Pledge Your Allegiance
Picture a place where children, starting from the ripe age of 7 years old, are made to chant a contract of their loyalty to a an idol that represents ideals they don’t yet understand. Imagine that they not only say it but also undergo a ritual each morning to praise the idol. Any dissident who forgoes the ritual is condemned and questioned, even being outcast by piers. You may be envisioning a country such as Russia or China, or even some fictional, Orwellian government, but I assure you the horrors of indoctrination are much closer than they appear. I am talking of course about our very own “Pledge of Allegiance”. You must’ve been through it 300 plus times in your life, but as rituals often go it has become unnoticed, a mere part of your day that you don’t acknowledge because it is as common …show more content…
What are these words anyway? Even the name itself, the pledge of allegiance, sounds a bit fascist. The literal pledging of your loyalty is surpassed by the symbolic gesture of placing a hand over your heart and saying it with every other child in the United States. Does your undying loyalty lie in America? Every morning you say that it does. Where does this practice originate from? It must be deeply rooted in the foundations of America for it to be so important, right? Well, actually that isn’t the case at all. The pledge was originally published in “The Youth’s Companion” on September 8th, 1892, by Francis Bellamy. Originally it read, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” In 1923 the words “the Flag of the United States of America” were added and, most interestingly, in 1954 the words “under God” were added. This phrase,“under God”, was only added to the pledge in order to spite communist during the red scare. This came into effect because Russians were widely perceived as atheist in the United States. The full current pledge reads as follows: “I pledge
Picture a place where children, starting from the ripe age of 7 years old, are made to chant a contract of their loyalty to a an idol that represents ideals they don’t yet understand. Imagine that they not only say it but also undergo a ritual each morning to praise the idol. Any dissident who forgoes the ritual is condemned and questioned, even being outcast by piers. You may be envisioning a country such as Russia or China, or even some fictional, Orwellian government, but I assure you the horrors of indoctrination are much closer than they appear. I am talking of course about our very own “Pledge of Allegiance”. You must’ve been through it 300 plus times in your life, but as rituals often go it has become unnoticed, a mere part of your day that you don’t acknowledge because it is as common …show more content…
What are these words anyway? Even the name itself, the pledge of allegiance, sounds a bit fascist. The literal pledging of your loyalty is surpassed by the symbolic gesture of placing a hand over your heart and saying it with every other child in the United States. Does your undying loyalty lie in America? Every morning you say that it does. Where does this practice originate from? It must be deeply rooted in the foundations of America for it to be so important, right? Well, actually that isn’t the case at all. The pledge was originally published in “The Youth’s Companion” on September 8th, 1892, by Francis Bellamy. Originally it read, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” In 1923 the words “the Flag of the United States of America” were added and, most interestingly, in 1954 the words “under God” were added. This phrase,“under God”, was only added to the pledge in order to spite communist during the red scare. This came into effect because Russians were widely perceived as atheist in the United States. The full current pledge reads as follows: “I pledge