- 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?
"Stole" isn't quite the right term. Appropriated, surely. The problem is it's a great symbol and The 3rd Reich was great at branding. Leni Riefenstahl, Hugo Boss - the Germans have always been great at "message" but Hitler was sumpin' else. Combine that with pure unadulterated evil and you have indelible rebranding of a 15,000 year-old symbol. Getting the evil out of the Swastika would be like getting the Jesus out of the cross or the Judaism out of the 6-pointed star. The prior meaning needs to be superseded by the opposite meaning. In other words, if there comes an altruistic, humanitarian cause that performs more good than the evil perpetrated by the 3rd reich, and they happen to alight on the Swastika as their symbol, there's a chance. But I don't see that happening.
I hadn't realized how widely adopted it was in the 20th century as a positive symbol. Interesting stuffIn other words, if there comes an altruistic, humanitarian cause that performs more good than the evil perpetrated by the 3rd reich, and they happen to alight on the Swastika as their symbol, there's a chance.
But I don't see that happening.
exactly, it's definitely going to take more than some tattoo artist trying to raise awareness of the swastikas history.