The Pledge of Allegiance is some cult shit and nobody can convince me otherwise. Like, why do we ingrain it into our youths so early that loyalty to our country is so important that it’s the first thing we do everyday? Like I can’t promise that I wanna go to Canada when I’m old enough.
The modern pledge is actually far different than how it used to be. The original was decently tame in 1892:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The idea was to instill patriotism and unification following tensions that still existed after the civil war. In fact the first revision was to add the word “to” before “the republic” so speakers knew it could not be the rebel flag to which they pleged allegiance:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and [to] the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
In the 1920s, with immigration on the rise they wanted to ensure that immigrants were pledging loyalty to the United States and not to their home country so it was revised again:
“I pledge allegiance to
my[the] Flag [of the United States of America] and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”And the final and most current revision occurred in 1954 during the Cold War, when Congress formally adopted this version which includes “under God” as it was meant to indicate that we were a nation with God on our side, in stark contrast to those “Godless Commies”:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation [under God], indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
So yes the pledge is and always has been some cult shit.