>>211857475 (OP)Blue - War, conflict, rivalry
White - Republic
Red - Monarchy
The French flag describes the history of humanity since time immemorial: republican (horizontal representative liberal democracy) - vs - absolute/totalist/top2down hierarchism (monarchy which can only be absolute, cliques, chieftain, overlordship...; pyramid/obelisk power structure)
That's how I've understood it.
There's some alchemical symbology allusion to it too.
Under monarchism (it can only be absolute), nobody really owns their own property, it belongs to the aristocrat on the totem poll and/or to the king/royalty.
Coo-o-oincidentally, socialist-communists also don't believe in proprietorship, with red as the “blood” of the working people (what about the party elite, nomenklatura?).
I always considered that, having acquired that knowledge, with vertical stripes flags the middle signifies the genuine core power of a nation-state.
I'm still not sure with the horizontal stripes.
In the past, I thought that the upper color signaled the structure of the genuine core power but now I'm not convinced anymore.