The Whitest Kids U' Know - Pledge of Allegiance

[George H. Smith]

The Whitest Kids U' Know - Pledge of Allegiance

Ghs

[sbeaulieu]

Haha!!! This is not brainwashing...

~ Shane

[syrakusos]

Read the history of the Pledge for yourself.

The Pledge was created by Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist.

Back in 1890, progressives felt that Americans were too self-centered and needed a national culture as enjoyed in Germany and Italy and the UK and France. To understand the intellectual context, see "The Rising National Individualism" by Herbert Adolphus Miller The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 19, No. 5 (Mar., 1914), pp. 592-605. By "national individualism" the author explains what we would call "national socialism" - each nation having its own "individual" culture - and he does bring that to bear: that nations want the economics of socialism but for their own people. He contrasts this with "international socialism."

In 1940, Pentecostal Christians in Minersville, West Virginia, challenged the Pledge and lost. However, the suit was brought foward again and with WWII in full swing the Supreme Court decided that democracy was not served by forcing people to swear loyality to the flag or to the state.

Back in 1989, I was teaching at Lansing Community College. Lansing brought several thousand Southeast Asian refugees, "boat people" into our community. I shared an office with a teacher who was working in one of the programs for them. She told me that they refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance. They said that it was like the communist indoctrination they were forced to endure. Their teacher replied like "No, this is different. Read the words '... liberty and justice for all ...' " and they replied "Yes, just like the communist propaganda they forced us to repeat. They had high-sounding words, too." That class dropped the Pledge. If you mean it, you don't make people say it.

Edited June 21, 2011 by Michael E. Marotta

[Selene]

Read the history of the Pledge for yourself.

The Pledge was created by Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist.

Back in 1890, progressives felt that Americans were too self-centered and needed a national culture as enjoyed in Germany and Italy and the UK and France. To understand the intellectual context, see "The Rising National Individualism" by Herbert Adolphus Miller The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 19, No. 5 (Mar., 1914), pp. 592-605. By "national individualism" the author explains what we would call "national socialism" - each nation having its own "individual" culture - and he does bring that to bear: that nations want the economics of socialism but for their own people. He contrasts this with "international socialism."

In 1940, Pentecostal Christians in Minersville, West Virginia, challenged the Pledge and lost. However, the suit was brought foward again and with WWII in full swing the Supreme Court decided that democracy was not served by forcing people to swear loyality to the flag or to the state.

Back in 1989, I was teaching at Lansing Community College. Lansing brought several thousand Southeast Asian refugees, "boat people" into our community. I shared an office with a teacher who was working in one of the programs for them. She told me that they refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance. They said that it was like the communist indoctrination they were forced to endure. Their teacher replied like "No, this is different. Read the words '... liberty and justice for all ...' " and they replied "Yes, just like the communist propaganda they forced us to repeat. They had high-sounding words, too." That class dropped the Pledge. If you mean it, you don't make people say it.

Michael:

Agreed. From 1969 through to 1974, my wife and I, and my good grad school and teaching friend and his wife, had seasons tickets to the NY Knicks. Yep, we were at the only two Basketball World Championships that NY ever won.

At any rate, due to my opposition to the draft and the way the Vietnam War was not being fought, I would not stand for the National Anthem at all of our home games. Sometimes it got a little sticky when folks from the mid west were sitting in front or behind me, but I used their comments as an opportunity to engage them and introduced them to Rand and libertarianism. Wound up convincing quite a few and earning the respect of the rest when they understood that I was coming from a "right wing" libertarian position. They just never knew there was such a political position.

So I agree with you, forcing someone to sing or pledge is essentially anti American.

Adam

Edited June 21, 2011 by Selene