Nobody quite knows how this symbol came to take on its current significance. The Cyrillic alphabet does not contain the Latin letter Z. That sound is made by a character that looks like a backward 3.
Actually, Z is not the only symbol currently associated with Putin's aggression. Russian military vehicles have also been adorned with an O, a V, and -- most interesting of all -- a black numeral 4 on a white background within a red hexagon.
The meaning of the last-mentioned glyph is the easy to guess. The best-known book of Alexander Dugin -- friend to Steve Bannon, Putin's house philosopher, and the most important "intellectual" of modern fascism -- is called The Fourth Political Theory.
In the book, Dugin states that he is laying the foundations for an entirely new political ideology, the fourth political theory, which integrates and supersedes liberal democracy, Marxism, and fascism.[1] In this theory, the main subject of politics is not individualism, class struggle, or nation, but rather Dasein (existence itself).
Dugin is being disingenuous when he pretends to differentiate his system from fascism. He knows that the Russian people cannot accept an explicitly fascist system, so he hopes to convince his readers that he's really talking about something new and untried. In fact, Duginism has been tried. The results were unpleasant.
(Note the black-white-red color scheme of the 4 symbol adorning Russian tanks.)
Dasein is a concept taken from Martin Heidegger, one of the two important Nazi philosophers that certain lefties love to excuse and rationalize. The other is Nietzsche.
Please note that I did not call Nietzsche a proto-Nazi. In my opinion, he concocted the poison and thus deserves the title. As for all of those excuses and rationalizations offered by Walter Kaufmann and other "liberals" who have tried to convince us of Nietzsche's essential grooviness: See here and here. I hope Kaufmann is frying in Hell right next to Freddikins.
On a later occasion, I'll have much more to say about Heidegger, Dugin, Land and all the other Deep Thinkers who have danced the "I am not a Nazi polka" without fooling anyone. Right now, let's return to the Z mystery.
My personal attempts to ferret out the first usage of this glyph in its current context have yielded nothing useful. All I can offer now is a new theory -- something that seemed obvious to me from the first, although no-one else has mentioned it.
I think the answer has to do with runes.
Runes are an ancient northern European writing system. Since the letters were carved into wood and stone, the shapes were kept as simple as possible. A rune is always made with straight lines, for reasons that will be obvious to anyone who has ever tried to carve anything into rock. The letter Z in our alphabet was not originally a rune, though it might well have been.
Many modern-day esoteric thinkers believe that the individual runes have philosophical or mystical meanings; thus, runes have been used for divination in recent times. The magical use of the runes may have a truly ancient lineage. Some large boulders in Europe display very old runes which do not spell words -- in fact, the characters appear to be randomly chosen. It is thought that these stones served a ritual purpose.
You may already know that the SS symbol is composed of an ancient rune repeated twice. This glyph is known as the sowillo rune. To certain mystically-minded Nazis, this sign represents "victory."
The sowillo rune was originally written like this: ᛋ
Give that symbol a 90 degree turn and reverse it, and you have a Z.
There's precedent for turning the rune backward. The Nazi swastika was a reversal of a traditional sigil used by a number of ancient cultures.
The sowilo rune had positive connotations until Hitler ruined its reputation (so to speak). Those who use runes for divination believe that the backwards sowilo represents destruction and retribution. That's fitting.
(The reverse sowilo is also said to represent poor advice. That interpretation nicely describes the Ukraine invasion.)
If you do a little Googling, you'll see many references to something called "Russian Runes." I'm afraid that this allegedly ancient writing system is an example of modern-day fakelore. Occultists are forever inventing new stuff and pretending that it's really old stuff. They can't help themselves; that's what they do.
The Slavic peoples had no writing system until St. Cyril invented the Glagolitic alphabet around 860. Granted, there was a fair amount of intermarriage between the Scandinavians and the Slavs, so it is quite possible that some Slavs learned about the runes. But there is no evidence that pre-1860 Slavs used runes (or anything else) as a writing system. Remember: Runes are carved into rock. If Russian runes really were in widespread use in the days before St. Cyril wandered up north, one would expect to see a few surviving examples.
But does history really matter? To a mystic like Dugin, what's important is not reality but what people believe.
Dugin's cultists have convinced themselves that the Slavs really did use runes in ancient times -- that rune magic is a quintessentially Russian thing. On the Fourth Political Theory website -- one of the most evil places on the internet -- you'll find an essay which confirms my point.
This essay, apparently written by Dugin himself, does not mention the sowilo sign. But the text does refer to the circular O symbol currently seen on some Russian tanks. We are told that this glyph represents the sun overhead at noon.
(Dugin seems to be under the impression that some ancient rune systems used curved glyphs. I guess he hasn't done much rock carving.)
The swastika was also considered a sun symbol. If you can't display a swastika in mixed company, use an O. It won't offend anyone, but you and your buddies will know the secret meaning and you will consider yourselves ever so clever.
I must again emphasize that Dugin's dubious history lesson is unimportant in and of itself. What matters is that Russians in position of power actually believe in this madness.
(Incidentally, Dugin's website is adorned with a 4 subtly altered to look like the astrological symbol for Jupiter. Maybe Dugin saw 2001 too many times.)
Do you find it hard to believe that Putin takes Dugin's malarky seriously? Look at the prominent Republicans who take Qanon's malarky seriously.
1 comment:
This is the Joe Cannon I’ve been missing.
Post a Comment