I recently learned about fasces too! Its a bundle of sticks and the iconography goes back centuries (to the Roman Empire at least). And some allegedly non fascist countries continue to use the fasces in official iconography - the wiki article has heaps of examples from the US.
I went down this rabbit hole after watching some videos on the silly antics in the UK parliament including someone trying to walk off with the mace and learning the mace evolved from the fasces and why it’s a symbol of power.
Unrelated but did you know until 1998 if you wanted to make a point of order in the House of Commons, you had to wear a top hat? (this was so you could be easily distinguished by the Speaker amongst any chaos. In fact, just before that clip the Speaker actually said “get the hat, I’ll hear him. Otherwise I can’t”, in an already thoroughly farcical debate on banning the use of French in Parliament as a response to the French trying to ban the use of English derived words in their Parliament… how did I get there, I think it was about learning that vestiges of Norman French still remain in the formal parliamentary process. From the 1400s!!! Okay, I’ve digressed significantly…)
Also the benches in the House of Commons are required to be the length of two swords held extended at minimum apart - to stop the Honourable Members stabbing each other in the heat of debate.
Well, no one makes laws/rules about flying to the moon with brown paper bags for wings, so there must have been at least one incident where keeping the Honourable Members apart was important.
I recently learned about fasces too! Its a bundle of sticks and the iconography goes back centuries (to the Roman Empire at least). And some allegedly non fascist countries continue to use the fasces in official iconography - the wiki article has heaps of examples from the US.
I went down this rabbit hole after watching some videos on the silly antics in the UK parliament including someone trying to walk off with the mace and learning the mace evolved from the fasces and why it’s a symbol of power.
Unrelated but did you know until 1998 if you wanted to make a point of order in the House of Commons, you had to wear a top hat? (this was so you could be easily distinguished by the Speaker amongst any chaos. In fact, just before that clip the Speaker actually said “get the hat, I’ll hear him. Otherwise I can’t”, in an already thoroughly farcical debate on banning the use of French in Parliament as a response to the French trying to ban the use of English derived words in their Parliament… how did I get there, I think it was about learning that vestiges of Norman French still remain in the formal parliamentary process. From the 1400s!!! Okay, I’ve digressed significantly…)
Omg wow!! I had no idea about the top hat or any of those shenanigans! Holy shit! I have another rabbit hole!
Also the benches in the House of Commons are required to be the length of two swords held extended at minimum apart - to stop the Honourable Members stabbing each other in the heat of debate.
Well, no one makes laws/rules about flying to the moon with brown paper bags for wings, so there must have been at least one incident where keeping the Honourable Members apart was important.
There is some real fascinating shit buried under layers of creaky old historic bureaucracy. I totally dig it.
The top hat survives in Australia as a piece of paper over one’s head in Parliament… though I’m not sure if anyone still does it. :D