More on the Pledge (Signifying Nothing: how does saying nothing at all become so loud?)

Friday, 26 March 2004

More on the Pledge

Jacob Levy sums up precisely why I don't like the Pledge of Allegiance, with or without "under God":

every schoolchild in America, every one who doesn't make a spectacle of him or herself by conscientiously objecting, is expected every schoolday to
pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America And to the Republic for which it stands One nation under God, indivisivible, with liberty and justice for all
which is, really, an awful lot like an oath of loyalty and citizenship.

Voluntary or involuntary, religious or secular, children should not be encouraged to take oaths. That includes the Pledge of Allegiance, promises never to use drugs, and promises never to have pre-marital sex.

Alex Tabarrok, however, goes a bit over the top in opposing the pledge for similar reasons. You've heard of Godwin's Law, haven't you, Prof. Tabarrok?

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Welcome to Signifying Nothing, a weblog featuring serious (and frivolous) commentary from Chris Lawrence, an associate professor of political science at Middle Georgia State University in Macon, Georgia.
Chris was also formerly a contributor to Outside The Beltway.
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Signifying Nothing formerly featured the stylings of Brock Sides, a left-leaning philosopher turned network administrator currently residing in Memphis, Tennessee who now blogs at Battlepanda, and Robert Prather, a libertarian-leaning conservative economist and occasional contributor at OTB.

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