Banksy didn’t just blind the man with the flag. He gave him the confidence to stride anyway.
This isn’t the usual 'patriotism makes you stupid' jab everyone keeps repeating.
Look at the suit, the plinth, the imperial corridor of Waterloo Place... this is the modern power suit, the bureaucrat, CEO, politician, stepping off the very pedestal society built for him.
The flag doesn’t slow him.
It gives him momentum he never questions.
Banksy’s point is quieter: we don’t fall because we’re blind. We fall because we’ve convinced ourselves the flag is our eyes.
Every empire, every movement, every 'greater cause' started exactly like this with faceless momentum.
The sculpture isn’t mocking the marcher. It’s mourning the moment he mistook the wind for wisdom.