“Show me a man wearing an American flag pin in his lapel, and I’ll show you an asshole,” said Bill Maher during a recent “New Rules” segment. [1]
What does it show that one puts a little flag on one’s lapel or that one sanctimoniously goes around saying “God bless America?” Nothing. These are cheap substitutes for being a well-informed, good-hearted and active citizen. In my expereience, not all flag wearers are fake patriots, but many are. I wouldn’t therefore go as far as Maher, though his conclusion is substantiated all too often.
To be reliable, a signal needs to be expensive. This is true of all animals and it was was well established by Amotz Zahave, author of The Handicap Principle. [2] And humans, of course, are animals.
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