Tero Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 By Dietrich I was at a local Oktoberfest celebration -- a fairly low-key and family-friendly affair By definition a proper Oktoberfest celebration is neither low-key nor family friendly. -- when I spotted a twentysomething spikey-haired guy with a runic "SS" tattoo on the back of his neck. It rather soured my mood; took another couple pints of Doppelbock to get my mind off it. I trust you, as a matter of course, take offense in tattoos like the skull and crossbones, devil and other assorted emblems with less than savourly connotations. When I see stuff like that, it really makes me want to chew out the person in question, because it's people like them who indirectly ensure that people never get past the German-equals-Nazi thing, so that people in general are in effect preventing from being able to see all the good things about Germans and German culture, food, music, etc. Of course, let's be honest: every German from 1933 to 1945 was a Jew-hating, Hitler-loving, concentration-camp-ignoring, civilian-slaughtering, baby-bayonetting Nazi. (Pardon the vicious sarcasm.) This fixation on emblems is really eating up the justified indignation towards the nazi attrocities. By coming down on them like a ton of bricks ensures the enduring facination in them and by proxy the criminal organization associated with them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dietrich Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 By definition a proper Oktoberfest celebration is neither low-key nor family friendly. I know and agree. However, I did not say it was a "proper" Oktoberfest celebration. It was a public affair in a park in the middle of a small town in northern California which is one of the last preserves of suburban hippiedom (I live in the nearby not-so-hippie town), and it was attended by no more than 150 people. *shrug* However, describing it as "low-key" was in hindsight inaccurate, since there were performances of traditional Bavarian dances with accordian and tuba accompaniment. I trust you, as a matter of course, take offense in tattoos like the skull and crossbones, devil and other assorted emblems with less than savourly connotations. If you are implying that you think I get on my high horse at the sight of any bit of symbology which is/was associated with anything unsavoury, you are incorrect. However, I acknowledge your opinion. This fixation on emblems is really eating up the justified indignation towards the nazi attrocities. By coming down on them like a ton of bricks ensures the enduring facination in them and by proxy the criminal organization associated with them. I have never 'come down like a ton of bricks' on anyone; I merely said that seeing the punkish young fellow with SS tattoo on the back of his neck made me feel like telling him off. (For the same reason, I have never said to a biker, "Hey, what's with the Nazi helmet?") Is it not that the real problem is with, not emblems themselves per se, but what/who the emblems represent? "I think people need to take their heads out of the cloud they've been in and start focusing on the future and not on the past," Heath Campbell said Tuesday in an interview conducted in Easton, on the other side of the Delaware River from where the family lives in Hunterdon County, N.J. Adolf Hilter Campbell? Doesn't sound like a very futuristic name to me. =P 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tero Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 By Dietrich However, describing it as "low-key" was in hindsight inaccurate, since there were performances of traditional Bavarian dances with accordian and tuba accompaniment. If you are implying that you think I get on my high horse at the sight of any bit of symbology which is/was associated with anything unsavoury, you are incorrect. However, I acknowledge your opinion. Thought as much. Nevertheless, why should the nazi emblems get special attention when there are pirates and other historical but more distant reminders and examples of human attrocities. I have never 'come down like a ton of bricks' on anyone; I merely said that seeing the punkish young fellow with SS tattoo on the back of his neck made me feel like telling him off. (For the same reason, I have never said to a biker, "Hey, what's with the Nazi helmet?") Just referring to the current drive here in the whole of Europe to ban the public displaying of the swastika just because the Germans have outlawed it in their domestic use. Is it not that the real problem is with, not emblems themselves per se, but what/who the emblems represent? IMO that kind of banning does not deter the use of the emblems since by displaying them is anti-establisment. Trivialize the use and soon the fascination fades in both the emblems and the ideas they are supposed to represent. Adolf Hilter Campbell? Doesn't sound like a very futuristic name to me. =P Reverse psychology ? Then again if you name your son Martin Luther does not harm your child would naming him Sirhan or Lee Harvey harm him ? BTW: what's the latest on the issue ? The authoroties still not disclosing why exactly the children were taken into custody ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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