Propaganda: With or Without the Swastika

I assume everyone knows about the swastika being the symbol of the Nazi Party under Hitler. That's why after World War 2 there was a serious attempt made around the world to eradicate any occurrence of this symbol. But several problems cropped up. First, it was a symbol that had been used for thousands of years in many eastern religions, and many historically important artifacts and statues were adorned with the symbol. Also, as the swastika had been popular for years in the west, many people had old photos with their deceased grandparents wearing swastikas that all of a sudden made them look like Nazis, but they had died before they ever heard of the Nazis. It might have been simple enough to make a few exceptions, however certain racist organizations wanted to carry on using the swastika to represent their own cause. That certainly complicated things a little for the ongoing use swastikas.

It's hard to believe that anyone on earth could not have heard of the Nazis, but apparently an Indian Hindu immigrant in Auckland New Zealand last year decided to paint his beloved religious symbol of peace on the roof of his home to ward off evil spirits. And thereby ran into a spot of bother with his neighbours.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/420129

An organization using the Swastika, again it sounds innocent enough, is the Falun Gong. Many people know the Falun Gong as a persecuted group in China. Nobody outside China can figure out what these people did to deserve imprisonment and torture. But remember the Christians in ancient Rome, whose only real crime was following the teachings of a pacifist who only said "turn the other cheek" and they were thrown to the lions. So this type of repression of nonviolent people has happened before, we just have to wonder: why? It's pretty hard to understand when we live in a free society like Canada. Locking up people for spreading fallacies? The entire staff of MacLean's Magazine and the National Post would get life in prison with no chance at parole if we did that here. And of course in China, they don't even need to be false fallacies, you can also get locked up for true fallacies.

"July 20, 1999 China today banned the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control after deeming them to be illegal.

In its decision on this matter issued today, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that according to investigations, the Research Society of Falun Dafa had not been registered according to law and had been engaged in illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability.

The decision said that therefore, in accordance with the Regulations on the Registration and Management of Mass Organizations, the Research Society of Falun Dafa and the Falun Gong organization under its control are held to be illegal and are therefore banned."

There was no mention in China of the swastika, and I don't think it was an issue for them. But in Germany it was. Here is an article about the Falun Gong getting in trouble for their Swastika in Germany.

The trouble started with the German police in 1999. By 2003, they finally had a court verdict clearing them for the display of this symbol in Germany.

A swastika doesn't necessarily represent the Nazi party. In fact the true Nazis usually try to hide their swastikas. Except for a Canadian family recently who sent their young daughter to school with swastikas painted on her arms. After they repeated this a few times, the authorities paid a call and found out this was a white supremacist household, indoctrinating their child in hate against non whites. That plus the fact that it was a very unhealthy environment for the child raised questions about taking the children away from the family, even though the mother protested that she didn't tell her child to kill all the non whites.

It is unfortunate that we are so good at spotting a swastika, but we are so bad at detecting Nazi-like hate literature. We need to turn that around if we are ever to put an end to racism and needless wars.