Modern education: first religion, now royalty
I’m in a bad mood today and reading the papers really hasn’t helped. I mean, take a look at this:
SCHOOLCHILDREN are to be encouraged to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen and promise to obey the law in ceremonies similar to those for new immigrants.
I have to do enough deprogramming of my kids when they bring religion home (you try placating a three year-old who’s wondering why King Herod killed all those babies at Christmas) without their schools turning them into royalists as well.
Still, it’s an excellent way to entrench that festering sense of injustice and the ‘know your place’ ethos that will be New Labour’s true legacy. That it’s luck and privilege not hard work that get you where you want to be.
I thought we lived in a ‘meritocratic’ (spit) society, but no, we’re still persisting with this notion that people are worthy of respect because of who their parents were. The last time I looked at the calendar it was 2008, not 1008.
Now I’m going to have to explain to my children that the reason we’re not rich and universally adored is because their great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather didn’t have the foresight to raise an army and slaughter thousands or blow Richard the Lionheart.
Posted on March 9th, 2008 at 10:34am under Miscellaneous misanthropy
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• 10 Comments |
I thought Tony Robinson had shown Edward IV was a bastard and that this guy should, for want of a better word, “rightfully” be king?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Abney-Hastings%2C_14th_Earl_of_Loudoun
If this pledge thing does happen I suggest an alternative campaign along the lines of Flying Spaghettit Monsterism demanding the right of kids to pledge allegience to the “true” king. Afterall it makes as much sense to pledge allegience to one unelected sponge as another and would highlight the general absurdity of the system ala FSM.
Hang on a tick, one of my ancestors (and not that many greats back, either) DID have the foresight to raise an army and slaughter thousands, but I’m neither rich nor universally adored.
Damn it. I demand schoolchildren swear allegiance to me. And give me their lunch money.
I suppose it beats pledging allegiance to a piece of coloured cloth.
I didn’t realise that you could, in fact, break the law because you didn’t verbally agreed to obey it at any point.
Great!
Which queen do they mean? the real one or that mincing faggot in downing street.
A first for Chicken Yoghurt. In three years, this is the first appearance of the non-ironic use of ‘faggot’ on the blog.
Do you have proof that he’s homosexual? Would being gay impair Brown’s ability to do his job?
And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mince. He’s quite well known for a more hulking, lumbering presence, in fact.
Ugh, if I had any kids I’d rather shoot them then have them doff their cap to any monarch. Ok, maybe not, but it’s almost as if if NuLab want to generate resentment toward themselves and the royals. Keep it up!
What happens if I’ve already pledged allegiance to my cat? Do I have to break my oath? And if I did, what would any other oath be worth?
Is it just me, or does anybody else recall some vague philosophical notion that oaths made under coercion aren’t valid? Or that when adults in positions of power “encourage” children to do things and those children agree, that this might not actually count as full and free consent?
No, I must have imagined it…
My kids ain’t gonna swear allegence to the bride of Frankenstein, unless they’ve got their gingers crossed.
Arse. I meant fingers.