Braindroppings

The correlative theory of Swastikas and "progress" as you put it, seems quite new and unique in fact, but I would need to see some more evidence and theoretical argumentation, because as you lay it out, it seems to contradict all political and sociological theories I have seen -- mainly German and American sources on the rise of fascism and national (and revolutionary) socialism. These things appear firstly under the opposite circumstances, the prevalent argument has been so far; that is, when things are not going well for a long time, or if there is a long-time coming inferiority complex that has been building up, perhaps because of the accumulating effects of being under a system that suppresses all national identities in the name of some higher category like the unity of all mankind or something like that… but contributing to it certainly would be also a general self-serving looking the other way, because of fear, need for conformity, or not caring about others lest it might jeopardize one’s own position in society…

I have only driven through Slovenia, but have seen similar things not only in Croatia the neighboring south slave country, but also further up in the Czech and East Germany, not to mention Austria and France. While the West Germans have taken responsibility for Nazism and have gone through decades of working through their history – not simply dishing out blame, but looking for theories that would explain such behavior universally, - many of the peripheral countries, and countries who have an easier time distancing themselves from the horrors, haven't; this includes Austria and the so-called new Federal States of Germany in the first place, but also many peoples and countries that simply argue implicitly or explicitly that they have had nothing to do with any of it. And on the surface they may actually appear not to have anything to do with it... and so these signs go without any protest... They are tolerated. Isn’t toleration good, after all, isn’t it a “liberal” virtue?

Perhaps one of the most horrific images that Swastika brings to mind, without trying to limit it to that, is the Holocaust or the Shoah, or as a shorthand for the whole thing, as it is often taken in theory, “Auschwitz,” and with that, the question of minorities and foremost there: the Jewish question.

Now, it would be unjust of us Iranians not to recognize that according to the research done at the Tel Aviv University (also available online) the Islamic Republic of Iran is a leading country among the places where many conferences on the denial and relativizing of Holocaust regularly take place, where the so-called experts from Europe, who are regarded as criminals there, are invited to propagate their fantastic theories… in the name of exchange of ideas, no doubt, perhaps a dialogue amongst civilizations of sort…

Well, to be more actual and up to date, just last week the president of our Republic in a momentary laps of reason it seems, shook hands with his Israeli counter-part (who has precisely a similar symbolic role and nothing besides, that is, he is no Sharon,) at the Vatican funeral procession extravaganza, and upon returning to Iran, flatly denied having chatted with his fellow Yazdi compatriot Zionist, despite the latter’s contradiction – perhaps our holy-man-president would justify this highly tactical maneuver of his by citing some medieval Persian political theorist… I don’t know.

But when it comes to things like that, the matters that have been for a long time now so deeply intertwined with Anti-Semitism, something that the Swastika among other things represents: there is no room for double-talk, there is no room for playing both sides, there is no room for hypocrisy.

Now, I don’t know if Cyrus the Great was really great, or as one killer Mullah has argued, just an overrated warmongering faggot, but I remember being forced to yell death cries every morning when lining up in the courtyard of the middle school in Tehran before marching to class. Paul Celan, the German-speaking poet from the city of Bukowina, the sometime capital of a now non-existent country, Czernowitz, writes about the “death-bringing speech,” which is often repeated without any reflection, and not criticized when it should be, until it consumes the whole of language and soon one doesn’t even recognize the violence projected into the world… and instead looks for “liberal” justifications for it… things like, come on, get over it, lighten up, don’t be such hard-ass, go say your sh.. elsewhere…

Death to the Shah, Death to America, yes, Death to Israel… this issue has not been addressed as of now, and is continuously skirted. What the Slovenians are going through may just be too far afield for us who don’t even speak their language, ein zu weites Feld, but perhaps we can start by addressing what goes on in out own country… --

Don’t be cross with me for pointing out our own deficiencies before criticizing others.

Have a nice safe trip and say hello to my sometime asylum-home.

Alles gute, komm gut nach Hause.

Amir

Hi Khodadad,

Sorry I didn't comment sooner. I've been kind of busy this week and I had to get my tax forms filled out and mailed. I just heard from Jamak that she doesn't have to file tax returns up in Canada. Well, lucky her!

Thanks for the geography lesson. Prior to this, I did not know where Slovenia was. I looked up a map and some basic information about the country. From what I read, it sounds like Slovenia was not involved in the Balkan War of a few years ago. I like the architecture as seen in your pictures. I suppose that some of those buildings must be centuries old. I am not pleased to hear about the Neo-Nazi activity, though. I suppose that Slovenia was squarely in the Axis between Germany and Italy in WWII. I wonder what sort of revisionist history the children of Slovenia are being fed in school?