stuart-santiago tickled my imagination when she observed that leftists “raise left fists, burgis churchgoers raise the right.” It something I had never though about before and I found myself raising a fist. to my surprise, i raised the left one. Am I a commie? But I don’t even like pink! LOL.
So i tried raising my right fist. And then my left, and then my right again. Raising the right fist didn’t feel quite as right as raising the left.
Truly intrigued, I googled “raised fist” and, wouldn’t you know it, there was a wikipedia entry on the damned thing – they got wikipedia entries on pretty much everything, don’t they? ‘Splains why kids nowadays are getting lazier and dumber. Hah.
Anyway, as it turns out, stuart-santiago was right on the money!
There is no uniformity as to which arm is raised; in general, anarchists use the right arm while Marxists use the left arm.
‘Course, people would object to the use of the word ‘anarchists,’ since many – like Nelson Mandela – use the right fist but aren’t exactly anarchist. “Anti-establishment” might be a better term.
~
It just occurred to me that La Sallites Sallians pump their fists too, whenever they sing that hymn of theirs.I wonder if they tell their students the significance of that salute. If they don’t, then it becomes nothing more than just another cool gesture of rebels without with a poorly defined cause.
Filed under: musings, Lozada, Mass for Truth, raised fist, salutes
As a La Sallite, i can confirm that no one taught me the significance of that gesture while singing the Alma Mater song, although i could not discount the possibility that i absent at that time or just not listening. I just went along with what the others were doing but it does not mean that the conviction was not there. I also thought that which hand you use is a function of whether you’re left or right-handed.
not having been to the schools here, i wonder which fist the Ateneans use when they do their fist-pumping to their theme? (which sounds like the Canadian national anthem… and nooo their theme did not predate Canada’s. )
cvj: you are absolutely right, uncle. one does not necessarily have to be taught the significance of a gesture in order for the conviction to be authentic. my bad.
shiro: i didn’t know ateneans fist-pumped — ehrm. i am sooooo tempted to read that the wrong way. LOL!
I raise my right fist. I never even noticed others used a different fist until you mentioned it.
I took a look at a picture I took and damn, youre right. There are lefties and righties and one old lady who was giving a thumbs-up.
rom:
i think you already did. naughty naughty! hahahah!
Back at our Freshmen Orientation at UP, I remember being taught to raise my left fist when the University Hymn was sung. Later on, I shifted to my right fist so as to portray my support for Right/Centrist leaning student councils.
So when you see UP students doing a rally, observe what fists are raised. Left usually means commies, commies in training, or not-so-political students who got political because of an issue. Right, however, usually means non-commies, anti-commies, and right-handed not-so-political students who got political because of an issue .
i had always thought it was more an issue of one’s handedness more than their conviction.