Should the swastika be banned in the US?

There is per­haps no more hat­ed sym­bol in all the civ­i­lized world than the bro­ken cross of the Nazi régime, the swastika.

The Nazis were not the first to use the sym­bol. It may have orig­i­nat­ed as many as 7,000 years ago. Evidence of it has been found in the Indus Valley, which was inhab­it­ed from 2,500−1,700 BCE, and in arti­facts from pre-Christian European cultures.

The word comes from the Sanskrit word “svasti­ka,” which means “good fortune.”

Regrettably, the Nazis per­vert­ed the sym­bol into some­thing that has come to epit­o­mize the worst kind of hatred and virulence.

Many coun­tries around the world have banned any form of Nazi sym­bol­ism fol­low­ing a war that anni­hi­lat­ed as many as 40 mil­lion people.

Across the world, numer­ous coun­tries with demo­c­ra­t­ic forms of gov­ern­ment have insti­tut­ed bans, includ­ing Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Here in America, we take pride in the fact that we are a gen­er­al­ly free peo­ple, tol­er­at­ing many activ­i­ties that would be unac­cept­able in oth­er civ­i­lized nations, such as hate groups, dis­cor­dant speech, and pub­lic utter­ances that are bla­tant­ly untruthful—at least until these activ­i­ties result in destruc­tion of prop­er­ty or harm to individuals.

Our extreme tol­er­ance may well have been a spark that result­ed in the assault on the Capitol on January 6^th, 2021, an action that evolved from what began as a peaceful—although vitriolic—assembly.

We have tra­di­tion­al­ly resist­ed intru­sions into our free­doms: assem­bly, reli­gion, speech, and the press, which are all guar­an­teed by our Constitution.

Before World War II, the Nazi par­ty was quite preva­lent in the United States, hold­ing ral­lies in many cities and even resort­ing to vio­lence that was record­ed on film at the time. Aerial hero Charles Lindberg was, for a time, an admir­er of Nazism, often extolling it in public.

That all changed in ear­ly December of 1941 when Germany declared war on the United States.

The Communist Party boast­ed many thou­sands of adher­ents in the 1920s and 1930s when America was going through its worst depres­sion, and peo­ple were seek­ing some out­let that promised a change and a return to the pros­per­i­ty that exist­ed before 1929. This was dra­mat­i­cal­ly reversed in the 1950s when the gov­ern­ment active­ly pur­sued any hint of “Red” activity.

The point of all this is that Nazism seems to be rear­ing its ugly head in America once again. The swasti­ka is being paint­ed on syn­a­gogues across the nation. Though it is not fre­quent­ly dis­played in pub­lic, some sym­bols are obvi­ous­ly derived from it that adorn the uni­forms and para­pher­na­lia of oth­er hate and extrem­ist groups.

Liberalism and free­dom go too far when they per­mit the sym­bol of Nazism to be used and dis­played in sup­port of the brands of hatred now aris­ing across this coun­try. The sym­bol itself is a fire­brand that seems to ignite the very core of hatred that fes­ters under the sur­face and sup­ports the false courage that results in the sup­pres­sion and antag­o­nism of minor­i­ty groups and individuals.

The laws in many coun­tries that have banned the dis­play of the swasti­ka are framed in such a way that its legit­i­mate use in his­tor­i­cal edu­ca­tion is accept­able. It is impor­tant that future gen­er­a­tions under­stand the full impli­ca­tions of how this sym­bol was used to gen­er­ate and fos­ter hate, greed, and the anni­hi­la­tion of mil­lions of indi­vid­u­als. Still, it should not be allowed to be freely dis­played when the sole pur­pose of any such dis­play is to foment that same hate today.

All Americans esteem our free­doms and are loathe to see them abat­ed. But free­dom can exist just as well when some­thing as sim­ple as sup­press­ing the dis­play of a sin­gle icon can be accom­plished with­out adverse­ly affect­ing free­dom-and-peace-lov­ing indi­vid­u­als, espe­cial­ly when those icons are uni­ver­sal­ly rec­og­nized for their inflam­ma­to­ry intent, his­to­ry, and purpose.

Those who dis­sem­i­nate swasti­ka-laden lit­er­a­ture or spray-paint it on church­es and syn­a­gogues should face ret­ri­bu­tion more severe than sim­ple mis­de­meanor charges, and such sym­bols should be rec­og­nized for their ability—and intent—to insti­gate more rad­i­cal actions.