVE THE RIGHT IDEA: CLOSE THE SCHOOLS AND SEND THE PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE TO PLANT RICE FOR 10 YEARS.

DID CHAIRMAN MAO HAVE THE RIGHT IDEA:  CLOSE THE SCHOOLS AND SEND THE PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE TO PLANT RICE FOR 10 YEARS.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Banning the American flag? Why UC Irvine flap might be glimpse of future.

A decision by the student body government of the University of California at Irvine to ban the display of all flags – including the United States flag – has been vetoed.

According to the Associated Press, the university’s executive cabinet has voted to overturn the ban, which prompted outrage nationwide and led one state legislator to consider an amendment to the California constitution to ensure the American flag could be flown on the campuses of state schools.

On one hand, the now-vetoed decision to ban the American flag had the feel of student government run amok, as budding iconoclasts tried to make a statement about the moral complexities they’re learning in History 101. Flags are “flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism” and they “serve as symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism,” the statement explaining the original ban noted.

Yet the move, short-lived though it was, speaks to more than an only-in-California spasm of 20-something intellectual angst. More broadly, it points to a generational shift in the notion of what patriotism is.

To the extent — probably small — that this is true, it’s the Gramscian Long March bearing fruit. But I think that when people don’t like things that happen on campus, they should feel free to go to the campuses and protest them. Burst the bubble: The protest thing works both ways. I think a nice Rolling Thunder-style flag-decked motorcycle protest through the UC Irvine campus would send the message that there are a lot of people who feel differently than the SJW-dominated student government. As our President says, get in their face.