Allegiances

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There was a thread in the LGBT forum about pledging allegiance to the rainbow flag as a way of showing allegiance to queer people. The fact that I couldn't bring myself to do it made me think, 'well, what do I pledge allegiance to?' The answer appears to be nothing, not even really myself. So I went through each aspect of my politicised identity and dissected why I don't pledge allegiance to it:

My country: Why should I care if my parents had unprotected sex here? 'My' country as a political entity does a lot of bad things, as well as a few arguably good ones. It's still run by an elite for their own self-interest.

The international working class: This is one where I could be identifying quite strongly; I mean, control over the means of production is quite a clear indicator of one's interests in the wider scheme of things. However, what makes one 'working class' in a globalised economy is not clear. I am a low wage earner in a post-industrial country and I've never been to a factory except on an educational visit with school once. I've had manual jobs before but I currently do very badly-paid white collar work. I'm also university educated. I still benefit much more from left-wing government policies than I do from right-wing ones because I am poor and reliant on the welfare state to an extent. So my economic interests are similar to those of other poor people in Western countries.
Socialism is about identifying with 'workers' all over the globe, however. I can't really say my immediate interests are the same as someone working in a sweatshop in Bangladesh, for example. I support them having union rights and higher wages on principle, but it would mean higher prices for essential goods on my end. It's a price I'm willing to pay, so maybe I should say I could pledge my allegiance to exploited workers as an entity - but 'international working class' always felt a bit awkward to me. The global economy is too complex for that. Plus, a lot of Marxists are divs.

The LGBT community: I've said this before, but I feel I'm too queer for them. A lot of LGBT people get wrapped up in gender identity and on the gay/lesbian scene performing a gender role is almost obligatory. They may be 'alternative' gender roles to the ones that hetero people perform, but gender roles they are nevertheless. I don't do gender. This even puts me beyond the pale in the 'T' part of the acronym because even though not doing gender is defined as sort of transgender in itself, most 'T' people do gender in a very big way.

My family: I've often doubted my family would give a flying dinosaur toss about me if I wasn't genetically related to them. That was more when I was younger and more of a 'work in progress.' I'm grateful for keeping me alive and making me feel wanted (that applies only to my immediate family, my extended family are another story.) I think now they would like the person I've grown up to be if I wasn't related to them. Pledging allegiance, though? Seems a bit clannish to me.

My community: What community? Living where I live is okay, but it's a densely populated part of a big city, so I hardly even know my neighbours. Even if I lived in a little village where everybody knew each other, I still wouldn't pledge allegiance to them because we'd have nothing in common except that we lived in the same place.

My ethnicity: I don't even really know what that is.

My 'race': The human race? I would pledge allegiance to homosapiens if I was in the right mood and feeling philanthropic, but it is mood-dependant for me. As for other light-skinned people (which is what people usually mean by 'race') I could not care less. People who care about such things are often extremely unpleasant.

Other atheists/Zen Buddhists: We're all just people blindly poking around, staring at the wall, looking for truth and answers where there aren't any.

Women: I support women not being oppressed but that doesn't mean I take 'sides' with them over the other half of the world's population. I support there ultimately not being 'sides' to take in this issue.

Other aspies: It's a spectrum, so my interests aren't the same as someone at the opposite end of the spectrum. I guess I would if I felt it was a stronger part of my identity.

People with mental health problems: Mental health problems are varied and complex things, but the answer is the same as for aspies (see above.)

Myself: I try to pledge allegiance to myself but I often get disillusioned with me and then I betray myself on a regular basis.

People who relate to this song:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybUqM8jf3mU[/youtube]

I would pledge allegiance, but that wouldn't be a very cool thing for a Magazine fan to do.

What about yourselves? How do your allegiances lie (or not?)

Pledging allegence to the national flag is considered (very) bad taste in the Netherlands. It´s associated with the NSB, the Dutch pro-Nazi party of the 1930´s and 40´s. The national flag used to be the `Prince´s flag` (Prince William of Orange. orange-white-blue), but when members of the NSB began saluting/pledging allegiance to that flag, Queen Wilhelmina changed the national flag to red-white-blue.

For that reason, pledging allegiance to any flag is repulsive to me. Nothing personal against the fact that Americans do it. Just something that is ´not done´ in my country.

I should say the same here but I really just play down my part. Allegiance is another term for obstinacy or austerity measures taken seriously. I m not even sure why we have them as I am not even sure that a Brave heart would be able to put down the same robin hood quest for his own backsake-