Saturday, August 11, 2012

The only pledge of allegiance that a free man should ever make

I've been watching some of the HBO series True Blood.
I think the first season was great, the second season was "Meh", and it's gone downhill from there. 

In the "reality" of the series, vampires have come out of hiding, and some of them are trying to live openly among the non-dead.  They also have a somewhat medieval political system, with their own kings and queens of different areas.  Louisiana has a queen and Mississippi has a king, I think. 

Some of the characters have renounced their loyalty to the queen of, say, North Dakota, and pledged their loyalty to the king of Mississippi.  In the reality of the series, its something taken very seriously.  The vampire who revokes his pledge becomes a non-person to his former comrades. 

Watching that series has gotten me thinking about the current silliness with pledges, loyalty oaths, "Under God", and all the rest.  We routinely say pledges to political systems and lines of latitude and longitude, vowing our unending loyalty and dedication, kinda like we check off the "I Agree" box on a new software license. 

Honor the Texas flag;
I pledge allegiance to thee,
Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.  

If you've pledged your allegiance to the Texas flag, does this mean you can never move to North Carolina without renouncing your loyalty to Rick Perry and Texas and the land between the Gulf Of Mexico and the Red River?   

"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."  

I've been to about a half-dozen Tea Party and 9-12 meetings that begin with the pledge to the U.S. flag.  A couple of the participants usually get downright misty-eyed while reciting their loyalty oath and vowing their undying devotion to our organization of states.    After the pledge, someone stands up and starts talking about whether Texas should secede.

Lord have mercy, it makes me insane.  People, let's continue to pledge our loyalty to Bush/Obama and all their unholy works, or let's decline to do so.    Here's what one of our founding fathers had to say about loyalty to governments, flags, kings and rulers:  

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.  

It gets better:  

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Well said, Mr. Jefferson.  Well said. 

With that in mind, here's the only vow of loyalty that a non-sheep should ever make to his government. 

"I pledge that if you government clowns keep screwing up, I'm either going to leave this place, or do my best to seriously mess up your lives, with liberty and justice for all." 

It makes me crazy.  Go here for a similar rant with a different angle.    That's all I've got.  Just wanted to point out that we're all very, very strange. 

1 comment:

Libertarian Book Club said...

And THAT is how you get to be the Libertarian Book Club's Quotation Of The Day -

http://www.libertarianbookclub.com/2012/08/12/quotation-of-the-day-3/