state worship as the inescapable religion

Finished Durkheim in soc today. At first I was rather confused as to the difference between his view of religion and the role of the state from that of Marx. Both seem rather similar to me though I do understand there are fundemental differences in their views of who or what is to blame for inequality. Today though I thought alot about Durkheim's argument that state worship is the inescapable religion of the present and just how far reaching that is. My professor commented on the flag and the national anthem, national monuments, and even the use of elementary schools as proof of this. I can see that. What I want to know though is how do you change that? How do you change something SO pervasive that it is almost unquestionable outside of the safety of a classroom or the "privacy" of your home? Also, I'm wondering how it is that the illusion of individuality is accomplished/pepetuated at the expense of the collective. By this I mean, how is it that we live in a society that proclaims itself founded upon choice/freedom/individual rights/liberty etc that simultaneously extolls the idea that there is a national voice/consciousness/indentity so very grounded in Durkheim's notion of state worship?

How is this duality possible yet alone real when it seems so contradictory? I realize that there has always been a history in our nation pitting the idea of the individual rights against the collective "good" whether that be in the way that abolitionists challenged the 'right' of the slaveowner or the way that the civil rights activist was portrayed and treated as a threat to the state and social order, even when he or she was trying to work within the legal framework to reform the system and NOT overhaul it. I realize too that we are under the heavy smog/fog of advertisers who sell us pre-packaged, mass produced thought labeled 'choice' and marketed as 'liberty.' I understand this. How do you change it though? Where do you even begin?