GDANSK, Poland šC In his novel ¡°The Man Without Qualities,¡± Robert Musil gives the Habsburg world another name: Kakania. It is not a primitive country. It has ministries, laws, newspapers, officers, judges, aristocrats, experts, committees, salons, manners and a large supply of official languages. What it lacks is the ability to say what it is.

At the center of the novel is the Parallel Campaign, a patriotic project preparing a celebration in 1918 for the 70th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph¡¯s reign. Important people gather. They draft memoranda, propose symbols, organize meetings and look for a great idea. They know there must be greatness. They cannot say what it consists of.

A state can continue to function after it has lost the ability to describe itself. Offices still work. The language remains. The purpose is missing.

The jubilee never took place. Franz Joseph died in 1916, the Habsburg Empire collapsed in 1918 and World War I swept away the world whose representatives had still been preparing speeches about its greatness.

The United States is now approaching the 250th anniversary of its independence while arguing over what America is. For some, it is a constitutional republic. For others, it is a lost country to be taken back, a market, a border, a grievance, a flag, revenge. This is not background to the anniversary. It is the anniversary.

That argument recently received an image: UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday. It was Flag Day and President Donald Trump¡¯s 80th birthday, and the U.S. was preparing to celebrate its semiquincentennial on July 4. A temporary arena stood on the lawn. At its center was an octagonal cage. Fighters entered. They struck, grappled, fell, rose and were stopped. Invited guests watched. Cameras recorded. The White House stood behind them.

In mixed martial arts, the cage has an ordinary function. It marks the boundary of a regulated fight. In a stadium, that boundary belongs to sport. In Las Vegas, it belongs to sport and entertainment. On the South Lawn, it belonged to the state as well.

The address changed the object. A cage is not only sporting equipment when it stands beside the White House during a national anniversary. The word ¡°freedom¡± was in the name of the event. It was also in the language of the anniversary.

The bipartisan America250 initiative describes the milestone as an opportunity to reflect on the nation¡¯s past, honor the contributions of all Americans and look ahead. These are ordinary words for a national commemoration. The problem is what was placed beside that language. A republic does not have an emperor, but it can still acquire courtly habits. On the South Lawn,...