UFO Religion Wants To Rehabilitate The Swastika

[Popular Front of Judea]

As the beachgoers of Long Island soaked up the sun last month, their attention was caught by a light aircraft flying above with a flag trailing behind it. On it was a huge swastika and the web address "proswastika.org". People were outraged. Who was responsible for publicly flaunting this ugly symbol of hate? Neo-Nazis? Pranksters? Neither, apparently.

The Long Island swastika actually belonged to the Raelians – the world's largest "UFO religion" – and the stunt was part of their pro-swastika campaign aimed at rehabilitating the symbol. Not because the Raelians are far-right extremists, they believe the Nazis' hijacking of the ancient Sanskrit peace symbol has been allowed to stand for long enough.

UFO religion the Raelians want to rehabilitate the swastika | The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/aug/11/ufo-religion-raelians-reclaim-swastika/print)

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

It's basically proof of just how evil the Nazis were that they managed to take what was previously a benign, even positive symbol and managed to forever taint it with their legacy.

That symbol used to be freaking ubiquitous in both eastern and western culture. It was used (and to an extent is still used) by buddhists and hindus as a symbol of holiness. Native Americans used it as a sun symbol. It was used for decoration in churches in Ancient Rome, Byzantium, Spain, and even Israel. It was even used in Kabbalistic literature. Early aviators used to wear swastika pins as good luck charms. The buddhist equivalent of the Red Cross was called the Red Swastika Society, and used a red swastika on a white field for its flag.

[Astarte]

Vorilhorn ran into a bit of trouble over his group's use of the swastika back in the early 1990s. When confronted by a Jewish group at that time the Raelians agreed to change their symbol - I am a bit surprised they would choose to want to rehabilitate their old symbol now...

Vl1xpf8bP_c
Also interesting to note is the glimpse this video shows of Geraldo 1.0 or "1990s Liberal Careerist Geraldo" rather than what we have now 20 years later; aging reactionary libertarian Geraldo or simply "Geraldo Mach 2".

[Halert]

It was used (and to an extent is still used) by buddhists and hindus as a symbol of holiness.

Not just to an extent, it's used frequently in japan. For example swatstika's are used on maps or on waysigns along to road to point out where buddhist temples are. The swatstika or manji as it's called in japan is not associated with nazi's or anti-Semitism and thus doesn't have a stigma like in the west.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

The Buddhist swastika is generally clockwise while the Nazi swastika is counter clockwise.


In Hinduism, the right-hand (clockwise) swastika is a symbol of the sun and the god Vishnu, while the left-hand (counterclockwise) swastika represents Kali and magic. The Buddhist swastika is almost always clockwise, while the swastika adopted by the Nazis (many of whom had occult interests) is counterclockwise

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/symbols/swastika.htm

Why don't the Raelians just usse the clockwise version, might save everyone lots of stress

[Flying Purple People Eater]

'Swastika' is actually a sanksrit word for 'symbol of peace', with modern languages influenced by sanskrit showing this (e.g. Thai greeting is 'Sawat dee kha(b)). The symbol associated with it was commonly worn as a good-luck charm in the west prior to the NDSAP's rise to power. Hitler loved it because it represented his crackpot 'white-iranian master race lolz' because of it's historical connection with the Aryans and Pars in central Asia.


However, I think that attempting to remove the symbol from it's modern ramifications is just pointless and needless. The swastika has become known as a symbol of fascism and massacre, and the only people I can see actively trying to change it are racists looking to come into the spotlight or new age nutters like these folks.

[Glitchcraft]

Why don't they just not use it? What possible good comes from rehabilitating it?
The Pros/Cons to even bringing it into the public area for discussion seem counter productive at best.

side note:
Does anyone remember the artist who made mash ups of Anne Frank and Ronald Mcdonald and all sorts of other supposedly thought provoking controversial stuff? Kinda Warhol ish.
I can't figure out who that was.

[Red_Banner]

It should be rehabilitated as this:

http://rexcurry.net/ussr-socialist-swastika1919-1920cav-red-army-prikaz.jpg


:)

[DasFapital]

Raelians have also been providing reconstructive surgery for victims of female genital mutilation.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/aug/25/surgery-for-female-genital-mutilation
as far as Ufo cults go they are pretty okay.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Raelians have also been providing reconstructive surgery for victims of female genital mutilation.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/aug/25/surgery-for-female-genital-mutilation
as far as Ufo cults go they are pretty okay.

This is due to sex-positive nuttery. Typical of certain new-age cult they are somewhat socially progressive and stand in opposition to traditional religious nutters in regard to things like this (instead making a point of being pro-science, integrating this into their warped beliefs).

Like most UFO cults, they have a strict hierarchical organisation, similar in some ways to the scientologists. They are also, despite their 'sex-positive' and relatively progressive points, tremendously sexist.

[Sea]

The swastika is still used for the logos and ensigns of some air commands. It was considered a good luck charm (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Matilde_Moisant_%28cropped%29.jpg) by early aviators, and ever appeared on postcards (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/PostcardSwastica1910.jpg).

That said, there has got to be some other obscure symbol they could have nutted with. When people in the West think of swastikas they don't think of airplanes and postcards, or UFO cults or Hiduism, they think of the mass extermination of Jews, Romani, homosexuals and more that occurred in Nazi Germany. If you want to challenge what the Nazis left behind, you don't just rub it in like these people did by flying a swastikamobile and advertising a website that could easily have been pro-fascist.

[bcbm]

What possible good comes from rehabilitating it?


free publicity

[Red Commissar]

free publicity

Bingo. Much like Westboro the Raelians have relied on publicity stunts from time to time to remind people they still exist. Honestly it's been awhile since I last even heard of them.

Just look up their previous media escapades and it's a way to ensure that they aren't relegated to irrelevance, but have a public image of somesort even if it's not the most ideal. I remember around the time the human genome was being sequenced this led into the growth of debate around the viability of human cloning and other applications of genetics. Raelians jumped into this with the "Clonaid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid)" mess which even as a kid I remember made rounds on major news several time, giving publicity to an organization which would have otherwise been boring.