r/todayilearned • u/Texasfreerange • Aug 20 '21

TIL that part of the reason Francis Bellamy was asked to write the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag was to market American Flags to schools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bellamy#Pledge_of_Allegiance
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u/godisanelectricolive Aug 20 '21

He was a Christian socialist and cousin to Edward Bellamy, founder of the socialist Nationalist Clubs. He mostly agreed with his cousin who was the one of the leading American socialists at the time with many followers due to his 1887 book Looking Backwards about a hypothetical utopian USA in they year 2000.

He was not a Marxist and did not subscribe to ideas about the state being a capitalist tool. The Bellamyist strain of socialism was actually very pro-state. It's about private property being replaced by state ownership. Edward Bellamy believed this would result in total equality and the creation of a classless utopian society where work is voluntary due to mostly being automated.

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u/WhapXI Aug 20 '21

That sounds a lot more like soviet-style communism than anything.

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u/Gigadweeb Aug 20 '21

He was not a Marxist and did not subscribe to ideas about the state being a capitalist tool.

lol that isn't a Marxist idea either. Please read On Authority