My kids will NOT be saying the pledge of allegiance, nor even learning it. And to think I used to hold my chin high in government school and take pride in my nationalism, saying the pledge with fervor and an occasional tear in my eye. There is nothing conservative nor Christian about the pledge, by the way. It was written by Francis Bellamy, an avowed socialist, who intended the Pledge of Allegiance to be a vow of allegiance to the state, a quintessentially un-American idea. Conservatives of the day hated the pledge, calling it State worship, and the progressives loved it—that is, of course, until they added the words "under God" in 1954 and suddenly the roles switched. The salute to the flag even used to be exactly the same as the Nazi salute until AFTER world war II, when it was changed to a hand on the heart. « ... The Bellamy cousins decided that American youth needed to be taught "loyalty to the state" because they realized that the individualism and the love of liberty of the American founding fathers would always stand in the way of achieving the socialist utopia that was described in [his book] Looking Backward. America supposedly suffered from too much liberty and not enough equality, said the author of the Pledge of Allegiance ... The public schools must be used to teach blind obedience to the state, the Bellamys reasoned, and the National Education Association was pleased to help them accomplish this goal. They planned a "National Public School Celebration" in 1892, which was the first national propaganda campaign on behalf of the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a massive campaign that involved government schools and politicians throughout the country. The government schools were promoted, along with the Pledge, while private schools, especially parochial ones, were criticized. Students were taught to recite the Pledge with their arms outstretched, palms up, similar to how Roman citizens were required to hail Caesar, and not too different from the way in which Nazi soldiers saluted their Fuhrer. This was the custom in American public schools from the turn of the twentieth century until around 1950, when it was apparently decided by public school officials that the Nazi-like salute was in bad taste. The Pledge of Allegiance is an oath of allegiance to the omnipotent, Lincolnian state. Its purpose was never to inculcate in children the ideals of the American founding fathers, but those of two eccentric nineteenth-century socialists ... » The original version: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: —(I will be loyal to the state and obey it’s commands.) one Nation —(The state is the people) indivisible —(People are not allowed to secede or withdraw from the state.) With Liberty and Justice for all. —(Standard boilerplate conditions that all states, from Iceland to the People’s Republic of North Korea, claim to establish for the people under their control.)
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 07:24:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015