[ExI] Is this really the case?

[Mike Dougherty]

On 6/28/07, Joseph Bloch <joseph at josephbloch.com> wrote:
> This is, of course, something that should be alarming to Transhumanists and
> Extropians on several different levels. Not only do such people, as a rule,
> actively oppose many biotechnological advances that we would endorse as part
> of our goal of overcoming human limitations through technology, but the
> entire idea of the type of ideological indoctrination, the hostility to free
> inquiry, that so alarmed you in that clip is and should be anathema to us.

How do you feel about the "pledge of allegiance" in schools?  I'm not
talking about how it end ("...one nation under god") but how it begins
("I pledge allegiance to the flag...")  National pride is great and
all, but it still stinks of indoctrination to me.

My wife thought I was crazy and anti-American for being so unpatriotic
until I explained that of course nobody would argue against a "flag"
because really a flag is not offensive or wrong in any way - but the
flag is a symbol for an obviously biased government policy (to
strongly euphemize the point)  How do we teach children to blindly
"pledge allegiance" to this government via a positive symbol despite
the truth?

Or am I the only one who sees it this way?