In the category of “how unfortunate,” this is sort of amazing: Google Maps Causes US Navy To Change Its Swastika Building
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In the category of “how unfortunate,” this is sort of amazing: Google Maps Causes US Navy To Change Its Swastika Building
Screenwerk 
September 27, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Political correctness insanity. I better check my flower bed from the air to make sure it does not look like a swsitika or 666 or upside down cross or some other potentially offensive shapes.
September 27, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Agreed – Chris noted it was before WWII, and a good design choice overall – seems like a waste of money.
September 27, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I don’t understand. The swastika is the Buddhist symbol for peace and harmony. So the Navy wants a more warlike symbol?
September 27, 2007 at 6:56 pm
It’s hard to explain away, even though the build date was prior to when the swastika became quite such the psychologically-laden symbol it is today.
Dunno how I feel about the cost incurred to make it PC today. On one hand, since the intent was likely completely innocent way back when, it would seem unreasonable. Then again, the symbol is such a lightning-rod and so intensely offensive, it might make sense to clean it up.
What if swastikas were innocently built into a building’s arabesque stonework, like a major governmental building like the Supreme Court in Washington? In that case, it might also make sense to renovate to remove a symbol that has powerfully negative political associations….
I’m bending towards thinking it’s actually good to do, and the $600k price tag is fairly reasonable for a landscaping and structural redesign.
September 27, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Carl, the symbol was arguably coopted to such a large degree by Nazis, so there’s few people who would think that it was being used as a sort of buddhistic mandala compared with naziism.
Since most people in the west associate it with aryanism, it should be treated on that basis, rather than on its other associations.
The equivalent argument would be to say that all crosses should be removed because they were originally a symbol representing capital punisment in the Roman world. Crosses have come to mean something quite a bit different and their symbological tie to just the Roman death sentence meaning is arguably broken in the mass consciousness, and they mean something far different and more acceptable to people now.
Due to the horrific things done under the swastika banner, it’s not really feasible to return everyone back to an other alternative meanings, IMHO.
September 27, 2007 at 7:51 pm
The slippery slope here is we don’t know how many things will look like a swastika from the air that is purely a coincidence. What about a street intersection that looks like a swatiska. Do we change the intersection? If Chris did not post this situation, so few people would have seen this. You must have to have a lot of spare time to look at Google maps to notice. I guess if the milltary can spend thousands of dollars for a toilet, what’s $600K more. A drop in the bucket.
September 27, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Much to do about nothing.