Unimpressed with new Ballantine art

The new graffiti art installment on the second floor of Ballantine Hall is supposed to be about having a community conversation about democracy. 

However, the piece by David Ebbinghouse contains two images of the swastika, used in a way that insinuates that the current government is in fact very similar to the German government run by Adolf Hitler.

It is unclear whether the eagle clutching a swastika surrounded by the words “GOTT MIT UNS NEW WORLD ORDER” refers to the U.S. government. What is clear is that the text “HOMELAND SECURITY – TRANSLATE INTO THE GERMAN LANGUAGE – SOUND FAMILIAR?” with another swastika underneath it is directly referencing the U.S. federal government and its departments.

Is the U.S. government currently planning the extinction of an entire religious group?  Is it euthenizing “undesirables” in a eugenics campaign? No, and I think the comparison is unfair, to say the least.

What upsets me about this installation, however, is the obvious desensitization most people have in regards to the image of the swastika. The current U.S. government is in no way accurately depicted or even parodied by the use of this Nazi symbol.

Lindsey Krantz
IU senior