Nah, you’re right about that. Thanks for making my brain work!
What about a woman wearing a short dress? She’s making a statement. There is an audience. How much power should she have? How much power should you have? Sure there’s an audience and a statement being made. Not all statements are necessarily the audience’s business. If you feel the statement she is making is “rape me” you’d be wrong.
It would never occur to me that someone who was provocatively dressed was asking to have her person violated in a brutal manner.
Without getting too far off course worrying over that illustration, I would certainly agree that some statements are ambiguous. (The woman with a short dress might be “saying” anything from “I feel good about my appearance (including my legs)” to “I am hoping to attract the attention of a nice guy interested in a physical relationship” to “This weather is too damned hot.” (with no invitation to be violated) and any person who saw her would demonstrate a lot more intelligence by taking the time to discover her “message” before presuming to act upon the perceived message.
I would agree that a person who happened to be wearing a swastika that was not the Nazi hakenkreuz (not bearing clockwise flung arms, standing at an angle on the tip of one arm, black on a white background on a red field), should be given enough opportunity to explain himself or herself before being dismissed as a loony hate-monger. Given the general ignorance of the world (including that of the modern followers of the Nazis who often cannot get their own analysis correct and so use the hakenkreuz in different presentations), if one chooses to display a swastika, one is liable to find oneself doing a lot of explaining, (and, occasionally, ducking).
Were I to ever start wearing a swastika, I’d be prepared to do lots of explaining. Displaying a Nazi flag is way different from wearing a nice little swastika symbol, and I’m pretty sure I could manage to get laid with a little explaining. In fact, the explaining process might increase my chances of getting laid.
Sorry about the “rape” analogy. I was grasping for something where statement didn’t equal requiring audience approval.
For those playing along at home hakenkreuz means ‘hook cross’ and is what the Germans actually call the symbol in question.
Levdrakon
If the star had five points and faced upward, then the logical assumption is that you are a wiccan of some variety. If it faced downward, the logical assumption is that you are a satanist of some variety. If it were a star of David, then yes the logical assumption is that you’re Jewish. If it were Aleister Crowley’s silver star, then we’re back to assuming you’re wiccan.
What you wear causes people to assume things, valid or not, about you. You’re free not to care what they think. But, classifying things is how the human mind worls. For many people, a swastika will cause them to classify you as a racist and a likely danger.
But as you would, you can look at a basic, simple, ancient symbol and go through your mind, “Wiccan? Jewish? Satanist?”
Why not let people go through the same process with a swastika? I don’t think Nazi skin-heads should be allowed to own the symbol, with all the power it seems to possess.
Actually we’re talking about two ancient symbols, one of whihc has two different orientations. Crowley’s star is only a few decades old.
You can also eliminate the question marks. If you’re wearing a star of David, I will assume you are Jewish. So will most other people.
If you are caucasian and wearing a swastike, I will assume you are a Nazi. So will most other people.
Weird. Yet oddly enough, not weird.
There is no compulsion, now. No one is compelled to think evil thoughts of anyone, but symbols are, by definition, modes of communication that rely upon previous, shared understandings. The current shared understanding of the swastika in Europe and North America is the legacy of the Nazi party.
This may not be “fair,” but communication is not concerned with “fairness.”
Well, when my Panamanian friend who as I said is the color of Swiss Miss cocoa powder wears a swastika, it’s tough to think she’s calling for the death of all non aryans(except possibly in the original Indian usage of the word, since she would look right at home along the banks of the Ganges).
When my Viking friend, with blonde hair and blue eyes, wears a swastika strangers have every reason to assume he is a Nazi rather than calling on the virility of Thor the Thunderer.
There’s not too much more I can say. Except, I think it would be nice to take this power-symbol away from Nazi skin-heads and put it back where it belongs, which would be somewhere among a triangle, a cross and an ankh, more or less.
Never owed a swastika, don’t have any plans on owning one. I also don’t refer to my blond haired blue-eyed friends as “Viking.”
It would be nice if world peace was declared, cancer was cured, and Futurama was uncancelled.
Neither do I. I refer to one friend, just one, as a Viking. He’s got Viking heritage. He worships the Aesir and the Vannir. He practises Norse rituals. He wears Norse symbols. He loves his mead. Last time we went camping he poured some in a stream as an offering to Mimir. He left a ring in a field as an offering to Freya.
Yeah, I call him a viking.