The Origin of the Peace Sign

The Origin of the Peace Sign 

 

As westerners it is quite inevitable to consider a peace sign as a prominently positive symbol representing freedom, peace and unity unlike its actual historical meaning. The peace sign has gained great propaganda and is constantly used in marketing; whether it is fashion, protests, bumper stickers, posters and even in the communist leftists. When we see a peace symbol we immediately relate the medias enforcement towards it; for example we assume by our enculturation that this icon has strong ties to the “hippie” counter-culture movement with a revolutionizing emphasis; we can also relate it as an embodiment of freedom since it has been used by the media representing the U.S which also stands for liberty. So when was this icon engendered? Around 67 A.D the vicious roman emperor Nero revolted publicly against Christianity; it is said that Nero executed Peter brutally by crucifying him upside down; the upside down cross refers to the symbol named as  “Nero’s cross” (crooked Christian) if we take a close look we can comprehend how this symbol was represented as pagan or as an anti-Christ symbol since it has a figurative form of a man (cross) upside down with broken arms.

For the following 1,000 years this logo was tremendously used by organizations whom followed a pagan or satanic ideology, after 2,000 years this symbol was heavily used by Marxist (communist) groups in this specific time it is when the inverted cross adopted the outside circle which is known as the peace and love sign that we see today. It wasn’t until the mid 1950’s when this logo became popularized erupting as a Free Love icon. 

 Even though the Hippie counter-culture supported spiritual leaders, philosophical leaders, encouraged worldwide peace, psychedelic art and music and groups such as NOW (women rights) its history contrast these ideals of unity. Well who would of thought that the actual originating ideology of this particular sign was the total opposite. In my opinion these are the prominent views that as westerners we have towards the peace sign origin; we tend to believe that it follows no religion but yet it enforces worldwide peace and free love. By the 1970’s it’s meaning shifted into a revolutionary aspect; students from Berkeley and throughout the U.S commenced to use the “clenched” peace slogan in posters as a vehicle of revolt against the Vietnam War. Even though it is referred to both freemasonry and Hinduism its actual non-arbitrary meaning comes from the upside down crucification of Peter.      

Just as Hitler’s decision of using a symbol with great social and sacred power (positive) and creating a swastika with movement transferring the representation as a negative force later causing great controversy. A similar happening occurred with this sign but well lets say reversed since it went from a negative representation transitioning into a positive presentation or so we tend to believe. 

 above is one of the first sketches of the peace symbol by Gerald Holtom. The first sketches are on display in the Commonweal Collection in the Bradford Peace Museum in England

The Cove/ the most inspiring movie

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As Ric O’ Barry began working in the stage of Flipper he began to create a bond with both Sue and Kathy two of the prominent characters who played Flipper. Every Sunday he would bring a TV outside to the dolphins and soon he began to understand that they could distinguish themselves from each other. Ric soon began to realize that these mammals carried a non-human intelligence and a full consciousness of their existence. Capable of feeling, communicating, and not to mention any ultrasonic system that we use is nothing compared to a dolphins sonar system. There fore these acoustic beings have the ability of seeing beyond our bones and determining diseases or pregnancies. Knowing that their primary sense is their sensibility towards sounds. Imagine how a dolphin feels in a stadium full of music and cheering crowds.

So why exactly is Ric O’ Barry trying to liberate dolphins from captivity? Well After the 1964 Flipper TV series aquariums and marine amusement parks skyrocketed over 300 dolphin parks opened including Sea World becoming a multi-million dollar industry; people began to have the aspiration of surrounding themselves with dolphins. At aquariums or at Sea World we see dolphins interacting and somehow we believe that their facial gestures suggest they are happy but the reality is that behind the scenes a vast amount of dolphins die of ulcers caused by the stress they obtain when being exposed to a vast amount of cheering people and the effects of living in captivity. It’s easy to see this as quite insignificant but if we look closely we can understand why they don’t belong in captivity. In the wild regularly a dolphin swims over 40 miles a day which means they can be somewhere in the afternoon and in an hour they can be up to 25 miles away.

So what is it that happens in Taiji, Japan? Well every September for 6 months in Taiji, Japan Boats head to Dolphin migratory routes and knowing of the dolphin’s sensibility to sounds they create a tedious noise by hammering large poles they submerge into the water. Eventually Dolphins are cornered in Taiji, Japan. The next day marine park owners from the U.S and all parts of the world arrive to choose bottle-nosed female dolphins buying them off at about 150,000 thousand dollars which brings a profit of 2-3 million dollars yearly. After marine park owners leave the rest of the dolphins are brutally slaughtered with axes or long knifes. It is estimated that about 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered yearly in only Taiji. This means that by us attending to any aquarium or a Sea World park we are contributing to the captures of thousands of dolphins and paying the fishermen and Taiji Whale Brokers since Taiji is the only largest supplier of dolphins to all marine parks and swim with dolphin programs around the world. So where does all this meat go to? Even though dolphin meat is undesirable for its large amount of mercury. Investigators found that most of Japan’s grocery markets sell their dolphin meat as fine whale meats making a profit of almost 1,000 for each dead dolphin.

 It is interesting how in the 1970’s Roger Payne created a massive social awareness towards the whale slaughtering by bringing exposure of the killings through records of music flourishing Whales acoustic sounds. This erupted creating a wave of revolts against the British government. It only took one man to make a difference by only exposing these actions to the people. So I believe that it only takes exposure for us to create a massive social awareness once again. The best action we can take is to expose this slaughtering, by watching Ric O’ Barry’s film The Cove, and preventing others from going to aquariums or Sea World. We need to comprehend that just like us they are aware of themselves and their families and are able to feel like we do.  By only bringing this social awareness of how the Dolphin industry plays a vast role in the slaughtering of Dolphins in Taji, Japan. We can make a difference. 

Unconstitutional - The War on Our Civil Liberties

Throughout the film it was very interesting to observe how Ashcroft and others used the term “patriot” act as a mean of placing a veil in between society and the government subsequently disabling society from questioning the true purposes behind a “patriotic” bill. Although it has been inferred from the Bush administration that this bill not only serves as a weapon against terrorism but it “protects our lifestyle” from “dangerous political enemies”; as a society we must question why is it that John Ashcroft’s (key supporter) so called detainees had and have no alliance to the 9/11 hijackers. Wouldn’t this convey that perhaps the real purpose behind this “patriot act” is to diminish any human right to privacy which so ever in order of establishing a fascist regimen of oppression? Perhaps my conclusion is a bit too drastic. Well let’s take a look at the facts. In the documentary “Unconstitutional: The War On Our Civil Liberties” Ashcroft infers that the patriot act is solemnly persuaded against political enemies, and yet without enough evidence families such as the Hamoui, and citizens such as Jose Padilla are detained without any charges, no legal representation and no evidence of such crimes. If none of these cases had any empirical evidence, what does this convey?

            

Throughout history  “3^rd” world countries have repeatedly encountered the overthrow of their socialist or communist presidents, and the elimination of progressive socialist groups. One prefect example of such is El Salvador’s civil war, in this particular war the U.S played a prominent role in subsiding and aiding El Salvador’s military by training, organizing and financing their soldiers in the Army School of Las Americas located in Georgia. The Army school of Las Americas was an organization structured with the aim of terrorizing and overall eliminating socialist progressive movements. In other words eliminating movements that aid and enforce social equanimity with a leftist inclination.  What I am trying to say is that, I am not surprised of such happenings since the small percentage of the elite has repeatedly enforced such organizations and bills in order of oppressing the people’s basic civil liberties in order of maintaining the current capitalistic system.

India Arie "The Path To Your True Self"

After watching the music video by India Arie it changed my persepective of who someone really is before I used to think that we were our outer looks for example body,hair,and facial features but in reality we are whats within ourselves, looks is'nt everything thats just what society makes us think through tv,magzines, books, and ones own environment around them.

Interpretation

                                                             

Different forms of interpretation:
         - in reality people have their own interpretation of things
                   1. one example could be place
                   2. more specifically one self image of themself
                   3. sometimes their interpretation is based on a thing or an object

. In my perspective I think of interpretation as identity:
        - interpretation in a person changes or alters others perspective from their surroundings
                  1. if im raised in a mexican surroundings and I move to brazil their interpretation of me is different from mine
                 2. Also for example religion is a major part of your interpretation for example me I was raised up catholic an I have a friend that is muslim an sometimes when we have conversations I noticed that we think way different in certain areas.