Why does O find the morning ritual of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to be absurd in the novel, New Boy?

O finds the morning ritual of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to be absurd. “He managed to suppress the smile that threatened to undermine the solemnity of the oath. O had never had to perform such a patriotic act in schools outside the US” (61). The pledge sets up an us and them dynamic, and O knows himself to be thoroughly in the outsider category, whether he says the pledge or not.