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Unread 03-05-2003, 13:16
DanL DanL is offline
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It's been said before, but yeah, most people aren't aware there's multiple meanings to the swastica.

On the discovery channel one day I was watching a show where they went into this. Apparently the swastica has been found on pottery and decorations in India dating back to the Indus River civilization. It has been a symbol of life and prosperity. Hitler apparently took this symbol and it's meaning and had his artists cleverly rotate it 45 degrees, make it bold, and bam! It became the symbol of his regime. If you look at it from his point of view, it actually was a good propaganda move to have such an inspiring symbol (at that time) as the national symbol. Of course, if you look at it from a Western Post-Hitler point of view, it obviously has a different meaning.

When you think about it, it's actually pretty interesting how a symbol of life and prosperity has been transformed into a symbol of evil and hatred in such a (relatively) short period of time. It's also pretty interesting to note that outside of Western culture (i.e. Buddhist India and Asia), the swastika is seen as a religious symbol. Just goes to show you how different the world is outside of the West.

The show also brought up another interesting symbol. Before Christianity, the cross was seen as a symbol of death and punishment, much like the swastika is seen now. However, once Christianity spread... well, it's worn around the necks of countless people around the world now.

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As for the Coca-Cola bot, $10 says it was designed and manufactered in Asia. This is one of those examples that businesses face when trying to market products in other countries - cultural differences tend to get in the way. In Asia and India, with a large number of Buddhists and Asian culture, nobody saw anything wrong. When they tried to bring it to the West, though... well, yeah. Swastikas don't exactly fly too well around here.

The example of the Ford (?) Nova comes to mind. A few decades ago, Ford (?) made a car called the Nova. However, when they tried to market it in South America, it just didn't sell and cost them lots of money. Apparently no one realised that in Spanish, "no va" translates to "does not go". Who wants to buy a car that doesn't run? ;-)

[Edit]It's been mentioned that the swastika is Hindu, not Buddhist... my bad[/edit]
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Dan L
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