It is apparent to me that many public schools do not want students to think for themselves. In this system I have seen little more than our recitings of the Pledge smear much of our wasteful practices in my face. We should have never meant these strings of words to begin with. The fact that I am even writing an article on this says too much for me to fully understand.
It’s obvious that people don’t know or think about what the Pledge means. Most groups of Americans are full of ignorance, ignorance being the enemy of all who are governed. I’ll break down the first several words: A pledge is a formal promise, allegiance is full loyalty to a superior group, “the flag” is a representation of how much land this country has bought or forcefully stolen. All governments are corrupt and America is no exception. This country has repeatedly kept its faults hidden and presented itself as righteous without substance. Why should anybody promise loyalty to such a thing? It’s not special to practice nationalistic viewpoints that several countries have had for centuries.
The rest of the saying is supposed to describe the strong points of our country. It doesn’t describe anything about America, however. The Pledge of Allegiance describes some silly utopia that doesn’t exist here or anywhere, a land where all are free and united under some deity. Yes, we need to fight for equality, but undermining our problems is absolutely not the way. In the mornings we should be talking with each other and developing ideas that can help the world around us. Instead I stay seated while at least two-thirds of my class recite these cult-like promises that go unexplained. The Pledge of Allegiance is indoctrination. I find it to be a small form of brainwashing. Following the crowd in this scenario will have you pinned down by your own mob’s psychology.
You have all the freedom you want to stand for this thing, but remember this: speech in America is a hierarchy of wealth and power. This hierarchy is being used to keep people blind conformists in the slow chaos that is our politics. Our president is a convicted criminal and has a record of sexually abusing women, some of which the monster has defamed. Their administration is blaming all of our problems on minorities while making our problems worse. The wealth inequality here is disgusting. That doesn’t sound like liberty and justice for all to me, and the picture I have just made sounds like the opposite of our society’s projected America. But still, people somehow support them. They believe in things with no reasoning because they find a false greatness. I see this mode of thinking in the Pledge of Allegiance. It is a common theme in America, not thinking deeply about systems or traditions or beliefs. I believe this mode of thinking will greatly harm society much more.
