Folie \ufffd deux.. folie \ufffd millon - Again!?
Forced pledge isn't any better than the decision to declare it unconstitutional for the generic "Under God".In the immortal words of Ernst Cantorowitz, an obscure UC professor who wrote a tract at the height of the [previous..] McCarthy hysteria, entitled
The Fundamental Issue - wherein he pointed out that the Loyalty Oath was, at root "an attack upon tenure,upon the immunity from political pressures of academia - and an attack upon Free Speech. He demonstrated the absurdity of the "required oath" for Any purpose:
A Coerced Oath is Invalid on Its Face
I'm surprised that a University-edjakated One like yourself.. is unaware Still! of that entire period of US History, of Why the loyalty oath itself Was finally Struck Down.. is unaware of the fallacy of all such oaths and..
(You didn't *actually* major in Econ, did you?)
Anything else is peripheral, but there are consequences in the Mob-focus upon these incidentals:
"Mouthing-the-Words" - a habit you above advocate as a solution inculcates into the little cheeldrun the germ of the idea behind the Massive-lying of politics and bizness in the New Millennium. It is a virtual recipe for a new generation of PHBs - of the Enron scale IMhO.
Advocacy of such personal duplicity is an excellent means for conditioning the malleable young mind in a number of related attitudes about themselves and about their 'society'. Among these 'implanted suggestions' are -
A) Adults don't *really* value honesty and integrity and Principles (they lie about those Farmily Valuez, in the end. Too.)
B) Tyranny of the Majority is basically.. OK if you can (still) get away with it - but please to call this, "the illusion of consensus" - because That feels so good. SO much for any native respect In Fact for: an individual's Right to an Individual POV.
C) Ergo: all that bizness lying, political spin (the murder of Language itself) - is acceptable behaviour: so Go Out and Get Yours, and screw the consequences for any you climb-over on the Way to the Top.
D) Such a mindset inexorably paves the mental path towards:
The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice and always has been...We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had-- the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he (just he, by himself) believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.As I said, I'm surprised that your 'US edjakayshun' + steel-trap mind for iptables and recursive descriptors: fails utterly to see how very much depends upon a culture's
- Mark Twain, "Monarchical and Republican Patriotism" via mmoffitt
Tacit acceptance of ANY 'coerced oath'
To make it reel simple, if Econ was indeed your major:
an 'Oath' is taken entirely voluntarily or.. it is a duplicitous enforcement of a false consensus. It is a LIE.
