Symbols

This afternoon as I was picking up our youngest daughter from theatre arts camp, I was accidently privy to an interesting conversation among the director of the play and three of the interns. As they are putting on a full musical production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Sound of Music, they were discussing the use of the swastika. It seems that the management of the music school, out of which the play will be performed, is concerned that by using the symbol, they would be somehow promoting Nazism and offending Jewish people. The other side of the discussion supported the idea that by leaving out the swastika, they were, in effect, glossing over the Holocaust, which of course, was the entire conflict of the Sound of Music (sure – there’s the dead wife, the wild children, the forbidden love, and bad nunning, but you get the point).

I understood both sides of the discussion, but I had to agree that to leaving the swastika out of the production would be a mistake on many levels. First, it would dilute the main conflict of the play and squelch the triumph of good over evil. Secondly, it would be an attempt to sweep a horrendous historic event under the rug so that people are more comfortable, which makes no sense to me. Thirdly, and most importantly, it might make every child who is part of that company think that the “funny black spider” that "makes everyone nervous" (as they have all seen the 1965 Academy Award winner for Best Picture and know it is part of the story), is insignificant, when it is certainly not.

Each curious child should be informed of its meaning by his parents who can decide the right time, type, and amount of information to give that child. In the meantime, it should be enough to feel the audience (the adults in the room) tense when that symbol is worn or shown.

As an erstwhile graphic design student, I am extremely interested in symbols and icons and their importance. The swastika represents something that should never be ignored, glossed-over, or feared any longer. It should be seen as a symbol whose meaning is now synonymous with the Nazis reign of terror, the Holocaust. Anything less is an insult to the millions of innocent individuals who were systematically murdered under the ideology it represented.

My question: why doesn't the hammer and sickle evoke such an immediate reaction?

Comments

tm said…
Interesting question about the hammer and sickle. Probably because so many people have hidden the atrocities and still believe in the ideals.

The swastika is a hot-button issue but presenting it in a play obviously about fighting against it, it should be included.
July 3, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Lynne said…
I'm afraid that you may be right about still believing in the ideals represented by the hammer and sickle. That's creepy.

Whatever they decide to do in the stage production, I'm sure I'll post about it when I see it later this month.
July 3, 2008 at 10:46 PM
tm said…
I've had this bubbling around in my head ever since I listened to some of the DIM lecture from Peikoff. If disintegrationists don't believe in reality, then there are no mistakes to recognize--thus no attrocities, no communist ideals failure, and no reason to change their minds. I wonder if that's why there is always some excuse.

Well, that and the whole disintegration thing would mean that they are not connecting North Korea, Soviet Union, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba. If you don't integrate--then all of those entities are taken at face value with no underlying tie to each other (the communism). This is probably obvious to everyone else who thinks about politics regularly, but I'm new to the game and find the philosophical premises most damning.

I'm hoping most lay people will be more honest.
July 4, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plainsies, Clapsies

A ball bouncing game from my youth instructed the player to throw the ball up ( plainsies ), throw it up and clap ( clapsies ) throw it up and roll your hands ( roll the ball ) and touch your shoulders ( tabapsies ). In trying to locate the rest of the ball bouncing chant, I found out not only is my “tabapsies” a mondegreen , but also the motion – touching your shoulders – isn’t even the correct movement! You are supposed to clap your hands behind your back and say “ to backsies .”  Yeah. That makes much more sense. Being only slightly deflated by this discovery, I will still share my exciting news.  In an attempt to counteract the stretching of my wrist from doing front squats two days in a row, I pulled out the tabapsies motion this morning.  This, in itself, is not newsworthy.  However, I grabbed both shoulders with all five fingers!!! Again, not exciting unless you know that when I was nine years-old, I broke my left elbow doing a running c...
Read more

Memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution

Image
In preparation for celebrating the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, here are a few videos that I hope will inspire you to at least memorize the brief, but powerful Preamble. First, here is my first attempt at video editing with the bare bones Windows Movie Maker (no ability to step through frame by frame with sound, or ability to mark stops before cutting). My daughters are reading the Preamble to the Constitution from the little book I carry in my purse. They can recite it by heart, but it I thought it would be a little different (and a little less exposed) if they did it this way. Let's not even talk about the 20 takes due to laughter. If you knew it as a child, don't worry, it'll come back to you as Barney shows in this video. Finally, a little treat for my sci-fi loving friends. And if memorizing and reciting The Preamble in creative ways leaves you wanting more, you can find out which Founding Father you...
Read more

Why I am an Objectivist

I am a human being who values her life on this earth above all other things. The right and good is that which contributes to my life and the wrong and evil is that which destroys it. Every action I take must pass through the gates of identification before being pursued as a value which I understand will contribute to my life. Happiness is my ultimate goal. I understand the importance of identifying, applying, pursuing, and achieving those values which will contribute to my life, not just in the immediate sense (which every child understands), but in the long-term sense (which develops with experience). This is not to say that I’m really good at always identifying, pursuing, and achieving those values, or that I remain consistent in my applications of them; merely that I had already understood that this selfishness was the key to my happiness when I was relatively young. The importance of the fact that I understood I was responsible for my own happiness can not be overemphasized here. W...
Read more