01 October 2007

[liff] Those Who Do Not Learn From History....

974. ...are doomed to repeat it, in architecture. From Naval Base Coronado, on the Silver Strand, Google Earth gives you the US Naval Swastika Barracks:

Rah-oh!

Just a little embarrassing, seeing as we were the winning side in WWII (we jest here, of course. We are big-time fans of the Nav).

That said, they are budgeting over $half-a-mil (which is now also $half-a-mil Canadian) to make it a little less...Swastika-y.

And so it goes.

(Blessings on this one to Urban Honking, who pointed us to this posting. The building is yours for the finding in Google Maps and Google Earth–but here's a hint; It's not on the north end of North Island)

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

The problem with this whole ordeal is that this base has to pay half a million dollars simply because of the uneducated ignorance of society. The swastika itself is a symbol of good and there is no one at this base claiming it has any correlation to nazis.... anyways it couldn't be because nazi swastikas are turned on a point and this is a normal swastika. Swastikas are still used today even though they are an ancient symbol. If you studied eastern culture you would know the swastika is a very spiritual symbol to them :)

Samuel John Klein said...

Perhaps we are remiss in not pointing out that the posting was meant in a sense of wry humor. We are indeed aware not only of the use of the swastika in Buddhism, in fact, on modern maps the location of temples is as likely marked by them (with the arms pointing an opposite direction, and not balanced on a point) as with any other symbol.

Moreover, before its ravishing at the hands of the Nationalsocialistsche Deutcher Arbeiters Partei, the swastika was a popular motif here in America denoting the hope for good fortune, prosperity and providence. Do a Google Images search for "Good Luck Swasstika" to see. They were even a popular brand of kitchen products in the early 20th Century in America.

That being said, the swastika is so identified in our current zeitgeist with Nazism that it seems indelible at this point; it's just the way it is. I acknowledge those souls who deign try to separate the symbol from the message; to me, it exists as a message of the consequences of communication, and any campaign seeking to rehab the symbol is at best, in these times, quixotic.