I’m working on a new wordpress blog design project for somebody that saw my previous work, this new job has something to do with politics. So I figured the best place to look for some kind of imagery would be SXC.hu which has a ton of pictures.
Right, I go type in patriotic to see what comes up and there are only 3 pages of results. Not too much patriotism going on this stock image site I presume. Fine, no problem. I start skimming through the results to see if there is something I could pick up, but I’m just met with a bunch of images of practically only American Flags and American landmarks! There were a few other countries flags that I spotted but nothing in comparison to all the red, white and blue ones.
So basically SXC.hu has only images for American Patriots, everybody else who loves their country…well good luck finding relevant images there.
Personally speaking if I search for the word “patriotic” I would expect to see images of crowds of people maybe with their hands on their chests saying the national anthem, or fireworks (sxc had some of those), or kids holding hands together or something similar…not mostly American Flags.
*I do not have anything against the American Flag or the American People, this is just an observation.
Technorati Tags: blog design, wordpress, images, patriotism
Beth on April 26th, 2007
1
The most likely reason why the search results showed “American Patriotism” is due to the fact the term, in the last several years, has been over-used-especially since 9/11. It’s almost as if the words American and Patriotism go hand in hand.
Ali on April 26th, 2007
2
Yeah, true.
But since SXC being an international image site I expected other images, anyway the fact is the blog design is for an American political blog so the images came in handy.
Though that still doesn’t mean a “patriotic” search should only show Americanism.
Thanks for commenting.
emi on November 20th, 2007
3
Well, one of the possible reasons is that “patriotism” in Europe (and in most of the world countries) is usually considered something slightly “childish”, not really serious.
Then, patriotism tends to consist of the concept of “right or wrong, my country”: a concept that is blatantly wrong. If my country is wrong is simply wrong, and it would be a mistake from my side if I tried to defend its mistakes.
In America, it all changes: the media-fed public tends to give for granted that the US are the “best country”, the most fair country in the world, always right, even when it is wrong. That’s “patriotism”.
But one thing is being “patriotic” (with all the funny and pitoresque things that patriotism implies). Another thing is being objective when thinking of how our countries act and work.
I am happy to live in a country where patriotism is not a dogma.