The Power of Symbols

Symbols are more than just symbolic. That sentence might seem like it’s a contradiction but it is a fundamental truth of life.

Symbols have power and lives of their own. Lives that grow and change over time.

A red flag flying over Trades Hall has no power in itself. But the symbol of that flag, the blood of the workers who fought and died for their own human rights, has a power far beyond the cloth.

And a Nazi salute has no power on its own, it is, after all, just a gesture, but it is the most powerful symbol of hate in history. A symbol of repression, of fear, of anger. Of genocide.

Symbols have power.

I’m going to link two things that have never been linked, and will never be linked again; the Aboriginal Voice to Parliament and the boycott of Hogwarts Legacy. Both are in many ways just symbolic. Gestures that will make little real world difference to anyone. Almost disregarded by some as a waste of time and energy. A distraction from real, pressing issues. An insult.

But are they?

What happens if we look deeper at these ‘simple’ symbolic gestures? What will we find out?

The Voice

I don’t think anyone voting Yes to The Aboriginal Voice to Parliament is under any illusion that it alone can solve every problem affecting Aboriginal communities and people in this nation. But where the reactionary Right is portraying it as a fundamental change to the basis of constitutional law in Australia that must be opposed, the Left opponents of The Voice are declaring it at best a pointless symbolic change.

They do themselves a disservice by doing so.

I do not presume to speak over the top of people who have much more of a connection to this issue than I do, but someone needs to push against this notion that the symbolic is pointless. (And The Voice is more than symbolic anyway, but its inclusion into the Constitution is the height of symbolism).

The Constitution of Australia is a racist document. It was written so that a system of Government could be created whose first job was to restrict all non-white immigration to Australia. It was written to deliberately exclude Aboriginal People from the new nation.

But you won’t find this racism in the document. The Constitution, as it exists now, is merely a symbol of racism.

But it’s a powerful symbol; of depopulation, of disrespect, of genocide. The blood of many thousands whose land was stolen is in that Constitution. Not literally, of course, only symbolically.

Some opposing The Voice say that this document is fundamentally broken because of this. And that’s a powerful argument.

They argue that putting The Voice into this colonists document is an insult, that it cannot ever make up for the racism etched into its pages or the real racism that still poisons Australian Society.

But that’s not the purpose of putting The Voice into the Constitution. If it was, then that would, truly, be an insult.

However, as a symbolic First Step towards something, the symbolism is powerful. It is a symbol of the nation being prepared to finally start something new. That it’s ready to begin a new story.

A Yes vote will, symbolically, start the healing.

And yes, it’s far too late to start that. And yes, it’s not enough. And yes, people are needlessly dying because of the racist systems that are currently in place across this country. And yes, some will argue that the Voice is the be all and end all and nothing else needs to be done.

But those are not reasons to oppose The Voice, because a rejection of The Voice will also be a symbol. A powerful symbol that this nation is not prepared to even think about ending the conflict that has been fought since 1788. A symbol that power and fear still rule here. That the colonists still have power, and that everyone else should be voiceless.

And people will see it as a symbol that any kind of conciliation is impossible. A symbol that people are not prepared to even discuss Truth, and definitely not prepared for a powerful Treaty.

A No vote will, symbolically, defeat progress in this area for more than a generation, if not longer. That is not the intent of the Left in opposing The Voice, but that is the consequence.

A Yes vote will open up more possibilities than people have dreamed of, because it will allow them to dream of a better future where positive change is not only possible, it is likely. And that’s precisely because of the powerful symbolism of saying Yes.

That is the power symbols have, and those who dismiss things as simple symbolism are dismissing a vital part of the human experience.

Hogwarts Legacy

To the other symbolic issue dominating this week, the Hogwarts Legacy boycott. To give this context we must quickly look at JK Rowling and why this boycott is symbolically necessary.

The author has, for at least five years now, been spreading her opinion on trans-issues every chance she gets. And never in a positive light. She has at the same time been trying to recapture her success from the Harry Potter series.

These two aspects of her current life go hand in hand. When she tweets about trans-issues, her platform and reach increase, and she attracts attention from people who would never otherwise be interested in her work.

JK, therefore, seems to profit off hate and fear. She might very well identify as a harmless liberal centrist, but her powerful allies are almost all solely from the Far Right. And that in itself is symbolic.

It’s often asked (99% of the time in bad faith), ‘where specifically has she said anything transphobic?’, and this can easily be answered, even without delving into every comment she’s made that is transphobic, or the above mentioned fact that she has never tweeted anything positive about trans issues. To get to the heart of what JK Rowling is, just look at the symbolism of what she says, look at who she talks to and who she praises. She symbolises modern transphobia.

What you say matters, but so does who you say it with and who you say it to.

And this is where the boycott comes in. Rowling herself believes that anyone who engages with her work agrees with her views.

This is of course untrue, but the perception is powerful. That is, the symbolism she takes out of people buying Harry Potter products is more important than the truth.

So, by not engaging with those products, by not buying them, by not giving JK Rowling money, it is symbolically standing up against her beliefs, and showing her that just because she has power and influence (and powerful and influential friends), she is not in the majority.

It shows her that her views are abhorrent.

That is the symbolism behind the boycott.

But forget about the symbolism of not buying the game though for a moment, what are you symbolising by breaking the boycott, after you have heard about it and had it explained to you?

By actively buying the game, that is, deliberately doing something you know is perceived as harmful, you are saying, symbolically, that you are ok with harming a community to fulfil your own self-interests. That's true even if that is not your intent.

And that’s just if you call yourself an ally and still buy the game.

If you are fully on the JK Rowling bandwagon and buy the game, then all you are doing is making a powerful hateful woman slightly wealthier. (If you are fully on the JK Rowling bandwagon, don’t even like Harry Potter and still buy the game, then you might have some underlying issues of inadequacy that you need addressed, but that’s an assumption of course.)

Either way, symbolically, you are advocating hate.

You’re not standing up for women's rights - there are plenty of other ways of doing that, both symbolic and actual, that don’t harm vulnerable groups of people.

You’re not standing up against cancel culture, because if there’s been one lesson from the JK Rowling experience, it’s that cancel culture doesn’t exist, even symbolically.

Deliberately breaking the boycott is an active and powerful symbol of hate.

Supporting the boycott is a passive symbol of simple respect.

These two things go way beyond Harry Potter and Rowling.

They go to the very heart of what it is to be a decent human being.

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The power of Symbols can be forgotten in the modern world; dismissed as meaningless and pointless. A waste of time.

But symbols always have meaning. And therefore symbols always have power.

These two acts, a Yes vote and a Boycott (neither of which are wholly symbolic), have power in their symbolism. That power cannot be underplayed.

Those who believe that symbolism is not important risk yielding symbols to their enemy. A No vote or the breaking of the boycott, for whatever reason people want to give, is a powerful symbol that hate and disrespect still rule this world. Even if that symbolism is unintentional.

It’s therefore important that the power of symbolism is emphasised so people know what they risk by ignoring them.

Humanity has given symbols power. We must use that power in the most positive way possible.