Cycle carriers, Swastikas and Aryans....

Don't worry Tonbridge blog isn't a closet Nazi who has suddenly 'outed' himself by displaying an uncontrollable urge to display a swastika on the site. No this piece of information that I bet you didn't know is that the swastika is an ancient symbol, perhaps even Neolithic in origin and certainly dating back to the Indus civilization of at least 2,500 BC. The Aryans, who were of Nordic origin, migrated South, West and East (we don't know why) around that time and invaded the area we now know as northern India. There they adopted some of the cultures and practices of the more ancient civilisations which they had overthrown, including the swastika. To this day the symbol is a good luck charm in many, especially Hindu and Buddist, cultures, with no association with Nazism, which has, perhaps forever tainted it with ideas of master race, racism and rapid ruthless conquest in The West. If you look at the date over the one above, which is the emblem of the Thule Society of Germany, you'll see that it is not 1939 but 1919. Now the Thule society, who were essentially an intellectual study group, did have Nazi links in that they believed in the legend that Thule was a Nordic island and the origin of the ancient Aryan people, who had almost super heroe like strength and magical powers. Thule, it seems, is a sort of Nordic equivalent of the mythical city of Atlantis. And all this because I bought a cycle carrier from Halfords in Tonbridge and wondered about the Swedish brand name Thule. I really must get out more!...