Unease about Allegiance

When it comes to public affirmation of norms and values, Germans and Americans could not be further apart. American affirmation of norms and values, starting with the Allegiance to the flag, but sipping through to the language of curricula, movie dialogues or even everyday jokes, are disturbing to the German observer. Germans, on the other hand, generally have been socialized with a massive disdain for overt patriotism, and are generally sceptical toward any public affirmation of norms, which are widely regarded as private beliefs. Yet, mockery of American über-patriotism fails to see the underlying reasons for the ubiquity of norm affirmation: the heterogeneity of the immigrant society. Norm affirmation seems to be the American Way of building common ground between individuals with highly diverse personal backgrounds, as well a constructing a national identity for a fragmented society. Having become an immigration country itself, Germany still lacks any similar cultural technique to forge a bond between its increasingly heterogenous citizens. Yet, given its totalitarian past, norm affirmation just seems out of the question.