B12 Symbols
This consideration is based on the desire to understand something illogical. This makes clear from the beginning that comprehension only partially can be achieved by rational means, and that we have to provide leeway in questions of definition.
In childhood, learning takes place in the game, through trial and error, in the simultaneity of the different. And whether wanted or not, companions are always emotions, which are experienced at the same time: hunger, fear, happiness, fatigue ... The reasons are unknown and of no interest, because feelings are in the child's perception simply experienced facts.
All this results in a conditioning by repetition. Here we are faced with a huge amount of unsystematized experiences. From this, we randomly pick some out: The lullaby, the first words, the burning of the fingers on the hot iron, the home, the way to school, the landscape, the climate ... and homeland is already defined. Decades later, after a long stay abroad, every single element is accurately recognized, and a fine sense of smell is sufficient, to run film sequences of childhood again. We have no other childhood, just this one. Therefore, we speak of imprint and identity.
Against this background, links become understandable, although they lack the causal basis. It is sufficient that something was perceived at the same time and lived through, whatever it was. Therefore, to systematize examples turns out to be meaningless. Rather, it seems advisable to single out some of them to find out their non-causal networking. In it we see, as in a mammography of memories, how the human brain works, and from this it automatically follows that we can not possibly expect a completeness of enumeration.
Let us follow the process of growing up. School teaches to differentiate causality from non-causality, gives reasons for the existence of feelings, and thus provides tools to deal with the world. At the same time, the boundaries of causality become visible, for there is an area beyond which she can not see. What is meant is the hereafter and what comes after death. There is no doubt that death affects every person existentially. Therefore, questions arise and different cultures give different answers.
The world of signs and symbols can therefore be divided into two areas. There are the life-practical signs: Letters, numbers, traffic signs, the meaning of which we learn. They make a contribution to finding the right way around the world, even if Chinese characters look completely different from Russian ones. Here it is then necessary to get used to another situation through a further learning process. This process may be tedious, but it is usually considered useful. During the foreign language has been learned, something else happened at the same time: Emotions were transported. As a result, the foreign is familiar and it is like a second homecoming experience. Therefore, some emigrants also speak of a "second home" because they now know "which way the cat jumps" or in German "how the hare runs". Practical life symbols and signs connect their users because they have collectively agreed on their use. This process is called integration.
The second area is oriented to where only parables, analogies and symbols are able to communicate something incomprehensible. It is well known that there are many different views even in the same geographic region. Symbols become a sign of world view - and world views: these include ideological, religious and political views, are not rationally tangible. Of course, every conception is based on arguments, but these do not have a universal character, are a matter of opinion - which closes the circle. Identity in this point would correspond to a dictatorial alignment. The preservation of freedom of expression depends solely on the agreement on non-violence. Both globally and regionally, we live in a world of parallel societies.
Here are two familiar symbols of European history: The Host and the Swastika.
The Host
Wafers are commonly used as a backing for baked goods. Food chemists list their nutritional content, vitamin, iron and magnesium content. Its paper-like consistency allows the imprinting of characters and images. Therefore, they are also used as sealing wafers. Christmas wafers show religious motifs. The Host, on the other hand, can be planar, is circular because of the reference to the saying of Jesus: "I am the beginning and the end" (Rev. 22:12) and because of the analogy with the sun: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). With regard to possible imprinting, there are numerous variants, e.g. the Chi-Rho, the A and Ω or the sign of the cross. After the transubstantiation in the liturgical process, according to the faithful, the wafer is no longer what it was before. There has been a change. The consecrated (ordained) hosts are therefore usually kept in a ciborium and sealed in the tabernacle. This is a place of silent worship. The esteem now no longer applies to the wafer as such, but to the body of Christ, which it embodies from then on. An unadequate use of hostes was seen als sacrilege and severely punished between the 13th and 16th centuries and was in some places insinuated to fellow-believers, mostly Jewish citizens, as an excuse to expel and to kill them.
The swastika
The swastika appears once as an ornament, as lucky charm or sign of salvation, another time as a symbol of National Socialism. The choice was not random, not even the direction of the clockwise from the crossbars outgoing hooks. Due to the inclination to 45 °, it was brought out of its static rest and receives a dynamic component. This symbol too was associated with solemn acts, the content of which is explained in the text of the 1934 banner oath: "I swear to God this holy oath that I obey the leader of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht as a brave soldier and that I'm ready to give my life at any time for this oath." The public appreciation should be shown by the flag salute, which meant that you had to take off at least the headgear while the flag was carried past you. The documentation of your ethos was given with the Hitlergruss.
In both cases, the symbols as such, the host and the swastika, are themselves unaware of their own identity - it is given to them by humans and their meaning is woven in a complex context. The fact that the contexts are similar to each other is historically grounded in the doctrine of divine right, which brought God into contact with the rulers. Therefore, the imperial crown next to the image of Christ bears the inscription: "Per me reges regnant", which means: "Through me (Christ) reign the kings."
The reason why the nature and effect of symbols must be considered in the context of cultural studies is that the task of the humanities is to provide information about the different modes of thinking. In cooperation with psychology, this can make an important contribution to society. It is noteworthy that science must strive to rest in the mode of description. It is important to refrain from personal involvement or rating, but this should not be misunderstood as an ignorance concerning fates suffered. The intention is solely to understand thought patterns. This is the result of a disciplined work process. Seen in this way, opinions appear as a premature anticipation of knowledge.
That black cats bring bad luck, that they became the symbol of magic and witchcraft, is such a not-questioned conception. The simple thing about it: The occult needs no justification and avoids logical thinking. It plays with fears, traumas, conjectures and associations - this is how black stands for darkness, insecurity and fear - and is effective precisely where the light of knowledge does not reach to. Secrets are boring in case of their detection, because they lose their identity - they are suddenly no more secrets. The childish fear of the ghost pasts away as soon as own grandfather is recognized under the bed sheet. In adulthood playing becomes bitter seriousness, because deception is an important part of strategic thinking.
Against this background, there are two different perspectives regarding the acceptance of religious symbols in classrooms:
The constant, unconscious perception, for example of a cross, has a suggestive effect, even if it is only the "input" that Christ is present in everything that happens. The exchange through the advertising poster of a toy company would be denounced for the same reason as surreptitious advertising. On the other hand, a blank wall is of no interest and does not distract. Teaching should not, like science, take sides but promote understanding. In addition, students from other cultures are not unnecessarily confronted with a foreign worldview.
Proponents can claim to look back on a 2000-year tradition that has been reflected in many things. And if one starts with the removal of the crosses - where will one consequently stop? Would music lessons be acceptable in view of the complex Christian symbolism of the western tonal system? Would the peal of bells be acceptable, the division of the days of the week in analogy to the creation story or a calendar beginning with the birth of Christ? If reality also includes our regional past, it should be allowed to express this, because without history, the present can not be understood.
Let's take a bit of distance and question the question as such: It aims to polarize through a yes-no decision: Accept religious symbols or not, and it ignores the competence of teachers, who of course strive to integrate foreign students. Why should they, for example, do not come up with the idea by accepting an immigrant with the symbol of his cultural identity? Some take it on by simply hanging the photos of the students on the wall, representing their own identity. So everyone learns that they are not alone in the world, and the elimination of both the own and the stranger can never be a solution. History is overflowed with examples.
The question implies, in an very simple thought manner, that something could be achieved by pointing or removing symbols. Of course, once you have poisoned all black cats, you can not run into any. The debate heats up the mind, although the path to intercultural understanding can only be trodden by self-controlling. Basically, the polarization is most distant from the compromise. So why polarize, if you can approach to another and discover similarities in dealing with symbols? In doing so, one will come across impressive wisdom using the example of the theory of harmony, but in the immediate vicinity one will encounter naked human error. Allone with the reflection on the love of the enemy as one of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Crusades could not have been possible.
License plates of motor vehicles have also been suspected of being carriers of encrypted messages. In 2000, the German Federal Ministry of Transport issued a recommendation to the federal states, combinations that could be regarded as referring to a National Socialist organization or institution, such as "HJ", "SS", "SA", "KZ" or "NS" not to use, whereby the German term «Kennzeichen», which means "mark" or "sign" is transmitted from the vehicle to the mental attitude of the driver.
Even the 1 and 8 are suspected of pointing to the first and eighth letters in the alphabet "A" and "H" and thus to Adolf Hitler. In Christian harmony the 1 stands for the prim and the 8 for the octave because of the eight blessings of the Sermon on the Mount. As epitomes of consonance they are equated with the A and the Ω. Already in the Old Testament there is talk of the sanctification of the temple on the 1st and 8th days (2 Chr. 29:17). How easy it is to be fooled!
Symbols are mirrors of man, abstracts of what has been described in detail in books. You can read books or not. Some consider it necessary to burn them. You can hang mirrors and you could also smash them, not to have to recognize yourself in them, but that would have no effect on your own beauty or ugliness.
© 2018 Aurelius Belz