Neo-Nazi FAIL
Wednesday, 22nd October 2008 by Alex Turnbull
Mowed into this field in Canada is a large equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, of a design that has been shown to arise independently in any basket-weaving society. In other words, a 30 metre-wide Swastika.
Despite the very innocent Swastika symbol having been around longer than civilisation itself, these days the symbol has been almost exclusively associated with the Nazi Party, ever since they adopted it as their logo in the 1920s. Given that the symbol in this field is contained within a circle (the actual Nazi symbol is in a circle and set at a 45° angle), the likelihood is that this was indeed created by some nasty Neo-Nazis hoping to promote their evil cause.
Unfortunately for our inept villains, they've drawn it with the arms of the symbol left-facing, which despite having plenty of historical precedent is incorrect, as the Nazi swastika had right-facing arms, even on the rear side of their flag.
Previously on Google Sightseeing we've seen an unintentional Swastika building, a Swastika fountain and some Dutch neo-nazis who were equally incapable of getting simple shapes the right way round.
Thanks to S.Patrick.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Should we need more evidence that neo nazis are not the sharpest tools in the box they save us the bother of trying to prove it ourselves. I’m sure most of them make up their ‘ideology’ as they go along. Twits.
Most likely they are stupid enough to belief that sat-images are mirrored. Just one more stupid thing they belief in…
Symbolism
Traditionally the swastika has been used as a symbol of good luck, welfare, prosperity or victory. One interpretation of the swastika is derived from the ancient mythological symbolism of Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, Shakti) (represented by the vertical line) dancing upon Shiva (Devanagari: शिव, Shiv) (represented by the horizontal line). Philosophically this may be understood as the two aspects of Brahma (Devanagari: ब्रह्म, Brahma): consciousness and energy interacting to give expression to the universe. The circular movement of this cross may be interpreted as the circular movement of the rising kundalini (Devanagari: कुण्डलिनी).
If seen as a cross, the four lines emanate from the center to the four cardinal directions, and this is commonly associated with the Sun. Other proposed correspondences are to the visible rotation of the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere around the pole star. .
The name “sauwastika” is sometimes given to the left-facing form of the swastika (卍),[10] though the term is merely an alternate spelling of swastika. Indians of most faiths sometimes use the symbol in both orientations, mostly for symmetry. Buddhists outside India generally use the left-facing swastika rather than the right-facing swastika, although both can be used. There are some who claim that the left-facing swastika has inauspicious or “evil” connotations, although others dismiss this as superstition, possibly associated with the stigma of left handedness. Significantly, the left-facing swastika is often carved in a see-through lattice in entrance doors of Buddhist temples in China. When exiting the temple, one sees the reverse side of this lattice on the same door, which looks like a right-facing swastika.
There is the slim chance that the people who’s garden this is in are Buddhists but otherwise did they not think this would attract attention and anyone wanting to prosecute them under Canadian anti-hate laws would have no trouble finding out where they live?
@Cookie – oddly, this seems a very affluent area too.
Buddhists… definitely. We have tons of such signs in S Korea
Neo? give me good old fasioned nazis any day. (kidding)
We don’t know what that is or why it’s there, but by all means jump to conclusions and condemn the people nearby. (sarcasm)
You could see some other swastikas here : http://www.geo-trotter.com/cat-swastika.php I feel that is not Nazi but peace symbol in general.
The documentary called “The Occult History of the Third Reich” (Available on Google Video) says that the Nazis managed to use just about all forms of the pattern: left, right, square, diagonal and even round. It may be a “non-majority” version of the symbol, but needn’t be inept.
It is quite common in anceint Native American petroglyphs, pictographs and weavings to find this symbol. We call it a backward Nazi symbol but it was just a design to them as near as I can tell.
Another example of swastika in the environment are a few of the dorms that I lived in (one of) at the University of Maine in Orono, ME. This part of campus was (and I suspect still is) referred to as “Nazi Territory”, referring to the right-handed swastika-formed buildings of Knox, Oxford, and Somerset Halls. Inside, I would say that it was quite reasonable and nice for cultivating a community atmosphere with your neighbors, without it getting too large and rowdy (each spoke of each level was separate, with a fire door leading to the common, central area).
View Placemark
The idea of Nazi’s being ensconced in an affluent area is not too far fetched. Google Prescott Bush. He was a HUGE supporter of the Nazi’s and is the grandfather of W.
Doing a quick Google search, it appears that this might be location of a business called Dirty Girls Lawn Care, Inc. Seriously.
Bush? I think you are thinking of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Jittery Joe said: “Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]”. His kid did well too as I recall.
Just got back from Bali and there are plenty of left facing swastikas there. It is an ancient symbol of harmony in Balinese Hinduism and is in no way incorrect. It’s interesting how a simple symbol can have such different meanings to different cultures..
If this is indeed made by ‘nasty Neo-Nazis hoping to promote their evil cause’, why would they put so much effort in creating a hardly visible swastika off a back road somewhere in Canada? Or were they just hoping for their 1-day-of-fame on GSS?
Nope Bradley, it was indeed Prescott Bush, grandfather of the war criminal currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“”George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.””
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
It seems that it’s your hangup about NeoNazis — you mention yourself, that the image shown is left-facing, and that the “swastika” has been around LONG before those fascists.
Perhaps folks are trying to reclaim a symbol, without having to think about whom else has bastardized and ruined it.
This is NOT correct Swastika. It must have opening in clockwise NOT anti-clock wise. So we should NOT call this symbol as a Swastika.
That is not a Nazi Swastika. It is facing the opposite side. It is a Buddhist symbol. Look it up in Wikipedia for its non-Nazi usage.