The USA originated the Nazi salute, robotic group-chanting to flags, Nazism, flag fetishism, and the modern swastika as "S" symbolism for "Socialism." http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html

Much of that history can be traced back to colonial America and Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790). http://rexcurry.net/bellamy-joseph-bibliography.html

Joseph Bellamy was Christian preacher and a leader in a utopian visionary movement known as the "Great Awakening" in colonial America. His vision was Christian Socialism. In 1762, Joseph Bellamy delivered a sermon to the General Assembly of Connecticut and denounced competition, blamed competition for poverty, and advocated vague "cooperation" instead. Reverend Bellamy unquestionably believed in the traditional Puritan doctrines of original sin, the lack of free will, and God's arbitrary choice in granting salvation. He also maintained the view that an excess of material goods and worldly influence corrupted humans.

Joseph's legacy inspired his great-grandsons Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy. Edward Bellamy was the American socialist author of the international bestseller "Looking Backward" that started the Nationalism movment in the United States and launched a worldwide movement of National Socialism. http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html

Edward was cousin and cohort to Francis Bellamy (author of the Pledge of Allegiance), and both Bellamys were active in Christian Socialism and they advocated Military Socialism and they were leading National Socialists.

Francis Bellamy's Pledge of Allegiance (1892) was the origin of the infamous stiff-arm salute. Bellamy's salute was adopted by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis), as shown in the work of the noted symbologist Dr. Rex Curry (author of "Pledge Of Allegiance Secrets"). http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance.jpg The Pledge of Allegiance originally began with a military salute (in keeping with the Bellamy dogma of Military Socialism) and that salute then extended out toward the flag.  Eventually, the military salute portion of the Pledge of Allegiance was discarded as being too disturbing, leaving only the infamous National Socialist stiff-arm salute. Eventually, even remaining stiff-arm salute was discarded as too disturbing. The modern hand-over-the-heart was substituted.

The Bellamy movement for National Socialism teamed up with the Theosophical Society movement with the aid of Madame Helena Blavatsky.
http://rexcurry.net/theosophy-madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society.html

As a result, the swastika became known as overlapping "S" letters and a symbol for "socialism" in their utopian vision, as shown by the noted symbologist Dr. Rex Curry (author of "Swastika Secrets"). http://rexcurry.net/swastika3clear.jpg Swastikas are shown in the graphic art linked.  The symbol was also known by other names, including "hooked cross."

In 1794, Joseph Bellamy and Jonathan Edwards published "The Millennium, or the Thousand Years of Prosperity" which Joseph claimed was soon to commence and then continue onward to perfection. The book also contains an attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of people in extraordinary work for the advancement of the "kingdom" on earth, pursuant to prophecies from Joseph Bellamy and Jonathan Edwards. Reverend Bellamy often criticized human behavior and his sermons were emotional and filled with "hell fire and brimstone."  

Joseph Bellamy's millenium was still "impending" at the time of Edward Bellamy's book "Looking Backward: 2000-1887" in which Edward also made predictions of everlasting prosperity through National Socialism.  In "Looking Backward" the main character experiences a great awakening in a heaven-like society of National Socialism. Edward originally thought that the time frame for reaching the national socialism in "Looking Backward" would be a thousand years, or much longer than the span of 2000-1887 that Edward finally selected for promotional purposes for his book.

Edward Bellamy's book was an international bestseller and was translated into every major language including German, Russian and Chinese. Edward had resided in Germany as a young man, and he knew how to write in German. He specifically had his book translated into German for distribution to German readers.

Edward's book was also popular among socialists in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The National Socialist German Workers Party was intended to enact a thousand year reich of prosperity for all, as predicted by Adolf Hitler. The National Socialist German Workers' Party also used the swastika to represent overlapping "S" letters for its "socialism." However, they called their symbol a Hakenkreuz ("hooked cross," not swastika) as it was a type of cross that they worshipped in a religion combined with socialism. http://rexcurry.net/swastika3clear.jpg

As part of their utopian socialist scheme, the National Socialist German Workers' Party joined as allies with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1939 to invade Poland in a pact to divide up Europe (the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact) spreading World War II.

Instead of heaven on earth, their dogma led to the socialist Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): 60 million slaughtered under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 50 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; 20 million under the National Socialist German Workers Party. It was hell on earth. It was the worst slaughter of humanity in history. It was so bad that Holocaust Museums could quintuple their service to the public by including Wholecost Museums.  

The historical facts above and below explain the enormous size and scope of government today, and the USA's growing police state.  They are reasons for massive reductions in government, taxation, spending and socialism.

In the U.S., there are still laws that require robotic ritualized chanting to the flag each morning in worship of government. During the 1930's people were persecuted for refusing to perform the straight-arm salute to the national flag. That was the national flag of the U.S.A. and of Germany (the stars and stripes, and the swastika flag) because it happened at the same time in both countries.

The story of the Bellamys illustrates a similarity between theistic socialists and atheistic socialists. Both types of socialists often support the same or similar types of government taxation, debt, spending and programs (e.g. government takeover of schools, social security numbering of infants for lifetime taxing and tracking).

Both often have a similar origin for their beliefs. The theistic belief often springs from childhood conditioning in which children believe that their parents are "God-like" in omniscience and omnipotence, and benevolent in providing goods and services. Later in life, the child's beliefs might evolve into similar beliefs / desires regarding God or government (socialism). 

*************************

By 1600, some Protestants felt that the Reformation, begun in 1517 when Martin Luther began to openly criticize practices of the Catholic Church, had not gone far enough to eliminate Catholic influence. In England, a group of Calvinists became known as Puritans because they wanted to "purify" the Church of England of any remaining Catholic tendencies. In 1630, a group of more than 1,000 Puritans left England to gain greater religious freedom, at least in the sense of creating a "new society" of their own religious preferences. They founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the "new world" that many believed had been discovered by Christopher Columbus. http://rexcurry.net/bellamy-francis-christopher-columbus-day.html Over the next decade, thousands more followed and established Puritan towns over a wide area of New England.

Based on the doctrine of Protestant Reformer John Calvin, the Puritan religion proclaimed that not everyone in society would achieve eternal salvation. God selected some souls to save and condemned the rest to hellfire. Puritans opposed elaborate church decoration and priestly vestments. 

By the second half of the 17th century, religious fervor had begun to die down in the colonies as many people began to concentrate on material rather than spiritual matters. Religion for many had become more of a selective tradition rather than deep personal ritualism. In the 1730s, concern over the declining state of religion led to several small, local religious revivals that paved the way for a more intense resurgence known as the Great Awakening.

The Great Awakening included the Reverend Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790), a preacher and author in New England in the second half of the 18th century. Following his graduation from Yale University, he spent a year and a half studying theology and boarding with the prominent minister Jonathan Edwards of Northampton, Massachusetts.

There were 14 families in North Purchase, Connecticut, and the wanted a local preacher in order to avoid a dangerous five mile trek to worship in Woodbury during the winter season. The families had to petition the General Court in 1738 to appoint a minister to come to the settlement. It took two years before the Reverend Joseph Bellamy sent. The circumstances can even be compared with a police state, in that Bellamy was said to have been "licensed to preach" in 1737. In response to the North Purchase residents' request to the General Court, 20-year-old Bellamy became the minister in Bethlehem, Connecticut in 1740.  In keeping with the utopian visionary tendency to re-create society, Bellamy renamed the town "Bethlehem."

Joseph Bellamy's theology was rooted in Puritan beliefs. Through his sermons and writings he sought to link traditional Calvinist doctrine with the reformers' beliefs. Reverend Bellamy unquestionably believed in the traditional Puritan doctrines of original sin, the lack of free will, and God's arbitrary choice in granting salvation. He also maintained the view that an excess of material goods and worldly influence corrupted humans. Bellamy often criticized human behavior and his sermons were emotional and filled with "fire and brimstone" as were the sermons of Jonathan Edwards (famous for "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God").

On the day that Bellamy died, the Reverend Ezra Stiles, one of Bellamy's longtime critics and an Old Light minister, remarked, "He was of a haughty domineering temper and till of late years uncensorious of his brethren in the ministry and others who opposed him...he was...of a dogmatical and overbearing disposition...his numerous noisy writings have blazed their day, and one generation more will put them to sleep."

Some would say that Bellamy had remained true to his beliefs.

An article printed in the Boston Evening Transcript in 1935 speaks to Bellamy's lasting legacy to the town of Bethlehem: "Dr. Bellamy not only named the town, but he virtually founded it, guided it through its first early years, became its wealthiest resident, owned the biggest house in it, put the town on the map through his own reputation as a scholar and a divine [devoted to God], attracted many theological students to it who spent money on board and room, and left it at his death a well established and flourishing community."

The Joseph Bellamy House still stands.