Ouch! We’ve had Anstygate and now there is Swastikagate. Indeed, there was moral outrage from some quarters when this swastika crop circle, reported 27 August, appeared at Cooks Plantation, near Avebury Trusloe, Wiltshire.
Over on Charles Mallett’s Silent Circle site there were accusations that ‘crop circle hoaxers’ had shown ‘predictable disrespect to dead air crews / relatives’ by making this formation next to the site of the former RAF Yatesbury air training school.
It’s outrage time!
It goes without saying that, short of any information The Croppie is unaware of, this formation isn’t a hoax. Nobody has publicly claimed ownership of it.
The Croppie suggests Charles — and others who led in decrying this formation — take a moment to breathe. The outrage is understandable at face value: the swastika has become a divisive symbol since an un-curved form of it was adopted by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party in 1930s Germany. However, it was adapted from a much older Hindu religious symbol. For followers of the faith this precise swastika has a very different, much more positive meaning.
Photograph by the Crop Circle Connector.
It isn’t possible for The Croppie to get upset over the appearance of a Hindu symbol next to an old airfield (especially as there is so little crop around at this late stage of the season) unless there is proof its alleged human makers intended to cause offence. Even then, there’s the issue of transgressive art — although, from a personal perspective, it would be taking things too far.
No matter, to return to the formation, it is well worth quoting one of the world’s best known circle makers: ‘It’s just flattened corn’.
Top photograph by the Crop Circle Connector.
Cooks Plantation
Cooks Plantation
