Roughly two decades ago, I was institutionalized at one of the most prominent Red State facilities in middle America. For four years, I was brainwashed into embracing this facility's rituals and ideologies. One of the tools of indoctrination was nomenclature; that is, giving every inmate in the asylum the same nickname, thus diluting any individuality one might have and making him or her part of a collective whole.
To this day, former inmates of this and other similar facilities across America proudly wear clothing announcing their affiliation to the institute that oversaw their re-education. Every t-shirt announces the name of its institution and the mascot nickname assigned to the collective; for instance, if rugby had been invented in 1793 and Charenton Asylum had created a rugby team, it might have called itself the Charenton Terrors--Charenton being the name of the institution, and Terrors being the mascot/moniker assigned to its collective inmates.
In an effort to break free from the conformity surrounding my own institution, I decided to create my own name. I did this by taking the name of the institution that had once housed me as well as the group nickname give to me and the other inmates. I ran the letters of these words through an online application that creates anagrams with whatever you feed it. As such, my institution and its mascot yielded the following:
TACTLESS AND SWASTIKA
At once, I had a true identity, a label for my individuality.
Tactless: I am nothing if not tactless. My personal history is marked by my propensity to call things as I see them, often resulting in broken hearts and hurt feelings, all the collateral damage of my bluntness.
And what of that other word?
Swastika: Dating back to Ancient India, the swastika has been an integral part of Hinduism, Jainism, and even Buddhism. The word svastika is derived from the Sanskrit roots su-, meaning "good or well"--thus su-asti or svasti- denoting "well-being"--and -ka serving as a diminutive to intensify the verbal meaning, thus making it a symbol; ergo, the word swastika was originally defined as "symbol for that which is associated with well-being" (considered a sign of "good luck" for centuries prior to the Third Reich).
Near the end of the twentieth century, I wrote a work of fiction which focused on the efforts of a high school teacher to convince a group of wayward teens that they should restore the swastika symbol they wore on their clothes (more in an effort to upset their parents than as any sort of racist political statement) to its ancient spiritual meaning. My work was not only nominated for various awards but also earned me a writing fellowship with one of the most prestigious organizations in the country.
Today, as one of German descent, I continue to put forth efforts to restore the swastika, not as a symbol of my own nationality's dark history, but as the symbol of well-being that it was originally intended. To me, the word swastika is on par with the derogatory N-word that is often applied to African-Americans, a people who may find the word offensive but nevertheless use it often to distll its evil.
Sadly, most of today's society is not so evolved as the African-American. Already on the Internet, I have been banned from online groups just for displaying the word swastika as part of my Internet moniker. Keep in mind, I display only the word, not the symbol itself. A word that implies "well-being" and "good fortune" in its original language of Sanskrit.
Swastika once meant something good. Today it means quite the opposite, all because a group of malignant thugs (today not even a century in hell) adopted it as their national symbol, and henceforth generations of hyper-sensitive crybabies withered like dried olive trees at the sight of it rather than standing firm and speaking out against its bastardization. We need to grow up, people. The word "water" won't get you wet.
Sorry to be so blunt about it ... but I am nothing if not tactless.
स्वस्तिक
