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Q: What do you think of wearing for instance nazi armbands or patches for shock value à la Sid Vicious? A: Well, the swastika has had a complicated relationship with punk rock since it started. Of course, we all know that the swastika is actually an ancient symbol that developed independently among several ancient cultures, but the Nazis used it for their own purposes thus leaving the symbol with a certain meaning.
While in The Stooges, Ron Asheton used to wear a Nazi uniform to shock people. Proto-punk, nihilists The Electric Eels put swastikas on a few of their flyers. Dee Dee Ramone would collect Nazi artifacts as does Lemmy. (Of course, simply collecting Nazi stuff doesn't mean that you condone what they did. You can't only preserve the "good guys'" artifacts for historic purposes.)
Meanwhile, before her clothing shop was called Sex, Vivienne Westwood would put the Swastika on her clothes and one of her employes was even beat up for wearing a swastika armband. Through Malcolm McLaren (who had Jewish lineage) and other people, the swastika imagery worked its way into the punk rock underground. Siouxsie Sioux used to wear swastikas. Captain Sensible wore a swastika armband at the famous "Not the Captain's Birthday" concert. Of course, Sid Vicious had his famous swastika t-shirt. (Interestingly, The Clash manager Bernie Rhodes once refused to let Siouxsie Sioux open for the Clash due to the swastikas, because, being Jewish, he took particular offense to the symbol).
Obviously, Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious, and others weren't pro-Nazism. Also, as I've pointed out before, the Swastika probably has a slightly different meaning in the UK than the US. In the US, it generally stands for "racism" and "racial doctrine," but in the UK, while it represents that too, it also represents the legion of bad guys that tried to conquer Europe and bombed England, killing the relatives of people living in England, as well as countless Jews.
The fact that people still talk about the Swastika in punk circles shows how potent that imagery is.
I think, by using the swastika, Westwood really had two main motives- First, to simply cause outrage and controversy in order to make a profit, which worked very well for her. Second, to examine what a symbol actually is. A symbol itself is intangible, and only has the power that you give to it, so really, the only reason that the swastika itself (which in many cultures stands for "good luck") enables people to feel grief, loss, or anger is because they let it- the same with any symbol. So, you could argue that by making swastika clothing, Westwood is experimenting what it means to make art.
That being said, can you imagine wearing a swastika shirt "in the name of artistic exploration" in front of holocaust survivors? I can't. It would be a really shitty thing to do. I give the swastika shirt two thumbs down. (It goes without saying that the Nazis were evil).
That being said, this conceptual trend has continued in some forms. For example, Fucked Up has claimed on one of their mixtapes that the sample that ends "Generations" is an Hamas/Al Queda prayer. Is playing an Al Queda prayer on your song any different than wearing a Nazi shirt? Both have caused senseless deaths of many people (the Nazis killed way more, obviously). Both are evil.
I guess you could say that by wearing the shirt, you appear to be endorsing the nazi symbol, but by sampling fascist speeches and Al Queda prayers, one isn't necessarily promoting it, just examining it? I'm not sure. Art is hard.
Anyways, Nazis are bad. Racism is bad. Wearing a swastika shirt is in poor taste. If you really want to shock people without senselessly and callously insulting an entire culture, wear a Falling in Reverse t-shirt. It is way more subversive.
-John G
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