Francis Bellamy And The United States Pledge Of Allegiance

The United States Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by an American socialist named Francis Julius Bellamy, who was also a Baptist minister, and whose cousin Edward Bellamy is the semi-famous author of two socialist utopian novels: Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

Francis Bellamy was born in Rome, New York, May 18, 1855. He died August 28, 1931. His original Pledge of Allegiance was first published in a magazine called Youth’s Companion, a nationally circulated publication written for youngsters.

In 1888, Youth’s Companion began its campaign to sell American flags to public schools. For Francis Bellamy, this was more than a mere money-maker: it was an opportunity for him to spread his statist propaganda, and in the end Youth’s Companion became a supporter of the Schoolhouse Flag Project, which, under Bellamy’s watchful eye, aimed to place a flag above every public school in America.

His Pledge of Allegiance was first published in the September 8th (1892) issue of Youth’s Companion.

Along with the Pledge, the children were asked to perform the so-called Bellamy Salute (photo below).

Not four decades later, when the Nazi’s rose to power and began saluting in a similar manner, Franklin Roosevelt changed the salute to the hand-over-heart method we see today.

Francis Bellamy’s original Pledge of Allegiance, the recitation of which he intended to take no more than 15 seconds, went like so:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Here, in Bellamy’s own words, is why he chose the specific language that he chose for his Pledge:

It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution … with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people…

The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the ‘republic for which it stands’. …And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation – the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?

Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, ‘Liberty, equality, fraternity’. No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all…

The phrase under God was incorporated into the Pledge on June 14, 1954. The man to introduce it was a fellow named Louis A. Bowman (1872-1959).

Here are the transmutations that the Pledge has undergone since its inception in 1892:

1892
“I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

1892 to 1923
“I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

1923 to 1924
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

1924 to 1954
“I pledge allegiance to 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.”

1954 to Present
“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.”

The Bellamy Salute

The problem, of course, with all this indivisibility talk is that the states were not necessarily intended to be indivisible. As Thomas Jefferson said:

If any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation … to a continuance in union, I have no hesitation in saying, “let us separate” (Thomas Jefferson, 1816).

And John Quincy Adams — a devoted unionist — noted in a 1839 speech about secession:

[In] dissolving that which can no longer bind, we would have to leave the separated parts to be reunited by the law of political gravitation to the center.

If, then, you’ve ever wondered why it is when you hear the Pledge of Allegiance you feel as if you’re hearing the intonations of brainwashed drones, this is why:

The Pledge was a propaganda prayer written by a socialist who’s goal was to inculcate young minds with dogma.

And that’s the end of it.

Author’s Note: This article first appeared January 1st, 2010, on this website.

55 Replies to “Francis Bellamy And The United States Pledge Of Allegiance”

  1. Great post and you are on target. The Pledge of Allegiance was the origin of the Nazi salute (and the swastika -although an ancient symbol- was used to represent crossed S-shapes for “socialism” under the National Socialist German Workers Party).

    Francis Bellamy (cousin of author Edward Bellamy) was a socialist in the Nationalism movement and authored the Pledge of Allegiance (1892), the origin of the stiff-armed salute adopted much later by the National Socialist German Workers Party. See the work of the symbologist Dr. Rex Curry. http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html

    See the image at http://rexcurry.net/pledge_of_allegiance.jpg

    The early American stiff-armed salute was not an ancient Roman salute. That is a myth debunked by Dr. Curry, who showed that the myth came from the Pledge and from various facts including that Francis Bellamy grew up in Rome, N.Y., not Rome, Italy, and thereafter the Pledge salute was repeated in early films (some showing fictional scenes of ancient Rome). The reasons above and more led to the American stiff-armed salute being picked up later by German socialists and the National Socialist German Workers Party (under the influence of Adolf Hitler and the U.S. citizen and Harvard grad Ernst Hanfstaengl, a confidant of Hitler) and by Italian socialists under Benito Mussolini (who discovered the salute while he gained power as a socialist journalist writing for socialist newspapers, and later became an ally of the National Socialist German Workers Party). http://rexcurry.net/pledgerome.html

    Francis Bellamy never used the term “Roman salute” when describing his pledge’s salute and he was not influenced by Jacques-Louis David’s painting “Oath of the Horatii.” One reason why Francis Bellamy never used the term “Roman salute” in any way is because the concept of the “Roman salute” did not exist when Bellamy wrote his pledge and for decades thereafter.
    http://rexcurry.net/roman-salute-oxford-english-dictionary.html

    Francis Bellamy clearly explained that his pledge began with a military salute that was then extended out toward the flag. In practice, the second gesture was performed palm-down with a stiff-arm when the military salute was merely pointed out at the flag by disinterested children forced to do Bellamy’s robotic chanting daily in government schools. That is how the straight-arm salute developed from Francis Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance and its use of the military salute (and how the USA’s Pledge salute led to the Nazi salute). http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html

    That the concept of the “Roman salute” did not exist when Bellamy wrote his pledge (and for decades thereafter) also means that the concept of the “Roman salute” did not even exist when Jacques-Louis David lived and painted “Oath of the Horatii” and thus David was thinking of a real or imagined “Roman salute” when he painted the Horatii, nor did David ever use the term “Roman salute.” The Horatii lie (that the painting was the origin of the “Roman salute” myth) first appeared on Wikipedia, deliberately fabricated by a liar to cover-up Dr. Curry’s discovery that the Pledge was the origin of the Nazi salute. In the painting, 3 brothers are reaching for weapons (and the two figures in back are reaching with their left hands). The same liar who created the Horatii lie had, until he was debunked, previously claimed that the stiff-armed salute was an actual ancient Roman salute, and he posted the lie that Roman statues displaying “adlocutio” (a gesture made by a person speaking) showed “ancient Roman salutes.” The newly substituted Horatii lie has been mindlessly repeated by many people (as the adlocutio lie was repeated and still is) because wakipedia glorifies itself as an encyclopedia, even though it is merely an anonymous bulletin board where anyone can post anything. http://rexcurry.net/pledge_of_allegiance_videos_images.html

    American national socialists (including Edward Bellamy), in cooperation with Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, popularized the use of the Swastika (an ancient symbol) as a modern symbol for socialism long before the symbol was adopted by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis) and used on its flag. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html

    See also http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html

    The Bellamys influenced the National Socialist German Workers Party and its dogma, rituals and symbols (e.g. robotic collective chanting to flags; and the modern use of the swastika as crossed S-letters for “Socialism” under German National Socialism). Similar alphabetical symbolism was used under the NSDAP for the “SS” division, the “SA,” the “NSV,” et cetera and similar symbolism is visible today as the VW logo (the letters “V” and “W” joined for “Volkswagen”). http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter4a1a2a1.html

    The Bellamys wanted the government to take over all food, clothing, shelter, goods and services and create an “industrial army” to impose their “military socialism.” See the video documentary at
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4

    It is the same dogma that led to the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): ~60 million killed under the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; ~50 million under the Peoples’ Republic of China; ~20 million under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. http://rexcurry.net/socialists.html

    Today, the flag symbolizes authoritarianism in the USA. The historical facts above explain the enormous size and scope of government today, and the USA’s police state, and why it is growing so rapidly. They are reasons for minarchy: massive reductions in government, taxation, spending and socialism.

  2. Just curious where the references are? I don’t see any and would like to know where you got your information. I’m writing a paper about this and would like to cite you, but can’t seem to find anything to deem you a credible resource in my research paper (all my citations have to have resources. That means I can only use articles, no dictionaries and ect.). If you could e-mail me, point to where the references page is or post a response to this with that information I would be very grateful. Wonderful and interesting article. Thanks for putting it up! :-)

  3. Hello Tana. Thank you for your comment. Much of my information comes from an old article entitled “The Story of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag,” which appeared in the University of Rochester Library Bulletin, Vol. VIII, 1953.

    The transmutations of the Pledge, from 1892 through the present, can be found in a great number of different places, such as Flag: An American Biography by Marc Leepson (2006), or here:

    http://historyofthepledge.com/history.html

    Or here:

    http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/grace-kelly/pledge-allegiance-was-just-ad-sell-magazines?print=1

    John W. Baer wrote a typographically flawed but well-researched book on the subject called The Pledge Of Allegiance, A Revised History and Analysis.

    Perhaps most interesting of all, the commenter directly above you, tom bell, has hyperlinks throughout his comment, which will take you to some absolutely fascinating old photos. I urge you to check them out. You won’t believe your eyes.

    Thank you for dropping by.

  4. I am curious where you found his birthplace to be Rome, NY? He was indeed raised in Rome, but his birthplace was in fact, Mount Morris, New York.

  5. I remember in the 1960’s there was something called the Bellamy Award. It was named after Francis Bellamy and was awarded (I believe annually) to the “best” (judges and rating criteria unknown) high school on a rotated state basis. High schools that had received the award previously would send a representative to the Bellamy Award Ceremony held in the hometown of the current recipient. I remember attending one such ceremony honoring Wausau High School in Wausau, Wisconsin in October of 1964. I was representing the State of Maryland as the SGA President at Annapolis High School, which had previously received the award. I believe that in 1964 there may have been fifteen to twenty states represented, New York, Virginia, Hawaii and Maryland among them. I have no idea how long this award may have continued after that or whether or not it is still given. I would be very surprised if it still existed. If anyone has additional knowledge on this, I would be interested in hearing.

  6. I am writing a paper on the pledge. Are there any really good sites you guys could give to me? It’s due next week. I’m in desprate need!!

  7. Hello Abby. Click through Rex Curry’s links in the comments above. He also has YouTube channel that’s got some pretty fascinating footage.

  8. One point that was not included in the article was that Francis Bellamy was thrown out of the Baptist Church for preaching and promoting Socialism/Marxism.

  9. Seems to me that you have not done enough research on socialism. And you do not do a complete explaination on the different KINDS of socialism.Especially the Democratic Sosialism and Christian Socialism and Religious Socialism which is based on the teaching of Jesus in the bible. Or are you one of those who do not believe in the bible?

  10. Jesus — Yeshua-Bar-Joseph — was not primarily a political philosopher. He was primarily a moral philosopher.

    But thank you. Thank you for dropping by.

  11. Lawsy, I feel older than dirt. I can remember clear back when we gave the arm salute in school!

  12. Interesting dialogue. For anyone interested, Roy Schoeman wrote a fascinating book published by Ignatius Press called Salvation is From the Jews and it documents the esoterism by which the Nazi party was founded (Blavatsky and Co.). We’re not talking conspiracy theories but conspiracy facts, very well grounded and amazing when the threads are linked. Leo XIII understood well the dangers at hand and wrote many profound encyclicals warning the 20th century about what was ahead. Incidentally, he also wrote several encyclicals on the Christian social doctrine that were very well balanced. As it is, it seems to me that Jesus was neither a social nor moral ‘philosopher’ at all but a sacramental and supernatural philosopher, if you can call him a philosopher at all.

  13. Older than dirt? Shirley, my dear, you’re younger and wiser than any of us.

    Thank you for your comment, and thank you for dropping by.

  14. Thank you for your fascinating comment, Cameron. I’m sincere when I say that I’m going to look into your book recommendation — Salvation is from the Jews — which I’d never heard of before, and which is a subject I’m very interested in.

    I do, for the record, definitely regards Jesus as philosopher — a moral philosopher — but I’m not so sure he was a supernaturalist.

  15. People who want to break apart the United States of America have been here since the founding Fathers came together to fight the British, so for us to have a Pledge of Allegiance to show our commitment to stand together United Under the Constitution, with the Flag as our symbol is not a bad thing.

    Whenever you have a Government you will have some amount of socialism, it can’t be helped. That is why the Founding Fathers warned us to be careful about the things we allow and the laws we pass. For us as a Country our biggest Battle is to keep that tiny little bit of socialism in check so it does not become overbearing on us and our lives. We must be ever vigilant to keep that necessary little tiny bit of socialism in check so it does not come to rule our daily live.

    Always remember Freedom is not free, we pay for it every day, all of us even if we do not thing, we are still paying for our Freedom, it has a cost many do not want to pay for our freedom.

  16. I went to West Waterloo High School in Iowa which received the Bellamy Award in Oct. 1962. We’re approaching our 50th reunion and several people have questions on the status of the award. Are there any updates out there?

  17. Hello Jack. It’s nice to meet you. I don’t know of any updates, but perhaps one of my readers will.

    Thank you for dropping by.

  18. I have written a book Be the Jury! Be the Judge! Who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. In my book I claim that the original author of the Pledge of Allegiance was Frank Elmer Bellamy of Cherryvale, Kansas. There are two letter in my book, both claiming the person being written about is the author of the Pledge. A Harold Roberts, secretary to Francis Bellamy while he was an editor for the Youth’s Companion Magazine, writes that in 1892 Francis Bellamy of Rome, NY wrote the Pledge. An Ed Tucker, officer over Frank Bellamy serving in the Philippines, writes that in 1890 Frank Bellamy of Cherryvale, KS wrote the Pledge. Note two years difference in favor of Frank Bellamy. Frank Bellamy wrote his pledge as a school project to enter into a contest sponsored by the Youth’s Companion Magazine in January 1890. The contest was found in 1997. Cherryvale will be honoring Frank Bellamy on September 15 at the Cherryvale Museum. One person on the program is Dr. William Powell. He is the grandson of Irene Powell, teacher in Cherryvale, who always claimed that Frank wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in her classroom. In 1923, Francis Bellamy claimed that he was the author of the pledge. George Miller, a deceased reporter of Madison, Indiana where Frank Bellamy was born, wrote how can the editor of a children’s contest be the author?

  19. There is very strong evidence that Frank E. Bellamy wrote the pledge of Allegiance not Francis Bellamy. Check out Joyce Lpng’s book: be the Jury be the Judge ! Who wrote Theledge of Allegiance?

  20. Sorry for the typos .joyce Long is the author and the title ends with Who wrote the Pledge of allegiance?

  21. Not to be an asshole, but since the words matter, and you have no evidence other than “very strong”… its about time we settle on just who is responsible for the script behind “The Pledge of Allegiance”.
    Its actually, believe it or snot, all those kiddies in preschool up to 6th grade that are the ones behind this propagandized indoctrination of the wealthiest most powerful construct on earth.
    Yes, by way of their chants at 7:59 every morning while in their wooden stools we have all been hypnotized by the subliminal messaging conducted by the evil overseers.

    Sorry Joyce, but you’re no doubt prolly a great gal, but your Aug 2013 post is a bit muddled, and confusing, to say the least.

  22. No need to apologize, Tom, especially when you’re talking to me: the king of typos.

    In fact, I apologize to you, sir. And to you Micky. For some reason, I didn’t get the usual email notification that I’d been left a comment.

    Thank you both for dropping by.

  23. P.S. Micky wrote: “Not to be an asshole, but …”

    Perhaps you’ve got soft in the soft Hawaiian sunlight, friend, but that was about as polite and as unasshole like as any comment I’ve seen.

  24. Eh, I’m trying to be more congenial, juxtaposed to my usual verbal aim at the jugular.
    Maybe its a hardness looking to be insulated.
    Bottom line is, I dont need no fucking prayer to support my want for my country.

  25. Definitely pent subject material, be thankful in support of picky facts . agdeeedeebkf

  26. Sorry if my information in is confusing. Here are the facts:
    1. James Upham, editor and nephew of owner of the Youth Companion magazine, sponsored a writing contest in 1890
    2. Frank Bellamy said his class entered the contest by the request of his teacher.
    3. Contest ended July 1890.
    4. Francis Bellamy joined the staff of the magazine in 1891 and said in Margarette S. Miller’s book “Twenty-Three Words” that he read all the contest entries.
    5. Frank Bellamy saw his pledge published in September 1892, but was not given credit
    6. Frank Bellamy died in 1915 believing the Bellamy Salute was his. Also James Upham and Daniel Ford, owner of the magazine, died.
    7. 1923 Francis Bellamy claimed he wrote the pledge in 1892 for the first Columbus Day Celebration.

  27. Thank you, Joyce. No need to apologize. I appreciate the facts and I appreciate the codification.

    Thanks for dropping by.

  28. I love all these facts and info.

    I have a question… The Bellamy award was given each year to a deserving High School. I am not sure how it was decided but I would love to find out how I could get a list of these high schools.

    It is my understanding that my “old” high was one of them and I would certainly like to find out.

    If anyone has this info or can tell me where I could look I would love it.

    Jean

  29. Jean,
    Dr. Margarette Miller was the person who conducted the Bellamy awards for the different high schools. You might be able to get the information from the Francis Bellamy museum in Rome, New York. It is interesting to note that Dr. Miller was given her honorary doctor’s degree for writing about Francis Bellamy.

  30. Francis Bellamy was born in Mt. Morris, NY on 05/18/1855. His home/birth place is still there on South Main Street & marked with a historical marker. He moved to Rome, NY at 5 years. Married first wife from Newark, NY. He is buried in family plot in Rome,NY.

  31. Just read, for the first time, this thread of most provocative and entertaining (ref. he-haw) comments. I applaud those who get away from “something I read on the internet” and back to old fashioned card-catalog facts. It’s heartening to know there are a few genuine souls who back opinion with source. Good writing demands research, unlike preaching, which doesn’t.

    I grew up pledging to the flag, wearing a school uniform, and learning to salute and march in formation. I suppose that makes me a formerly brainwashed youngling. I still say the pledge, stand up when I see the flag in a parade, and weep inside when I see it hanging unlit, at night in the rain or cut to pieces covering someone’s tanned derrière at the beach. (I’m also a peace-loving, fact-finding, lover of good writing, fine music and art.) In view of this thread of posts, and as a devout student at the school of heart knocks, I will state for the record that I’m not likely to stop.

  32. My dear Ms. Dy, no one is asking you to stop. Of course not. Of course also I can’t speak for anyone else who’s commented on this thread but can only say that what I had in mind in writing this post is: let us stop FORCING children in public schools to intone this (semi) secular prayer — and if we’re going to sanction it, let us at least teach them the origins of a rather obscure and arbitrary pledge.

  33. In the classrooms I taught where we were REQUIRED* to recite the pledge, I always had very close to the classroom flag a poster of the pledge in its original form. As always, I was very happy when some jesus freak would flip out upon noticing on the poster that GAWD wasn’t mentioned. It was hilarious for me (on the inside) every time. Uh, there was this thing later called the Cold War against the godless commies …

    In Colorado, Christian fundies in the government (the ones who also lament that prayer was removed from the classroom) force public schools to recite the pledge because (along with promoting nationalism) it puts jeebus (“under God”) back in the classrooms. It’s gross to see it done in a classroom. Same crap when they do the lord’s prayer in sports. Welcome to North Korea. We’ll tell you when and to whom to pray. Christ, I had one student say “Amen” at the end. Hey! Stick to the script! On so many levels, the act of doing the pledge between the white lines of the school day made me want to puke – every damn day. Here I am trying to teach truth … and we’ve got to do this crap every morning? Fuck. Kind of sets the wrong tone for the rest of the day. ‘Murika and god, Everybody! It’s the rule! Niiiice.

    Welcome to your first day of school, Erik. Where are you from? Iceland? Oh, sit over there you heathen atheist. Now class, just because Erik doesn’t stand for the pledge every morning please don’t tease and torment the fuck out of him during those points of the day when no teacher is looking – you know – like you do already with Billy. Erik, you and that jehovah witness, Billy, will be solemnly and formally disgraced at the beginning of Every School Day (though, that may not be as bad as what the other kids are going through).

    More fun (non-“card catalogue”) stuff here: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/pledge-of-allegiance

    Fundies like equating religion and state – and reciting the pledge is a great way to help them to do this … whenever the j-freaks pray in front of one of our schools as students arrive they tend to do it in a circle around the flag pole outside in front of the building. These are the same ones who think this is a christian nation founded by christians – ignoring deists such as Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Paine and others. As far as a christian nation goes, we apparently got the slavery part right (jeebus offered advice on slavery, and it wasn’t to abolish it) until the northern devils put that to an end.

    *”Colorado passed a law in 2002 that required all public school students to recite the pledge unless they had a religious objection or had obtained parental permission to abstain from the oath. After Colorado’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter challenged the law in federal court, the Legislature in March 2004 enacted a revised statute to allow students to opt out of the pledge.” – from resource above

    Of course for what it is worth, humorists offer attempts at insight (either rightly or wrongly) …

    Matt Groenig’s variations of the pledge are pretty funny and found easily on the web. Such as:
    I plead alignment to the untitled snakes of a merry cow and to the republicans for which they scam: one nacho, underpants with licorice and jugs of wine for owls.

    If you haven’t seen it before, a short skit from the whitest kids you know scores a direct hit on the pledge in the classroom and is worth viewing: https://youtu.be/618U-_8o31k (1:25)

    The bottom line for me is anyone can do the pledge, genuflect towards the flag in whatever manner, and weep inside whenever a cherished symbol (for them) is abused. It’s amerika, go nuts, but leave it at the door of a public school where the majority of our children are compelled to attend. However, this is exactly when and where they want it done as they know it is more effective when inculcated at a young age within a compulsory setting of a public school. How else are you going to get someone to march around in a uniform to kill and/or die for her or his flag?

    Is it as simple as described above? No, of course not, but as one sees I am pretty much an idiot and don’t have much to offer other than to continue to point at the interwebs and say, hey, look at this.

    Not that what is within the youtube clip below is on par with the points Ray and that of some others have raised, but there are some perhaps telling observations related to indoctrination, inculcation, and nationalism by three comedians (only one still living, sort of) … (sad to see all the butt-hurt ‘murikans in the comment section, … yes, yes, at least in this country we can say what we want – and indeed we have flag-lovers and others to thank for that privilege/right – but it may soon be time to move on towards depopulation and the NWO, as they too, Dy, seem to have an alternative idea on how to use the American flag (https://2012patriot.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/denver-mural-4.jpg).

    Carlin, Hicks, and Stanhope on nationalism (including the pledge):

    https://youtu.be/7G17Qf5nrLw (9:22)

  34. Why Johnny Shouldn’t Pledge …

    See Schopenhauer entry under …

    https://sites.google.com/site/whyjohnnyshouldntpray/#child

    There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if only you begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.

    No child under the age of fifteen should receive instruction in subjects which may be possibly be the vehicle of serious error, such as philosophy or religion, for wrong notions imbibed early can seldom be rooted out, and all of the intellectual faculties, judgement is the last to arrive at maturity.

    Arthur Schopenhauer
    (1788-1860)
    German philosopher

  35. Good post as always, Ray.

    There is a great book on nationalism: Imagined Communities, by Benedict Anderson. I recommend it for anyone interested in the nature of nations and nationalism.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1844670864?keywords=imagined%20communities&qid=1445886559&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

    In it Anderson references Ernst Renan who said

    “To forget and – I will venture to say – to get one’s history wrong, are essential factors in the making of a nation (or, as we now know, of a totalitarian state); and thus the advance of historical studies is often a danger to nationalism … Now it is of the essence of a nation that all individuals should have much in common, and further that they should have all forgotten much.”

    For we have to buy into some sort of essential identity in a nation and imagine somehow that it has always been universally bound together. We need some shared responsibility among the imagined community of a nation that will make some poor Texan die for some other poor sap from Maine who dies in war.

    But of course, nations are manufactured, there is no ‘manifest destiny’ or essential identity about a nation’s borders or shared language or national airport or national dress or national flag or national food. These are all contingent. The autochthonous inhabitants of our current borders shared none of this. We have to get our history wrong. But there are many ways that we remain herded together.

    A pledge of allegiance is what Foucault would call a disciplinary apparatus.

    https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_18?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=foucault+discipline+and+punish&sprefix=foucault+disciplin%2Caps%2C166

    Or we can hold the imagined community together by becoming what Deleuze called societies of control; consider all the ways we are controlled as we move through borders at every level.

    https://cidadeinseguranca.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/deleuze_control.pdf

    Or, more recently, what Paul Virilio calls the administration of fear.

    https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/administration-fear.

    Maybe I’ll write an essay on Imagined Communities for my blog. You got my juices flowing, as you always do, Ray, you saturnine gigolo…

  36. Mrs. Long, you seemingly quote facts but have no proof whatsoever. I have proof that Frank E. Bellamy didn’t live in Cherryvale in 1890. So ‘IF’ he wrote it, he was a citizen of Girard Kansas. There has never been ‘real time’ quotes of Frank Bellamy. Everything about him comes from second or third party at least ten years ‘AFTER’ he was supposed to have written it.

  37. Really!? In general I find it nice to be felt, but being felt on a spiritual level — well, let us just say, that takes it to a whole other level, and leaves me emotionally erect.

    Thank you for dropping by, Kayla.

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