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Quick question for my Jewish friends...and pretty much everyone else.

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by farmerjerome, Nov 3, 2010.

?

Offensive?

  1. Yes

    7 vote(s)
    29.2%
  2. No

    17 vote(s)
    70.8%
  1. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Mazel tov.
     
  2. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    Not everyone is as enlightened as you are about everything. If you didn't take a World Religions class and haven't had exposure to Hinduism, how did you learn the difference?

    That was my point.

    I'll relate a similar and potentially more incendiary incident I read about once that was similar to this case.

    An Indian family living in a suburb of a large, diverse metropolitan area once placed a huge replica of this very same symbol on their front lawn in celebration of a holiday.

    Not surprisingly, there was a major uproar in the neighborhood about it, for the same exact reasons, fears and arguments as those made by the complainants in the store in this case.

    I drove by, just out of curiosity, to see what the fuss was about.

    And, you what? I did see it. I felt bad for the family that they couldn't, in peace, put their big symbol out there on the front lawn for all to see, the way the rest of us plant replicas of Santa and his reindeer on our roofs.

    But I could see, easily, how people could have had a problem with their decoration. Even knowing what I did about the differences between the Hindu symbol and the swastika, all I could think as I drove by that house was, "I would never do that."

    And I didn't think that because I had anything against Hinduism.

    It was, potentially, a downright dangerous situation, and, indeed, if I remember correctly, the police did become involved at some point, in the interests of safety and crowd control because there were so many complaints and so much misplaced anger.

    The family, predictably, said they were shocked at the response, that they'd never realized that their putting that huge sign out there would be a problem.

    In other words, they did -- or didn't do -- the same thing as all the misinformed, offended and irate neighbors: They didn't realize...

    It happens on both sides of any argument, and this not thinking is practically the definition of any misunderstanding.
     
  3. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    What if Hindus are offended by being asked not to display the symbol in their own cultural context?
    Who's offense takes precedence?

    Obviously, we're viewing it as Westerners, whether Jewish or gentile, and see a Nazi symbol.
    But there are a billion people in India. That's 15 percent of the world's population.
    And I don't know how many Indians there are living outside of India.
     
  4. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    I don't know, Buck. I'm sure they might be offended, and that's a good question.

    I understand why you ask it. I even understand what bydesign77 is getting at, at its root, although I think he being a little extreme, and, frankly, obtuse, in his way, in going about it.

    This case is an unfortunate situation -- every time it happens -- just because this symbol can be quite SO widely misinterpreted in SO damning a way. I think it is somewhat unique in this sense: that something quite SO revered and meaningfully positive for a large group of people in a major world faith would/could be unknowingly interpreted as quite SO revolting and universally reviled by almost everyone else.

    It's unfortunate, but a reality, and, again, I think I'd have to look at context for a likely best resolution.

    How much negative response has there been? How blatantly threatening is anybody being? How legitimately dangerous is the situation/case becoming, etc...
     
  5. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Honestly, it would be easier to just 'accidentally' knock the little piece of crap off the shelf and hope it breaks.
     
  6. bydesign77

    bydesign77 Active Member

    Write,

    I'm obtuse for sure. I don't deny that.
     
  7. farmerjerome

    farmerjerome Active Member

    It was a tough little bugger.
     
  8. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liveinternet.ru%2Fusers%2Fviktorya300%2Fpost111100774%2F

    Interesting stuff (takes a few seconds to translate from Russian).

    [​IMG]

    I especially like Jackie Kennedy as a "nazi."

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
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