yes. obviously. would you mindlessly repeat a north korean pldge of allegiance simply because you were born there? i dont pledge allegiance to anything, its a stupid concept.
I would have an instinctive allegiance, I would think, to the country that bore me. But in the case of NK, its crimes against its people are so great as to merit renouncing that allegiance. Are all pledges mindless? I don't think pledges are meaningless, just as words aren't meaningless. What comes out of a man's mouth is important. One might also argue that wedding vows are meaningless merely because they were spoken aloud. Unless you're saying something at the point of a gun, willingly pledging to something has some effect on you. My opinion, anyway.
Backwards. Citizens must demonstrate allegiance, not simply pledge it. Registration for the draft is the law. Those who have not done so are not demonstrating allegiance. Paying taxes is a price of citizenship. Those that refuse to pay taxes are not demonstrating allegiance. Voting is the hallmark of a democracy, those who don't vote are not demonstrating allegiance.
yes, all pledges are stupid. the problem with this world is that peolpe are mindless tribal automatons that care abotu nonsense. in basically every conflict on earth, yu could solve it if people were not like you. for instance, if i were in syria, i would say "i am syrian, but that does not define me, this place is a shithole, and everyone here is a muslim moron, i am getting the fuck out to let these savages fight it out" and then leave. or if i were in israel i would say "i dont care about these holy lands or settlements, this place is a shithole and they can fuck themselves, i am outta here". alegiance to groups is stupid. define yourself,dont be deined by your clan or birthplace. you dont see me in church spouting southern values in louisiana like every kid i grew up with. define yourself.
I think that's a gross over-generalization. We have no right to carte blanche proclaim people mindless because we don't understand their decisions in allegiance. I think that you'd create a lot more conflict than you'd solve by this philosophy. I'd rather people believe and feel connected to their homeland than believe in nothing greater than themselves, even if this leads to bad outcomes. People ought to feel allegiance to something. Indeed, define yourself. If someone wishes to define themselves in terms of a group, I don't begrudge them that. I don't understand the argument that all allegiance is bad.
Because it is cynical and negative and distrustful and immature to believe in nothing other than yourself.
Like anybody believes that pile of crap. We already know a good bit of the population pay zero yet get the benefits of citizenship.
I believe it. And he didn't say that those that pay zero don't get the benefits. He said that refusing to pay, with the implication being refusing to pay what is legally owed. Pretty easy concept to grasp.
