[color=#FFFFFF]The swastika has been around for quite some time. It has been used in various decorations. Today the swastika is viewed as an expression of rather extreme political views while in fact it has been a symbol of peace for well over 5000 years. So coming from this. Can a single action alter the meaning of things be they symbols, words, actions, or even physical objects. Have you done it in some form or another.
Signs (words, images, sounds, actions etc - all are signs) gain and lose symbolic meaning over time. Signs can gain alternate meaning quite easily through 'single' actions. For example, when someone says Pearl Harbour, I don't think of the place I think of the bombing. 9/11, 4th of July (I'm not american but I know these anyway:P). There are many signs with alternate and/or deeper symbolic meanings - think rose, 'heartshape', skull, etc. The Swastika is just something that is losing it's other meanings and gaining new ones. Phrases and words do this a lot all the time - think faggot, gay, bitch, and other words such as however, nevertheless.
It's easy to associate an alternative meaning to something for yourself and perhaps for people around you, but it's not easily to globally create this alternate meaning. We all I suppose have done this in some form or another, even when it may be small. For example, in schoolyards people often attribute a stereotype to a persons name, which then becomes a temporary sign. "He's doing a david" etc (yes, personal example - I did this a long time ago back in like, grade 5), however these kind of symbolic meanings often don't last. Doing this on a global scale or well-known scale is difficult, and I don't think anyone here has done it.
As rev pointed out, a *** was a smoke, someone gay was simply happy, and a dyke held back water. And actually, bitch is still used to refer to female dogs by breeders. The swastika was, at least for probably another two generations or so, ruined for use as a symbol of peace by the National Socialist Party - even though it was considered a good luck charm by pilots, and used by Indians (both dot and feather) as a sign of peace.
As individuals, it's really not within any of us to actually alter the meaning of something. It would have to be something that we as a culture or group start to do. Thus, finding the one person that first applied an appellation to something is quite difficult, if not impossible.
EDIT: Interesting - the autocensor took out the short form of the word, which I used as a reference to the old slang for cigarette, while the full term faggot (which is a bundle of sticks) isn't edited.
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
I find it strange that so many people in the world have little necklaces to display their fandom of an ancient method of painful execution used by the Romans, Carthaginians and Seleucids, I don't see why their fondness of such a cruel and barbaric method of killing another person needs to be advertised to the world, like some kind of blind faith, but they do it anyway.
Jokes aside, yeah, a symbol is whatever people see it as, and one group of nasty little racists turned a symbol of peace into a symbol of hate. Took months to build the house, but it only took one prick with a box of matches an hour or so to burn it down.
' Wrote:[color=#FFFFFF]The swastika has been around for quite some time. It has been used in various decorations. Today the swastika is viewed as an expression of rather extreme political views while in fact it has been a symbol of peace for well over 5000 years. So coming from this. Can a single action alter the meaning of things be they symbols, words, actions, or even physical objects. Have you done it in some form or another.
Yes, the swastika has been around for some time. The one used by the Nazis, is actually reversed, the arms of the cross pointing the opposite way to the original, or so I have been led to believe.
While I was in Singapore, I picked up a mans bracelet in a jewelery shop (I just wanted out of there and didn't look closely at the pattern).
I now own a bracelet with a pattern that has a swastika incorporated into it.
While it is a nice item and didn't cost me an arm and a leg (polished stainless steel, surgical grade), it's not really something I feel comfortable wearing where the general public can see it.
The stigma attached to that particular symbol is still very strong.