Fuck the idolatry of the state and fuck the pledge of allegiance

From Broadlawn dinners to Student Federation meetings, Hillsdale students know the drill. Place your right hand over your heart, face the nearest red, white and blue striped, star-spangled banner and recite in unison, "I pledge allegiance to the flag…" The pledge is uttered so often on campus that it seems unnatural to begin any event without it.

Often unnoticed and certainly unheard, however, are those who politely conform in stature, but whose lips remain unmoved. Among them is Ivan Pongracic, associate professor of economics.

"I think that there is a wrong understanding of what the pledge of allegiance is all about," Pongracic said.

In its origin, the pledge certainly seems antithetical to Hillsdale's mythos. The pledge was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, an out-of-work socialist preacher who was fired by his congregation after giving sermons with titles such as ‘Jesus the Socialist.'

Pongracic said Bellamy's desire was that the pledge not only become ubiquitous in public schools and beyond, but also that it would "brainwash kids into making them [feel] subservient to the state." Pongracic argues that to a great extent, both of Bellamy's objectives have been realized.

"It was very much an attempt to get people to think that the state is above and that the individual is below, which is a socialist kind of mentality and doesn't have anything to do with patriotism. It's very perverse in that way, in fact," Pongracic said, adding that the authorial intent of the pledge fit into a much larger progressive agenda.

"What [Bellamy] fought for is to get rid of the Constitution. Which by now, in effect, has almost happened," he said.

Pongracic argues against the pledge by invoking America's founding.

"I find [the pledge] to be quite contrary to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and to Americanism as I understand it," he said.

Pongracic became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1999 and said he did not discover the dubious history of the pledge until arriving on Hillsdale's campus.

"The pledge was spoken every 15 minutes at every event. I began to think, ‘This is really bizarre.' We ostensibly believe in liberty and yet we are constantly pledging this allegiance," Pongracic said.

"This whole thing is really idolatry of the state. That's how I look at it. That's what it means to me. It's not something that free people should be doing," he said.

Pongracic argued that the state is nothing more than a tool to secure man's rights granted to him by God.

"Why should we pledge allegiance to [a tool]? That's like a farmer pledging allegiance to his tractor," he said.

Pongracic said he urges people to learn the history and meaning of things before taking part in them. But others who are aware of the pledge's history still support it. Junior Blake Faulkner is among them.

"The pledge no longer has the same meaning behind it that [Bellamy] intended for it," he said. Faulkner said he believes the change in meaning occurred when the words "under God" were added in 1954.

"I don't think anyone has the same authorial intent in mind when they say [the pledge] today," he said.

Faulkner argues that even things that come from a bad origin can be used for a good purpose.

"The pledge is not bound to its author. It's bound to how it's used, its purpose," Faulkner said.

Furthermore, he sees the pledge as an important, traditional civic exercise. Other students disagree.

Freshman Nick Allen, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, said he became more sympathetic to Pongracic's argument after dismissing the entire concept of a nation-state.

"I used to enjoy [the pledge] because it stated what the country was about. I now realize that I have been pledging allegiance to the state. The whole idea of pledging allegiance to a collective governing body repulses me," Allen said.

After weighing the facts of the debate, Pongracic is not confident that Hillsdale College will change its position on the issue.

"A very strange thing has happened over the past 120 years. [The pledge] went from being one of progressivism's causes to a conservative cause. Conservatives take a great deal of pride in the pledging of allegiance. It seems to me that if the college tried to take a stand on this, it would risk alienating many donors. I just don't see that happening," he said.

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