The Danish flag is everywhere in Denmark. It's at the airport when parents greet their kids coming back from holiday. It's on the birthday cake when you invite people over. It's swinging from the flagpoles in house after house, especially in the countryside. It's on the buses on the monarch's birthday. It's everywhere and all the time.

I love it.

I love that the Danes are so proud of their country that the flag is the most common symbol for celebrating any momentous occasion. Even just returning from a trip! Because being a Dane means something to the Danish. It's a unique identity, separate from everyone else in the world. It's local, it's close, it's personal.

It's not like that everywhere. It seems like the American flag, for example, has now been solidly right-wing coded. You don't see many progressives putting up big flags in their backyards anymore. And you certainly don't see them putting American flags on their birthday cakes, like the Danes.

What a shame to feel such shame about the country you live in.

Don't get me wrong, the Danes don't all love everything going on in Denmark either. It's a national sport to rag on politicians. To complain about municipal services. To want things to be better. 

Perfectly healthy for a country to wish to see improvement. But once that search for better tips over into disliking or outright hating the national symbols, you're off the rails, and much less likely to actually fix anything.

Don't even get me started with the UK. It seems flying the English flag is now as transgressive as posting you're not a big fan of mass immigration on Facebook. And given that the latter  is already likely to land you in trouble with the increasingly authoritarian state, it seems likely that the former might soon too.

National pride is a cornerstone of building a high-trust society.  It flows from a strong national identity that defines clear norms, values, and priorities. What better reason than that to raise the flag!