That’s a bit more complex than a fylfot.
You mean that slightly shaggy Mugabe moustache?
As long as Jews live the Swastika will be associated with the Nazis. No other group on the planet keeps more meticulous historical records.
That’s pretty much true. We haven’t forgiven the Egyptians for for the whole slavery thing yet, and it’s already been something like 3500 years. Don’t expect it to go any faster with the Nazis.
I don’t think there is a finite number of symbols as they are as limited as the human imagination is to drawing and painting, which is infinite.
I also believe that the swastika, no matter it’s associative past, will be forever (forever being recent human memory) entrenched in the minds of people as evil gone awry. I don’t think that will change, at least not until some future society decides to adopt it for their use long after we are buried beneath their rubble and the historical significance of it is forgotten, and a new meaning is attached to it.
…has doors decorated with the swastika. apparently, it is an ancient symbol, and means good luck.
There certainly are a finite number that humans will be willing and able to use. It would only be infinite if symbols could take up an infinite space or had infinite detail or infinite color arrays. In rpactice, that doesn’t occur, and we see numerous symbols used over and over again, even across cultural boundaries.
But if we free the swastika of Nazi associations, what will we use to symbolize Nazis?
Double post edit.
The Adolph-stache?
Well, I meant that it is infinite in the sense of the ability of the human mind to conjure up new ones…but yes, perhaps your more practical stance is correct.
Kate Winslet?
But seriously, if the Nazi connotations of the swastika assist in keeping the memory of the horror of the holocaust alive in the public consciousness, then all the better as far as I’m concerned.
You’ve got that ass-backwards. The swastika was co-opted by the Nazis from the Buddhists and Hindus. The symbol is still widely used as a benign symbol throughout south and east Asia. There are hotels and restaurants all over Asia called “Swastika” with no unpleasant connotations in the minds of the owners. Cite.
Keeping alive the memory of Nazi terror and evil is all good. I just hate the thought that any organization can borrow any imagery it likes and ruin it for all mankind - or at least anyone they hurt.
You can’t “ruin” imagery. Or to put it another way, there’s no reason to think of an image as inherently “good”. Like any other form of language, it means what we believe it means.
What about the word “Nazi”? You want to redeem that too? Do you think that language should be so sanitized that it contains no words for bad things?
I opened this thread to mention him. http://www.manwoman.net/
He should live and be well.
FWIW, here’s a link to my essay on SYMBOLS: http://www.squeakywheelsblog.com/symbols
And here a link to the GD discussion thread:Beat up on the Squeaky Wheels 'SYMBOLS' essay - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board
Gas chambers?
There is a lot of occultism going on in the background of Nazi stuff. The symbol is far older and has been used by many, many, many cultures across the world. I wish I understood more about their appropriation of Aryanism, which is probably part of why they took and used the symbol the way that they did. I am unsure how much they were influenced by Helena P Blavatsky for whom Aryan referred to the epoch in which we live, and not to a particular race of people. However, I am certain that her ‘Secret Doctrine’ was a big influence on the Nazis created German identity, as it was floating around in Occult circles in Europe at the time.
I think that the reduction in the association with Nazi symbolism will occur over the next century or so as the Eastern nations gain in prominence and spread across the globe. They have a different view of the symbol and it doesn’t automatically conjure up ‘Nazi’ outside of the West, from what I’m told.
So? Languages change with time.
And I will do whatever I can to prevent this.