Much Less Derived An Artefact

So you think the Nike symbol on
your shirt is less derived an
artefact than that expressed
by swastikas. Fancy that! There
was a time a swastika blessed
kindness back before the birth

of Christ. In some societies it
never lost the claim of good,
but then the Nazi Party came
and turned the symbol to a
use despised with ugly deeds of
inhumanity beyond belief.

There it lies, victim of its own
success, evilness in black and white.
But I digress, there is no way you’d
know what either meant beyond
a visit to a library – much less
fuss on Internet. Thus inoculated

by antiviral antibodies we never see –
‘flu-like symptoms without the full
disease, a virus in the form of truth,
keys that trigger queries in a classic
sense of disbelief, formed outside
our sphere by actions of an algorithm

meant to pare all data to a common
core. And there it dies a nasty death
to unitary consensus. Rather like the
swastika you cannot see a wood for
trees disguised by patent rights allied to
Nike’s pernicious brand of market might.
© 31 May 2007, I.D. Carswell