Like most of my U.S. readers, I grew up saying the Pledge — 13 years of public education. 13 years of saying the Pledge. 13 years of never once seeing anything wrong with it. 13 years of thinking it’d ever change.
But why pledge allegiance to the flag every day?
I don’t pledge my allegiance to my wife and child or even my Christian God every day! I do it by action.
I pledge allegiance to logic, wisdom and God and I pray that the flag falls under one of those things. But if “the flag” (this nation) is stupid, evil, and wrong. Then it does not have my allegiance.
Lets think about the very concept of requiring students to recite this. You are requiring that they make a statement about their allegiance. Merriam-Webster defines allegiance as
1 a : the obligation of a feudal vassal to his liege lord b (1) : the fidelity owed by a subject or citizen to a sovereign or government (2) : the obligation of an alien to the government under which the alien resides
2 : devotion or loyalty to a person, group, or cause
I thought this was America, land of the free and home of the brave. I do not believe that allegiance and obligation of a feudal vassal (the student) to his liege lord (the state) mixes with the liberty on which this country was founded. Take a huge step back for a minute and compare this requirement to the watching of the media broadcasts in Orwell’s 1984. I don’t see it as being so different.
Instead of requiring students to recite some fascist poem how about teaching them to think freely, make their own decisions, take responsibility and be accountable for themselves and their actions.
but jay, how else are they going to turn the american populace into unthinking sheep? memorization != learning. when more people vote in american idol than the presidential election or think that driving is a more important “right” than voting or free speech… we have a serious effing problem.
I’m not sure the feudal model is appropriate; the responsibility flowed from vassal to liege and from liege to vassal. We don’t seem to get much of the downstream flow from this crap.
matt, I agree with much of what you say, but I do not believe the act of saying the pledge is turning anyone into unthinking sheep (I’ll leave that to MTV).
It does suck that more people don’t get out and vote. It does suck that people have screwed up priorities (driving vs. voting). Any ideas about how to fix the problem?
Jay,
I’m not sure how to respond to your post. I don’t see the Pledge as a “fascist poem” and I would certainly not characterize our current administration as being fascists.
Also, looking at the definitions you posted for the word allegiance…I tend to believe #2 is more in the spirit of this discussion.