Roman Salute and the American Pledge
Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:13 pm
Thought I would just share this article..Interesting though some of it is obvious hogwash..
http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html
It is a myth that the straight-arm salute is an old Roman salute adopted by Mussolini. According to Dr. Martin Winkler in "The Roman Salute on Film" of the American Philological Association, the salute is not in any Roman art or text. The salute occurs in these films: the American "Ben-Hur" (1907), the Italian "Nerone" (1908), "Spartaco" (1914), and "Cabiria" (1914).
In imitation of such films, self-styled Italian "Consul" Gabriele D 'Annunzio borrowed the salute as a propaganda tool for his political ambitions upon his occupation of Fiume in 1919. Earlier, D'Annunzio had worked with Giovanni Pastrone in his colossal epic Cabiria (1914). Mussolini worked with D'Annunzio.
Even so, evidence shows that the National Socialist German Workers' Party officially adopted the salute before Mussolini did, not vice versa. http://www.rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html
Dr. Winkler didn't know about the original U.S. flag salute (1892) that inspired the films.
Francis Bellamy was a national socialist in the U.S. and created the pledge of allegiance to the flag using a straight-armed salute, the so-called "Roman" salute, in 1892.
http://www.rexcurry.net/pledge1.html
The straight-armed salute in the USA's racist and segregated government schools, served as an example to Germany through WWI and for over three decades before Nazism and WWII. The National Socialist German Workers' Party was inspired by the films, by the pledge of allegiance, and by the older national socialism movement in the USA.
The National Socialist German Workers' Party was also inspired by German-Americans who were already national socialists in the U.S. and who joined the German-American Bund movement to support national socialists in Germany before WWII. http://rexcurry.net/pledgebund.html
The salute began to change during WWII.
Francis Bellamy was inspired by his cousin and cohort Edward Bellamy, the author of the book “Looking Backward” (a bestseller written in 1887 by Edward Bellamy).
http://www.rexcurry.net/pledgebackward.html
Both Bellamys wanted the government to take over all schools and create an “industrial army” of totalitarian socialism as described in the book.
Government-schools spread and they mandated segregation by law and taught racism as official policy and did so through WWII and beyond
http://www.rexcurry.net/stopthepledge4.html