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Can the swastika ever be redeemed?

 
 
Reply Thu 23 Oct, 2014 07:48 am
Interesting article on the BBC website.
Quote:
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78463000/jpg/_78463616_aircraft624.jpg
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78463000/jpg/_78463617_swastika_comp624.jpg

20th Century fad: Fruit packaging, a Coca-Cola pendant, and a pack of cards, all from the US

In the Western world the swastika is synonymous with fascism, but it goes back thousands of years and has been used as a symbol of good fortune in almost every culture in the world. As more evidence emerges of its long pre-Nazi history in Europe, can this ancient sign ever shake off its evil associations?

In the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, swastika means "well-being". The symbol has been used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains for millennia and is commonly assumed to be an Indian sign.

Early Western travellers to Asia were inspired by its positive and ancient associations and started using it back home. By the beginning of the 20th Century there was a huge fad for the swastika as a benign good luck symbol.

In his book The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption? US graphic design writer Steven Heller shows how it was enthusiastically adopted in the West as an architectural motif, on advertising and product design.

"Coca-Cola used it. Carlsberg used it on their beer bottles. The Boy Scouts adopted it and the Girls' Club of America called their magazine Swastika. They would even send out swastika badges to their young readers as a prize for selling copies of the magazine," he says.

It was used by American military units during World War One and it could be seen on RAF planes as late as 1939. Most of these benign uses came to a halt in the 1930s as the Nazis rose to power in Germany.

The Nazi use of the swastika stems from the work of 19th Century German scholars translating old Indian texts, who noticed similarities between their own language and Sanskrit. They concluded that Indians and Germans must have had a shared ancestry and imagined a race of white god-like warriors they called Aryans.



The full article is much longer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29644591

Personally I can't see it happening, I remember the band Kula Shaker being shunned when they tried to do exactly that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kula_Shaker
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Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 7,101 • Replies: 17

 
engineer
 
  1  
Reply Thu 23 Oct, 2014 07:52 am
@izzythepush,
No, I think it is dead forever as a benign symbol. It is much like the Confederate battle flag in the US. Once it was co-opted as a symbol of virulent racism, it is hard to go back to a historical symbol of the Confederacy.
Lordyaswas
 
  1  
Reply Thu 23 Oct, 2014 08:03 am
@engineer,
I agree. Dead and buried.

I read recently that a fashion house (Melon?) were lambasted for making a polka dot style pattern made up of SS lightning bolts.

Here....
https://www.yahoo.com/style/mango-blouse-accused-of-being-nazi-chic-100510882163.html
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Thu 23 Oct, 2014 08:18 am
@engineer,
Although I do think that the coca cola swastika seems very relevant today.
0 Replies
 
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Thu 23 Oct, 2014 09:47 am
There are a number of traditional Scandinavian knitting patterns that use the symbol. So far I haven't used them, but I'm always tempted as it is a lovely design.

It's also found on some beautiful old fabrics from the Indian sub-continent. To buy or not to buy.?
chai2
 
  1  
Reply Mon 23 Apr, 2018 01:27 pm
@ehBeth,
Beth, your post reminds me of this C your E episode....

coluber2001
 
  1  
Reply Mon 23 Apr, 2018 02:19 pm
@chai2,
The Japanese Naval flag is just as repugnant to Japan's neighbors and, I assume, many Japanese themselves who lived through World War II, as the Nazi swastika.

Here you have Japanese dressed up in Naval uniforms in front of a memorial to the dead of World War II including convicted war criminals. The Rising Sun is symbolic of the sun goddess and is deeply ingrained in the psyche of many if not most Japanese. It is a beautiful flag and, unfortunately, reminiscent of the terrible, brutally imperialistic times.

https://historychickinaz.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/japanese-flag-at-war-memorial.jpg
https://0.s3.envato.com/files/130269078/Flag%20of%20Macedonia%203%20preview%20image.jpg
The country of Macedonia has adopted a similar flag.
0 Replies
 
coluber2001
 
  1  
Reply Mon 23 Apr, 2018 02:22 pm
However, the swastika has become so repugnant and taboo that I doubt that it or the name Adolf will be resurrected for a long long time.
coluber2001
 
  1  
Reply Mon 23 Apr, 2018 02:57 pm
@izzythepush,
Quote:
The Nazi use of the swastika stems from the work of 19th Century German scholars translating old Indian texts, who noticed similarities between their own language and Sanskrit. They concluded that Indians and Germans must have had a shared ancestry and imagined a race of white god-like warriors they called Aryans.


It's amazing how we can rationalize anything when we want to. Clive James said the Nazis spent millions trying to prove that their Japanese allies were 6-foot blue-eyed blondes in disguise ( genetically).
0 Replies
 
chai2
 
  1  
Reply Mon 23 Apr, 2018 04:17 pm
@coluber2001,
coluber2001 wrote:

However, the swastika has become so repugnant and taboo that I doubt that it or the name Adolf will be resurrected for a long long time.


Now this is for just for the US.

Popularity Over Time: How Many Boys Have Been Named Adolf
This chart illustrates how many Boys were named Adolf in the U.S. since 1880.

A few facts about the boy's name Adolf:
Records indicate that 525 boys in the United States have been named Adolf since 1880.
The greatest number of people were given this name in 1918, when 56 people in the U.S. were given the name Adolf. Those people are now 100 years old.

http://www.babynameshub.com/charts/450w/Adolf_male.jpg

0 Replies
 
CountFishy
 
  -4  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2022 12:25 pm
@izzythepush,
From western society?

No.

However to us Europeans, it is a symbol of peace.

It is a PAGAN symbol after all.

izzythepush
 
  3  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2022 12:31 pm
@CountFishy,
You Europeans?

Really?

Most Europeans are all too aware of Nazi Germany.

Salam Alaikum
CountFishy
 
  -2  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2022 12:36 pm
@izzythepush,
Yes.

We are all aware of the slaughter of the citizens of berlin as a result of the "allies" and their infinite wisdom...

But at least we aren't speaking german...
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2022 12:39 pm
@CountFishy,
I think you'll find German is widely spoken across Europe.

I think you're just another Trumpie playing lets pretend.

You're as European as the Superbowl.
CountFishy
 
  -2  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2022 12:51 pm
@izzythepush,
you know nothing about me.

You speak to others like they are stupid, which is a total projection from you.

izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2022 01:17 pm
@CountFishy,
Now I know everything about you.
0 Replies
 
coluber2001
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Nov, 2022 10:04 am
The MAGA Republicans are looking for a cool symbol. In some of the Trump rallies lately, audience members were using a modified straight-arm Nazi salute. But then the security guards began circulating throughout the crowd putting a stop to it because it was too reminiscent.
coluber2001
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Nov, 2022 01:42 pm
@coluber2001,
https://images.forwardcdn.com/image/1300x/center/images/cropped/trump-rally-1457368979.jpg
0 Replies
 
 

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