Peace symbol turns 50, man

[Forkboy]

Peace symbol turns 50, man
Groovy creation peaked in '60s

WASHINGTON - The peace symbol, three simple lines within a circle, turned 50 yesterday. It's had a colorful and often turbulent life, which is odd considering that it's supposed to symbolize peace.
more stories like this

Unveiled at a British ban-the-bomb rally on April 4, 1958, the peace symbol's peak of potency was in the 1960s, when it was the emblem of the anti-Vietnam War movement and the all-things-groovily counterculture. (Said its late creator, British graphic designer Gerald Holtom: "I drew myself . . . a man in despair . . . put a circle around it to represent the world.") The symbol has been marched in service of many causes over the years: civil rights, women's rights, environmentalism, gay rights, anti-apartheid, the nuclear-freeze movement, and the latter-day antiwar crowd.

Conservatives once denounced it as a lefty tool ("footprint of the American chicken"), but not all of the peace symbol's politics have been so easily classified. During the Soviet era, it was a ubiquitous totem of resistance in such cities as Prague and Berlin.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/04/05/peace_symbol_turns_50_man/

[man4allcats]

1. Happy 50th, Peace Symbol!

You still do it for me.

[Cha]

21. That's beautiful, anotheryellowdog!

..and, I was thinking about what stated the "conservatives" said about it.

"Conservatives once denounced it as a lefty tool ("footprint of the American chicken"), but not all of the peace symbol's politics have been so easily classified. During the Soviet era, it was a ubiquitous totem of resistance in such cities as Prague and Berlin."

Wondering how many of those so-called conservatives were chickenshithawks like they are today?

[scarletwoman]

2. Far out, man! Right on!

:hippie:

[man4allcats]

4. Just read your profile.

Very cool! If I were anywhere close to Minnesota, I'd ask you for a date. Anyway, keep getting radical-er. Most folks think I'm already over the edge, but I don't care.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Forkboy]

8. scarletwoman rules!

:)

[scarletwoman]

10. I wish. If I were in charge, things would be a whole lot different.

;)

Thanks for the compliment, FB.

:hug:

[scarletwoman]

11. And I see by your profile that you're in Texas.

We'll just have to wave at each other from afar. Keep the faith, man.

:hi:

[man4allcats]

14. Back atcha', Kiddo!

:hi: I'm going to bed now. It's over due. Take care!

[EFerrari]

3. Totally cool.

:)

[BlooInBloo]

5. Damn dirty fucking hippies. :)

[man4allcats]

7. One of my favorite lines from Billy Jack:

Sheriff: "When was the last time you had a haircut?"

Hippie: "When was the last time you brushed your teeth?"

[BlooInBloo]

9. hahaha!

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I love the peace symbol.

I'm still wearing one proudly. :hippie:

[magellan]

12. Peace, baby

Happy 50th, let's hope it doesn't take 50 more for this world to GET IT.

[man4allcats]

13. Re: "let's hope it doesn't take 50 more"

God, that's the truth. One would think it'd be pretty obvious by now. Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:

[JVS]

15. I present you with this video in honor of this occasion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDk-mg1J9Q

[bean fidhleir]

16. *As* the peace symbol, yes, but it's actually a medieval symbol for a dead man

It's one of those Rudolf Koch collected in his Book Of Signs, first published in English in 1930. The guy who gets credit for it, Gerald Holtom, almost certainly didn't independently re-invent it since Koch's book is a standard reference for graphic designers.

Credit where due.

[qwertyMike]

17. My uderstanding of what is now called the Peace Symbol

is what the OP sort of said, is that it first was used by the ban-the-bomb crowd in their '50's marches in Britain. That crowd was called the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament or CND led by Canon Collins. I was a (young) one of them in the UK then. The symbol grabbed me and I was told it was created (or selected) because it was the overlapping of the semaphore signs for the letters 'C', 'N' and 'D'.

That is so - in fact one only need the letters 'N' and 'D' superimposed to create it.

Anyway wearing it on my lapel my youth displayed my views immediately. It was even disallowed in some (grammar) schools on the grounds of dress code. First chance to rebel at age 13/14 was to sport one and take your licks.

[starroute]

18. One big difference between then and now

I was looking at newspaper coverage of the early anti-nuclear movement in the US a while back and was amazed to see just how mainstream it was and how prominently it was covered -- with front page articles in the New York Times for marches by just a few thousand people. So different from these days, when even massive anti-war protests are minimized and buried in the media.

Here's some description of what things were like in 1957-58:

http://hnn.us/articles/43037.html

Responding to an invitation by Norman Cousins (editor of the Saturday Review) and Clarence Pickett (the former secretary of the American Friends Service Committee), 27 prominent Americans met on June 21, 1957 in New York City and launched an effort to focus American opinion on the dangers of nuclear weapons testing.

SANE made its debut on November 15, 1957, with a dramatic advertisement in the New York Times. Signed by 48 well-known Americans, the ad called for the immediate suspension of nuclear testing by all nations — an action that they hoped would halt radioactive contamination and serve as the first step toward a world freed from the prospect of nuclear annihilation.

This advertisement unleashed a burst of antinuclear activity. Thousands of people responded — writing letters to SANE’s tiny national office, re-publishing the advertisement in other newspapers, and holding local meetings. By the summer of 1958, SANE had 130 chapters and some 25,000 members, making it the largest peace group in the United States. ...

These ventures — and others by comparable movements in other nations — had a major impact upon nuclear weapons policies. Responding to the popular clamor, the U.S., British, and Soviet governments agreed in October 1958 to halt nuclear testing as they negotiated for a test ban treaty. Later, President Kennedy dispatched Norman Cousins for talks with Soviet Premier Khrushchev — work that finally led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the world's first nuclear arms control treaty.

[Forkboy]

19. The whole nuclear issue is lower key now.

I think that's a mistake, and that the threat is as real as ever. One of the very first political things I went to was a No Nukes rally way back in the early 80's, and even then there was better coverage. Like you say, compared to how mass marches get covered now we can really see how the media shapes these things and keeps them under the radar as best they can.

[Cha]

20. We were just talking about it at work, yesterday,

when a customer noticed mine and said he heard something recently on how it was drawn but we didn't know that it was its "anniversary"!