Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

In the 1960s when the CND peace symbol became popular in Europe,
its history came back to bite its bum. Some people objected to its use
because of its Nazi history, but by then it had become too popular. Again
in 1973 the CND peace symbol caused controversy in South Africa when
it was used during anti-Apartheid demonstrations, and was subsequently
banned as a symbol of defiance by the racist Apartheid regime.
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More recently in 2006 in the USA, two inhabitants of Denver were
forced to remove a CND peace symbol because neighbours found it
anti-Christian. Bizarrely, despite its popular and accepted status, in their
ignorance, or just plain intransigence, they interpreted the downward fork
as a downward cross, a symbol of satanism. No matter how simple and
strong a symbol, its adaption, resemblance, or appropriation can change
its meaning.
Which brings us back to the swastika, an ancient religious symbol,
considered to be an auspicious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and
Jainism that dates back to before the 2nd century BC ... but, because it
was appropriated by the Nazis, it is now stigmatised forever. Despite its
lengthy peaceful use as a symbol of good luck, its association with Nazi
Germany and the horrors of the Holocaust has changed its meaning ...
it was, in a twisted irony, anything but a good luck symbol to six million
Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals ...
This piece has also been appropriated, tricked, added to and trumped
from an original piece in ‘The Politics of Design’ researched by Asja
Keeman (thank you).
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 14