From: habura@vccnorthb.its.rpi.edu (Andrea Marie Habura)
Subject: Re: Moderation (was pentagrams)
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 16:37:10 GMT

Hadrian wonders why we feel it necessary to load emotions on an innocent little symbol (an attempt at a direct quote...it's close.)

Because, my lord, that's what a symbol *is*--a vehicle for condensing and
expressing powerful ideas. Remember the tremendous uproar about flag-burning
in the US about two years ago? The reason that anyone cared about the US flag
being burned was that it is a very emotionally loaded symbol...perceived as
such by both the flag-burners themselves and by those who opposed the burning.
Two years later, I still regularly see bumper stickers and T-shirts opposing
such burnings (the most recent, seen two days ago, was "Don't Fry It, Fly It";
the most vehement was a T-shirt, showing a flag and the slogan "Burn This One,
A******."). Obviously, the US flag is more than a piece of bunting, because
the emotions of others have made it so.

The swastika has apparently always been a symbol, too (as opposed to a 
decorative element). When the Nazis adopted it, they weren't taking it to
ruin it for everyone else; they believed in the rightness of their cause
and the virtue of their people. There are still people who agree with them,
and those still use the swastika. I don't notice anyone trying to argue for
inclusion of swastikas into SCA armory here, possibly because actual Nazi
sympathizers don't tend to be compatible with the left-of-center, 
tolerant attitudes the SCA members tend to express. I suspect that anyone
displaying a swastika would anger a large segment of the populace.

Unfortunately, the pentacle has also become associated with very negative,
"evil" viewpoints. These come in two varieties: Satanists, who make a 
vocation out of evil, and who are probably unwelcome in the SCA too, and 
pagans, who are often perceived as evil by Christians (in and out of the
Society). Whether this is justified or not is not really under discussion;
after all, as someone else mentioned, the Italian fascists are not considered
evil, nor are the WWII Japanese, despite atrocities committed by both (ask
a Korean about the Japanese sometime). Therefore, their associated symbols
(the sun disc/rising sun and the fasces) are not perceived as evil, and not
banned. No, it isn't fair. However, that's the way life is. The pagans might
do well to mount a regular, intensive campaign to clear the use of the 
pentacle, much as the Jews (also a minority religion in the US) have done...
it seems to have worked reasonably well, in that the institutionalized anti-
Semitism of forty years ago is largely gone. Until that time, they might 
wish to use other pagan symbols in their armory that are NOT associated also
with Satanism...antlers and crescents come to mind, although I'm not pagan
and am not really up on the symbolism. Certainly Thor's hammers, which are
Norse religious symbols, have never been a problem. 

Ultimately, I think it's an issue of self-preservation. It's unfortunate, 
and it's not morally consistent, but I'd rather be forced to make the compromise than to lose the SCA entirely (and yes, it does happen. I"ve lost a site and
gotten considerable grief due to prejudices of this kind.)

Alison MacDermot