That was all fun wasn't it? Nothing wrong in assigning responsibility to a group rather than the individuals in it. There's nothing frightening about a bit of patriotism, the group coalescing around a central idea, you might even get a nice song out of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8g9qqFF...re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8g9qqFF...re=related