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Last weekend was quietly marked by the 50th anniversary of the modern-day peace symbol. While it continues to remain a cultural icon, its history and imagery is relatively unknown.
As seen in the picture, the design incorporated symbols from the flag-signaling alphabet. The N + D were placed “within a circle symbolising Earth” where the N stood for nuclear and D stood for disarmament. Thus its creators used it to promote peace through global nuclear disarmament.
Last Saturday, half way around the world, another important political event took place in Taiwan. The sometimes-hawkish independence movement led by the DPP was defeated in the national election versus the trade-friendly KMT. One of the promises president-elect Ma has promoted is closer, peaceful trade with mainland China.
As Frederic Bastiat, Lew Rockwell and others have noted, when goods and services do not cross borders, armies will. And with $100 billion in cross-straits trade in 2007 alone, many residents felt that war with the PRC would be needlessly destructive to their enterprises and employees.
The DPP-led initiative for UN recognition also failed at the ballot box. And as the DPP stronghold is located here in Kaohsiung, an hour ago I walked down to the corner of Boai and Jhihsheng and watched workers dismantle the local “UN for Taiwan” building. And if the surrounding commercial hustle and bustle is any guide, perhaps a productive flea market will take its place in the near future.
This story comes full circle as the US Air Force was recently discovered to have accidentally sent 4 nuclear detonators to Taiwan. While this is itself a curiously negligent faux pas, the triggers are nearly 50 years old… designed for Mark-12 nuclear weapons which were decommissioned in 1962.
The state and its imperial class is the only group that gains in the event of war, nuclear or otherwise. And as cooler heads have recently prevailed, perhaps the Year of the Rat will be one of wealth and prosperity and not war and atrocities. Or maybe as Doug Bandow suggests, the crisis has only been postponed.
See also:
Taiwan: do as we say, not as we do
The Vatican still recognizes them, right?
5 Reasons Why the PRC will not Invade Taiwan shortly after the Olympics
…If it can be argued that Western Civilization barely managed to survive The 20th Century—and I think it is safe to say it can—Then I for one, sure as hell hold out very little hope of the vaunted “New World Order surviving the first half of this The 21st. The Chemist and Manhattan Project Engineer George Kistiakowsky, the only example of such Scientists to have experienced Total War first hand will bear me out. When asked late in life if he thought Nuclear Weapons would used multi and/or bilaterally in the future by Nation States. He answered “Yes” then paused…slapped his open palm down on the table for emphasis and again said “Yes.”
I remember as a kid in elementary school one of my crazy, ultra-religious teachers informing us that the peace symbol was quite literally a sign spawned by the devil, created by licentious, drug-addled hippies. The teacher’s theory, and one which my peers seemingly bought, was that the symbol was created by bending the Christian cross and putting it upside down.
Of course, as I learned years later, that was far from the case. But the tale is certainly illustrative of the lengths a certain strain of the Christian Right will go to in order to portray peace as somehow ungodly. War, in the minds of people such as my teacher, is always shaped by God’s hands for his unknowable purposes, and is usually a sign of the impending end times. In a twisted sort of way, war is godly — and I can only imagine nuclear war would be viewed as the ultimate sign that the Rapture would soon be upon us.
Anyway, I’d be interested in whether anyone else heard the same fairy tale (the one about the peace symbol, not the religion) as I did, or whether my misinformed teacher was just creating her own elaborate myth in order to continue the culture war against those damned hippies.
I’d say it was all in her own head. I’ve never heard anything like that, at all…and I have been around a bit.
Charles Davis, I heard that story all the time during the Vietnam war–that the peace sign was an upside-down cross.
You have to love many of the libertarian tenets, but the one about “trade or armies will cross borders” is completely unsupported empirically. There are endless examples of countries in heavy mutual trade who also warred against each other: US/Britain, Britain/France, France/Germany, Germany/Russia, etc. Then there are those who didn’t trade (or trade substantially) and kept the peace, more or less: US/USSR, US/China (proxy war in Korea notwithstanding), communist Albania/world, US/communist Cuba, although these examples are fewer and typically little trade indicates hostile relations.
A possibly irrelevant subset of the latter is the no-trade/indifferent category, which covers most nations, i.e. Chad/Guatemala. They don’t trade, but they don’t send armies after each other either.
“E.g.” Chad/Guatemala, of course. My old econ prof must be shaking his head at me still.
Nah, you’ve made a robust case.
Thanks to charles davis above for giving me a better understanding about what motivates the hatred some on the termed christian right, and others, have toward the promoters//lovers of peace among nations. Its like those mongrels are a different breed from those I associate with.
Turn your badges over!
The “upsidedown cross” within the circle of the symbol first used in the 1958 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) four-day march from London to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston, Berkshire, is actually the Nordic rune Aldiz inverted. This rune is one of protection and defense, symbolizing the tree of life/knowledge with its sheltering and supportive branches reaching up to the heavens.
A rune inverted invokes the opposite of it’s purpose. These runes and their magic predate Christianity.
The anti-Christian connection lies in the story that Emperor Nero’s hit squads would force Christians to denounce their faith by turning the cross upsidedown and breaking the arms. (Perhaps invoking runic magic?)
Gerald Holtom, the man credited with designing the CND - “peace” - symbol was a life-long pacifist, locked up with murderers during wwii for refusing to kill. He soon realized his mistake and wished for the sign to be placed in its stronger aspect. He maintained that the cute semaphoric interpretation could still be applied, yielding Universal Disarmament.
I suspect we have all been duped, Holtom included, and that it is time for Aldiz to be resurrected and CND to morph into CUD.
Chew it over.
correction: the rune is Algiz.
Algiz: Protection, a shield. The protective urge to shelter oneself or others. Defense, warding off of evil, shield, guardian. Connection with the gods, awakening, higher life. It can be used to channel energies appropriately. Follow your instincts. Keep hold of success or maintain a position won or earned.
Algiz Reversed: Hidden danger, consumption by divine forces, loss of divine link. Taboo, warning, turning away, that which repels.
(1) the earliest known runes are circa 150 AD.
(2) runes are clearly derived from the Latin or Italic alphabets, which are derived from the Etruscan, which is derived from various ancient Greek forms.
(3) however derived, the rune in question is a replica of one of the Ionian forms of psi, which resembles a Latin capital “Y” with the vertical stroke extended.
(4) that Nero persecuted “Christians” ob nomen Christianum is a later Christian fabrication. Whether guilty or not, the “Christians” who were executed under Nero were executed for arson and murder.
Iman Wilkens, in his Where Troy Once Stood, shows that the Greek culture had its roots in northern Celtic traditions.
The sentence as stands is absurd–and even more absurd if it seeks to imply that the Greek alphabet derived from anything runic rather than the reverse.
The Greek alphabet derived from the Phoenician.
Latin and Gaelic, strictly as languages, however, are closely related.
Mycenaean Greek, written in Linear B, dates from at least the Fourteenth Century BC, long before the Hebrew “Bible”.
The principal Italo-Celtic forms are:
1. the thematic Genitive in i (dominus, domini). Both in Italic (Popliosio Valesiosio, Lapis Satricanus) and in Celtic (Lepontic, Celtiberian -o), however, traces of the -osyo Genitive of Proto-Indo-European have also been discovered, which might indicate that the spread of the i-Genitive occurred in the two groups independently (or by areal diffusion). Calvert Watkins (1966) argues that “the community of -ī in Italic and Celtic is attributable to early contact, rather than to an original unity.” The i-Genitive has been compared to the so-called Cvi formation in Sanskrit, but that too is probably a comparatively late development. The phenomenon is probably related to the feminine long i stems (see Devi inflection) and the Luwian i-mutation.
2. the ā-subjunctive. Both Italic and Celtic have a subjunctive descended from an earlier optative in -ā-. Such an optative is not known from other languages, but the suffix occurs in Balto-Slavic and Tocharian past tense formations, and possibly in Hittite -ahh-.
3. the collapsing of the PIE aorist and perfect into a single past tense. In both groups, this is a relatively late development of the proto-languages, possibly dating to the time of “Italo-Celtic” language contact.
4. the assimilation of *p to a following *kʷ.[1] This development obviously predates the Celtic loss of *p:
PIE *penkʷe ‘five’ → Latin quinque; Old Irish cóic
PIE *perkʷu- ‘oak’ → Latin quercus; Goidelic ethnonym Querni
PIE *pekʷ- ‘cook’ → Latin coquina; Welsh poeth ‘hot’ (Welsh p presupposes Proto-Celtic *kʷ)
PIE *ponkʷu- ‘all’ → Latin cunctus; no Celtic cognate.
Other similarities include the fact that certain common words, such as the words for common metals (gold, silver, tin, etc.) are similar in Italic and Celtic but divergent from other Indo-European languages.
[wikipedia s.v. "Italo-Celtic"]
I went to Catholic school for 7 years and the nuns were teachers there. They would make up stories all the time to illustrate their points. Things that I remembered and later on in life, found to be totally untrue.
The peace symbol story doesn’t surprise me. The Left Behind Evangelicals are just as bad with some of this stuff. I call it Comic Book Christianity.
Procter & Gamble Wins $19 Million in Lawsuit Over Satan Rumors
[Lisa Cornwell AP March 21, 2007]: Procter & Gamble Co. won a jury award of $19.25 million in a civil lawsuit filed against four former Amway distributors accused of spreading false rumors linking the company to Satanism to advance their own business.
The U.S. District Court jury in Salt Lake City last Friday found for the Cincinnati-based consumer products company in a lawsuit filed by P&G in 1995. It was one of several the company brought over rumors alleging a link with the company’s logo and Satanism.
Rumors had begun circulating as early as 1981 that the company’s logo — a bearded, crescent man-in-moon looking over a field of 13 stars — was a symbol of Satanism.
The company alleged that Amway Corp. distributors revived those rumors in 1995, using a voice mail system to tell thousands of customers that part of Procter & Gamble profits went to satanic cults.
The company’s claim was based on the Lanham Act that prohibits unfair competition and false advertising….”
[excerpt as quoted in The Insurance Journal:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2007/03/21/77915.htm
Commentators have identified Amway as supporting the U.S. Republican Party,[24] and its founders contributed $4,000,000 to a conservative 527 in the 2004 election cycle. Amway states that its business opportunity is open to people regardless of their religious and political beliefs/
Former Amway CEO Richard DeVos has been connected with the dominionist political movement in the U.S.
Multiple high-ranking Amway leaders, including Richard DeVos, Dexter Yager, and others are also owners and members of the board of Gospel Films, a producer of movies and books geared towards conservative Christians as well as co-owner (along with Salem Communications) of Gospel Communications.
One of Amway’s most successful distributors, Dexter Yager has…allowed Republican George W. Bush to send messages to thousands of downline distributors using Yager’s voicemail system.
Doug Wead, who was a Special Assistant to former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, is a successful IBO who is a regular speaker at group rallies. In 2000, current President George Bush appointed Timothy Muris, a former anti-trust lawyer whose largest client was Amway to head the FTC, which has direct federal regulatory oversight over multi-level marketing plans….
[wikipedia]
Several groups including those associated with the anti-cult movement have expressed concern that tactics of some of the organizations that support Amway IBOs may constitute cult-like activity. Steven Hassan’s Freedom of Mind Center lists the practices of some of these groups as potentially abusive according to his “BITE” Model of mind control. Other similar organizations that have expressed concern with the activities of AMOs in practice include FACTnet, Cult Awareness and Information Centre (Australia), and others. The Rick Ross Institute keeps a collection of related material on its website.
A Dateline NBC report from 2004 picked up the criticism against Amway’s successor Quixtar and explicitly linked the two companies as being effectively one and the same.
One controversy that Amway was involved with was an urban legend that the (old) Procter & Gamble service mark was in fact a Satanic symbol or that the CEO of P&G is himself a practicing Satanist (in some variants of the urban legend, it is also claimed that the CEO of Procter & Gamble donated “satanic tithes” to the Church of Satan). Procter & Gamble alleged that several Amway distributors were behind a resurgence of the urban legend in the 1990s and sued several independent Amway distributors and the parent company for defamation and slander. After more than a decade of lawsuits in multiple states, by 2003 all allegations against Amway and Amway distributors had been dismissed.
However, in October 2005 a Utah appeals court reversed part of the decision dismissing the case against four Amway distributors, and remanded it to the earlier court for further proceedings.[39] On 20 March 2007, Procter & Gamble was awarded 19.25 million dollars by a U.S. District Court jury in Salt Lake City, in the lawsuit filed against four Amway distributors in 1995.
[wikipedia]
HOA Bans Christmas Wreath With Peace Sign:
HOA President Says Peace Sign Is Anti-Iraq War, Symbol Of Satan
[Denver News November 26, 2006]: DENVER — In a town in scenic southwestern Colorado homeowners are battling over whether a Christmas wreath that includes a peace sign is an anti-Iraq war protest or even a promotion of Satan.
“We have had three or four complaints. Some people have kids in Iraq and they are sensitive,” said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Lynda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He also said some believe it is a symbol of Satan….
Kearns said the association will fine Jensen $25 a day for everyday it remains up. She calculates that will cost her about $1,000, although she said she doubts they will be able to make her pay.
Kearns, meanwhile, also said he was concerned about the pagan symbolism of the peace sign. “It’s also an anti-Christ sign. That’s how it started,” he told the Durango Herald.
The newspaper, citing the 1972 edition of “Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols” said that the author was also uncertain about the source of the “crow’s foot” design in the peace symbol. While some say it’s a symbol of total nuclear disarmament (coming from the semaphore signals for N and D) others claim the symbol represents an upside-down cross with broken arms and is therefore anti-Christian or Satanic.…
Jensen said she put up the wreath to honor the biblical call for peace and goodwill toward men. She said she and her husband hung the wreath on their outside wall Nov. 15 and plan to leave the wreath and all of her other Christmas decorations up until after Dec. 25….
[excerpt]
“Where is Troy and Mycenae, and Thebes and Delos, and Persepolis and Agrigentum”–continued my father, taking up his book of postroads, which he had laid down….”
[Laurence Sterne]
According to the Imam Wilkens mentioned about, they were all apparently–ready or this?–in Celtic England and France.
To anyone one interested in a serious study of Troy and Homer, as opposed to such arrant fantasy, I highly commend Denys Page’s History And The Homeric Iliad, which remains one of the best treatments of the matter in English.
corr: “mentioned above”
Iman.
Read the book.
Any other study of Homer is outdated.