Relativity. For most people the word conjures up images of a frizzled, white hair gentleman who taught at Princeton, along with some physics theory that he developed using the grey matter under the hair, when it was black by the way. The theory predicted weird things happening in the real world, down right, uncommon sense things actually. Such is true of relativity in society as well, weird, illogical, uncommon sense things.
Some 4 or 5 year ago this so-called social issue concerning the Confederate Battle Flag reached a local maximum. Then it just kind of faded away into a local minimum value again. Now it's being made into another peak interest, news issue again. Up and down, up and down, just like the raising and lowering of flags. I guess that's one of the minor points about social relativity, an issue's importance is relative to time. There's probably a correlation to the election year cycle here somewhere, but I'm not going waste time looking for it.
In physics relativity, time is variable. The faster one travels, the slower time flows by, at least from the perspective of someone else who is just standing by watching the traveler whizz by. By all measurements the one doing the traveling can make, time flows by normally. There are other things like this in relativity which confounds one's mind. But it's all a matter of perspective, which is the root difficulty in a common sense understanding of physics relativity.
In society relativity, perspective is variable. What one person sees is not neccessarily what someone else sees, even though they are looking at the same thing. Time is still a variable as well in society. Whatever it is that the people are looking at has a time era associated with it. It's the triple whammy of society relativity, something means different things to different people during different times all at the same time. Although, I suppose they are some who would argue that some people are just stuck in one time era with one perspective.
In physics there is an invariance principle. Simply stated it's some math hocus-pocus that makes two people arrive at the same conclusions about the same physical processes even though their clocks, measuring sticks and other scientific devices appear to be operating differently from their respective perspectives. If you think that sentence is simply confusing, you should see the real math hocus-pocus.
Is there an invariance principle in society relativity? How about the Invariance of Reality Principle: All things are just as they appear to be to all people at all times.
The Confederate Battle Flag is over the State House in Columbia, South Carolina. Yep, that's reality, it's there. With respect to the symbology of flags, as in the art world, what it means depends totally upon the viewer. The same applies in the history world too. There are most likely many issues in the past that present day historians still don't agree on why things actually happened as they did. But the invariance of reality principle works it these worlds; yep, that stuff happened, for whatever reasons were appliciable at the time. I really not all that convinced present day historians can agree on present day history as it's being made.
Part of the problem with symbology is that their meaning can be ripped off, stolen and otherwise ill-used. This adds to the confusion among the different viewers. But the principle applies; yep, that's reality, symbols have their own history of meanings. Let's look at two or three other symbols.
In Christainity there is the crucifix, the cross. In Roman times it was used as a form of execution, connections with death sentences for criminals. Many years ago I listened to a radio preacher make this the point of his sermon. All those crosses in church yards, on church buildings, on cemetery headstones and being ceremoiously paraded around could have been a hangman's noose or electric chair or most any other symbol that connections with criminal executions.
Then, about a thousand years later, in the same part of the world, the Muslims saw the cross approaching, usually at the head of crusading army. Another infidel invasion, another war with the so-call christains who killed and brought destruction wherever they went.
Five hundred years later it was the natives in South American who became familiar with what the cross meant when Spaniards showed up there. There were words spoken in Latin, as if the natives understood that language any better than Spanish, that pretty much reduced to "Convert or die" followed immediately by the slaughtering.
Another four centuries pass and it's the cross that gets burned at some ceremonies, at people's homes, at some churchs or whereever those who are ill-using a symbol for what it was not meant to be.
All of this history kind of puts a whole different meaning to the crucifix image doesn't it.
Now there's the broken cross too, more familiarly known as the swastika. It has been found in many aboriginal cultures but is usually related to the ancient India culture. The name is from Sanskrit, "svasti" and "su". The original meanings associated with it were: good luck, well being, peace, harmony, tranquility and the like.
After milleniums of use with those nice meanings, some political party rips it off, ill-uses it, and virtually destroys it within a two short decades.
There's that Federal flag, up a pole, over the State House in Columbia, South Carolina. It stirs up deep emotions in quite a number of people too. But for some reason, there is more history some people don't want to associate with it than history they want to associate with the other flag. Or is it really the same history?
The federal flag represents the government and country which decimated the native American culture.
It was at Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in December 1890 where two hundred Sioux men, women and children were massacred.
In November 1864 at Sand Creek Colorado another massacre of four hundred Cheyenne Indians who were in the process of surrendering occurred under its authority.
The flag was in the chambers of the US Supreme court as the Justices made their decision in the case of Dred Scott in 1857. Two years later it was represented by the US Marines who captured the raiders of Harper's Ferry and it was there at John Brown's trial.
It was atop the US Capital in 1838 when Congress decreed that the southern Appalachians no longer belonged to the Cherokee and that they should be forced to march to Oklahoma along the "Trail of Tears."
In fact the flag was created to represent a new and free nation which condoned and supported slavery by its own constitution. An absurdly hypocritical event when compared to the new nation's own Declaration of Independence which included "all men are created equal."
It represented the Northern states where anti-abolitionist riots occurred in part to protect the interests of their cotton mills by the low price raw cotton produced by slave labor.
That was then, this is now.
It represents a Congress which squanders, wastes, defrauds the people's money at the drop of a bribe.
It represents a country which replaced outright slavery with economic slavery.
It is present at mostly all klan rallys, being waved and paraded around by the same group of people waving and parading the other flag.
It represents the same government that brought about Waco and another Wounded Knee killing in more recent years.
It represents a society plagued with organized crime and criminals.
It is atop business buildings that make use of sweat shop labor, poverty strickened migrant farm labor.
It is in the courtrooms where every mis-carriage of justice is decided.
The homeless, hopeless street people; the runaway, thrown away kids see it everywhere as a nation of politicians that don't really care.
Everything that is bad, wrong, immoral and unethical in the States is there in this other flag.
That is the Invariance of Reality Principle.
Ripped-off, stolen, ill-used symbols, where and when does it end?
I doubt that there is any that does not have a dark side to it's history. To capitulate, yield-up and sacrifice, under threats of economic hardships for innocent, common folk, yet another one to the dark side of human nature only adds to that darkness. Such surrendering of all these symbols only admits that bad people can do bad things under the guise of good symbols and take away the good as well.
Even the process of boycotting is such a symbol. Once used to correct social injustices worthy the common folk's hardships it brings, it is now used to take down a flag and give the good represented within it's history to the those who wrongly use it.
Those viewers whose perspective see only the past slavery, present day racism and hatred in the Confederate Battle Flag symbol must also see the same in the Federal flag, Christainity's crucifix and ancient India's swaskita. Coercing those veiwers whose perspective is just the opposite into yielding up what they see within these symbols only creates additional division, more of the racism and hatred that the former wants to remove.
It makes little difference where the symbols are, above State houses, atop Federal buildings, in front of churches, at county courthouses, in parades down main streets, around bonfires burning in the night. Their meanings and the emotions they kindle within all the different viewers are just as present as the symbols themselves.
The Invariance of Reality Principle is: All things are just as they appear to be to all people at all times.
Who among any of us has the right to take away someone else's view of reality?