Tuesday, February 09, 2010

USA vs New Zealand Round 1: National Anthems


I read an article analyzing different countries' national anthems awhile ago that looked at the countries' values and worldview based on the national anthem. I thought it was a stretch, but more recently i was trying to memorize the New Zealand national anthem and thought to myself... So true about NZ! So here is to analyzing for the sake of analyzing :)

National Anthems
Summaries:
US: Celebrating the victory of the brave through their struggle for freedom of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (Declaration of Independence)
NZ: Plea for God’s defense of unity through love instead of strife and war

US: Unity through struggle for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness
NZ: Unity through meeting in the bonds of love

US: Praise through triumph of strife and war
NZ: Praise through lack of strife and war

Interesting:
NZ’s anthem mentions God. (and NZ is more popularly classified as secular nation)
US’s anthem doesn’t mention God (and US is more popularly classified as a Christian nation)

Both seem to have a danger:
USA: Danger of Victory without God (God is not mentioned but assumed)
NZ: Danger of Not needing God for victory (God is mentioned but not always assumed)

2 comments:

Rhett said...

NZ: slightly better than the US?

:-)

Mate, I didn't know you guys had EXPLODING BOMBS in your anthem! Ah... you Americans and your wars. Like a puppy with a chewy toy.

B said...

Spoken like a true Kiwi... hahaha
you know i can't answer that.

are you mocking aggressive americans, do you want to fight about it! just kidding

i think it is profound how much your beginnings and background as a person or even as a country really have an effect on you.