Arm patches with apples and rock music? After so many years of hated symbols, these kids managed to nonviolently mock them and present a wonderful substitute. I will never look at a swastika again without thinking apple, and chuckling.

Next we need to work on the beliefs a little, all this Aryan megolomania and narcissism.

Wilkepedia actually defines "Aryan" as Indo-Iranian. It dates back to languages and peoples in northern India and old Persia many many years BC. The master Aryan race theory was Hitler's private and shared delusion, derived from 19th century racial theories. The theories were debunked and discarded by anthropologists, but the ideology clung to the Nazi mystique and the myth of an ancient Northern European master race, promoted by Himmler to agrandize his origins. He modeled his SS after the Knights of the Round Table. Yes, we all want to be Knights of the Round Table, good choice of symbols. The crusaders liked that one too.

Himmler took it further and claimed the Christians stole the Aryan religious symbols, such as the Holy Grail. It fit well with Hitler's obsession with the occult. A new religion too! This gets better and better. Inventing a religious cult is easier than reforming a religion.

The Nazis invented their own race AND religion AND got elected in AND burned other races and religions in the Holocaust AND started a war. They took power so quickly that the sane Germans couldn't speak out. I knew one. Her husband and father were outspoken German medical doctors. They were shot by the SS in front of her and her baby and her mother. The three of them foraged through the war and occupation and finally immigrated here.

The real lesson is how the Nazi's got all that power so quickly. The Germans surrendered in WWI based on Wilson's 14 points, a reasonable settlement. But Wilson couldn't compromise the points and the allies invoked harsh reparations instead. Remember the words of Mahatma Ghandi, "Bring your opponent to his senses, not to his knees." The lesson of the Nazis is also the reason I fear any religious agenda in politics. People don't have to invent new religions to be deeply misled and misleading. They can just render what they profess false and twist it beyond recognition to any person of any faith, acquiring droves of dogmatic believers in them, not the faith.

Why does Nazi belief survive today? Look at it practically. Some people really need to hate anyone not like them to feel better about themselves. They need to feel entitled. They need someone to blame for everything they don't like or don't have. They need all their own choices vindicated and they need to feel righteous. Its easier to do when they invent a special religion, a unique logo, and re-use the best of a beloved legend of Knighthood. I suspect they will soon stop shaving their heads because shaved heads are very cool for balding men now. They are also cool for curly hair men who hate their ringlets.

We women could learn from the kids and rework the symbols in a memorable fashion. We could shave our heads and paint smurfs on our arms and dance at the edge of rallies. Let's wear shorts and tank tops too! And we could sing our own version of Redneck Woman as we dance:
I'm a bald headed woman
I ain't no hairy broad
I wear a smurf for a tatoo
No swastika and no bra.

Then we can go home and wear do-rags until our hair grows back. I'll do the rest of the lyrics upon request. I could probably persuade my hairdressor to restore all hair coloring at a great discount when the do-rags come off.