The Ritual-Protected Nation

America stands proud and alone

“No matter how bad Dad’s drinking got, we always had Thanksgiving at Grandma’s. It was like a bubble where we could just be normal.”

“Mama always sings this song before bed. Even when I’m scared, it makes me feel safe, like nothing can hurt me.”

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America is a ritual-protected nation. Independence Day, the flag, the national anthem, thanking the troops - all give the country an intense sense of itself, which in turn gives it the strength for radical resistance to collapse.

Rituals are an assertion of continuity. The medical and sociological literature abound with examples of ritual as a source of strength: the children of alcoholics who maintain family rituals are less likely to become alcoholics themselves, and asthmatic children from ‘ritual-protected families’ are better able to stabilize themselves in challenging situations.

Conversely, the absence of family rituals is highly destructive to family well-being:

“…one of the most powerful findings that emerged from observation studies in families with disturbed children "was that these families didn't seem to set aside anything as special. They didn't try to build traditions. Mealtimes were mundane. Bedtimes were boring. Leaving the house and coming back was completely without spirit. The absence of traditions and rituals in these families was giving the children the message that they weren't important and that the family wasn't important."

— Sarah Ban Breathnach, Tradition, The Tie the Defines (Washington Post)

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What are rituals?

Mere routines are pragmatic and instrumental. Rituals transcend routines when they become symbolically endowed; when they are given a special meaning and aesthetic.

Rituals assert “this is who we are”. In their repetition both backwards and forwards in time, they convey stability, structure, belonging, and a sense of ‘rightness’. They define a boundary between correct and incorrect, between family and outsider.

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Rituals assert a break from the mundanity of practical existence. In so doing, they stand out, and become memorable. The transition from mundane to sacred is felt: the night before Christmas, the joining of hands before grace, the lights turned off before the birthday candles are lit, the crowd stood in silence before the anthem is sung.

Time was, with most of us, when Christmas Day encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and every one around the Christmas fire; and made the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.

— Charles Dickens, What Christmas is as We Grow Older

This distinctive feeling lives vividly in the mind and can be summoned as a source of security and strength.

"You bring out the old glass, you sing the old songs, you say the same prayer, you wear a certain outfit, you set the table in a certain way. All of this is symbolic and it sticks. It protects. Kids love ritual. There is a real longing for it. In my clinical work, when I talk to people about what's memorable about their past, what they will always talk about are traditions. That's what counts. That's what sticks.”

— Steven J. Wolin, George Washington University's Center for Family Research

Rituals are unlike practical concerns in that everyone has a role to play. This unconditional quality mirrors the absolute bonds of family. ''A ritual is a lens for seeing the structure of the family,'' said Dr. Imber-Black, ''to see family roles and rules, to see who gets to do what with whom and when.''

The space that rituals create to pass on myths facilitates ‘identity integration’ - the reconciling of different parts of the self, the generations, and the family into a greater whole.

…families with the strongest transmission of faith ‘sanctify’ and ‘ritualize’ all elements of their lives… Importantly, we see that they are weaving their faith into the most joyous and warm parts of their lives, rather than walling off observances of their faith as discrete activities.

— Johann Kurtz, Your children will abandon your beliefs unless...

One of America’s great strengths is that it is unashamedly ritualistic. Perhaps this is because, as a young nation, it has consciously had to create itself, and as a highly mobile nation, its rituals have become nationally adopted. American rituals lend themselves to proliferation via mass media, helped by America’s international cultural dominance.

An older country like Britain, on the other hand, has seen a vanishing of ritual, because organic, localized, and highly particular rituals are weakened by mass migration (internal and international) and mass media. The demoralizing effects this has had is profound - only football has really survived.

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There is no British equivalent, for example, for even something as basic as prom. Prom may seem like a trivial cultural curiosity, but properly conducted, it can serve as a powerful initiation ritual - a demarcated moment in time in which the young are expected to take a public step into romantic life. The boy must ask out the girl, and is given cultural strength and support to do so.

In philosophical terms, initiation is equivalent to a basic change in existential condition; the novice emerges from his ordeal endowed with a totally different being from that which he possessed before his initiation; he has become another.

— Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation

Likewise, to be a student athlete in America is a big deal. Recognizing you as their representative, and bound together in loyalty and identity, thousands of your fellow students will watch your football or basketball games. In Britain - it may surprise American reads to learn - there is no equivalent. University football games do not attract large crowds. Few know the names of the players.

The English look at Americans with a certain sense of disdain for their commitment to ritual, which is seen as cliché and lower-class. (‘Murica’). We struggle with our own heroes, because so many of them were not emancipatory figures like Washington but colonial figures attached to an empire which has faded.

But we must escape this trap. For Britain to re-emerge with a national consciousness powerful enough to drive its revival, it will need to learn new songs and conventions. It will need new heroes and myths (even if these heroes and myths are derived from the past).

It will need new rituals.

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Sic transit imperium,

Johann