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This topic has moved here: Subject: The 7th Column... an accident?
  • Subject: The 7th Column... an accident?
Subject: The 7th Column... an accident?

I found this in a Cracked article today.

Apparently, the term "7th Column" was once used to mean "carelessness that causes needless accidents". Other than that, there doesn't seem to be much use for it that doesn't relate to Bungie in some way. I couldn't find the origin of the expression, either. There are a few other small groups that have the term in the name or slogan, but that's it.

So, is this where the name "7th Column" on this site comes from? Are we the result of some unfortunate carelessness?

  • 07.12.2012 7:52 PM PDT

My DeviantArt Gallery - For my Photoshop stuff, go have a look!

Heheh, I was tempted to post something like this after reading it. I wonder if anyone knew before that article.

  • 07.12.2012 7:54 PM PDT

In a time long past, the armies of the dark came again to the lands of men. Their leaders became known as the fallen lords, and their terrible sorcery was without equal in the west.
In 30 years they reduced the civilized nations into carrion and ash. Until the free city of Madrigal alone defined them. An army gathered there, and a desperate battle was joined against the fallen
Heros were born in the fire and bloodshed of the wars which followed and their names and deeds will never be forgotten

""The 7th Column" is a fairly obscure way to refer to workplace accidents during wartime"

Yeah I could see that

  • 07.12.2012 7:54 PM PDT


Posted by: Plain Ben
Heheh, I was tempted to post something like this after reading it. I wonder if anyone knew before that article.


I'm surprised no one made a thread about it before me.

  • 07.12.2012 7:56 PM PDT

He's right on top of us! I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using...

Ockeghem
Missa Prolationum

You mean...we, the Bungie community, were an accident?

It's like what my parents said all over again!

  • 07.12.2012 7:57 PM PDT

In a time long past, the armies of the dark came again to the lands of men. Their leaders became known as the fallen lords, and their terrible sorcery was without equal in the west.
In 30 years they reduced the civilized nations into carrion and ash. Until the free city of Madrigal alone defined them. An army gathered there, and a desperate battle was joined against the fallen
Heros were born in the fire and bloodshed of the wars which followed and their names and deeds will never be forgotten


Posted by: Ockeghem
You mean...we, the Bungie community, were an accident?

It's like what my parents said all over again!


Or it means we are the result or side effect of Bungie becoming popular.

  • 07.12.2012 7:59 PM PDT

“Oh, it’s a little bit of everything, it’s the mountains, it’s the fog, it’s the news at six o’clock, it’s the death of my first dog, it’s the angels up above me, it’s the song that they don’t sing, It’s a little bit of everything.”
- Dawes, A little bit of everything


Posted by: spartain ken 15

Posted by: Ockeghem
You mean...we, the Bungie community, were an accident?

It's like what my parents said all over again!


Or it means we are the result or side effect of Bungie becoming popular.

Exactly, like his mother.

  • 07.12.2012 8:02 PM PDT

Probably the same reason -blam!- (the filter word) came into existence as well.

  • 07.12.2012 8:11 PM PDT

That's interesting, I guess it could be.

  • 07.12.2012 8:36 PM PDT

#101111011110111100001# is a '7'.
●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●
Greasemonkey Scripts
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Posted by: Alec9224
Indeed. I haven't had XBL for a long time, but I still come on her everyday.

Don't worry, Professor.

  • 07.12.2012 8:40 PM PDT

Why not stop by my File Share while you're here?

~Long Live Halo 2
Only regret is I didn't play more of it.

If you haven't noticed by now, I'm sort of a jerk.

I was thinking the same thing the other day.
Posted by: Plain Ben
Heheh, I was tempted to post something like this after reading it. I wonder if anyone knew before that article.


[Edited on 07.12.2012 8:46 PM PDT]

  • 07.12.2012 8:46 PM PDT

Key

There were going to be six columns, you see. Bungie was going to have an affinity with the number six. At first, Bungie was a cult. They worshiped the devil whenever they could, and sometimes when they couldn't. They denounced anything holy and bathed in the blood of virgins. They couldn't get enough Satan.

But, one day, while working on the cult's first propaganda game "Satan is Amazing; -blam!- Everyone" in which the Devil jumps up and down while bouncing a ball of fire off of a human who is also jumping up and down, their computers crashed. All of them. At first, they took this as a sign from their underworld overlord (a bit of an ironic title), and began unpraying immediately. When that didn't work, and they realized that their game was due to be reviewed by Apple in only a day, they had to do a very quick remake of the game.

In this new version, the Devil and the human were replaced with black bars and the ball of fire was turned into a black box. They didn't have time for detail. They noticed their game had turned into something very close to pong. Not wanting to seem like this was an accident, they called it "Gnop!" to make it look quirky and purposefully and shamelessly ripped off. After that, they realized that the studio heads were not very much into satanic games about fire and sin, and were more into this cutesy -blam!- that would get mass attention. Thus, they began making said cutesy -blam!-. (Though considered having a triumphant comeback for Halo 3 by making Master Chief get a message from the Devil to go bring Hell onto Earth, as it were, by exterminating the human race... it was shot down at a board meeting eventually.)

Thus, the 6th column was replaced with the 7th (which is related to good luck, which is more publicly applauded than Satan).

  • 07.12.2012 9:10 PM PDT
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Posted by: DEATHPIMP72
Anyone but Foman. He smells like cheese.

Interesting. I just spent a few minutes trying to figure out where this reference comes from. Perhaps a bit of a tangent, but an interesting piece of history:

A "fifth column" is a name for a group of spies and saboteurs who act against their own country, out of sympathy for the country's enemy. The name comes from the Spanish National Revolutionary War from 1936-1939, when a general declared over the radio that revolutionary insurgents had four columns marching on Madrid and a "fifth column" of sympathizers in the city ready to rise and betray it. The claim turned out to be false, but the name persisted. (source)

From the "fifth column" arose the term "sixth column," used to refer to a group of people who help out the fifth column by spreading rumors and lowering morale. source

From these terms arose the term "seventh column" during World War II, which generally refers to carelessness that causes accidents and which, in the heavily industrial and pre-workplace-safety-conscious world of the 1940s, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries per year. source As a result, "carelessness" in the workplace was seen as a genuine and ominous enemy, worse than spies, and worthy of a terrifying name to strike fear into the public :-)

Interesting! And of course completely irrelevant :-D

[Edited on 07.12.2012 9:14 PM PDT]

  • 07.12.2012 9:14 PM PDT

“Oh, it’s a little bit of everything, it’s the mountains, it’s the fog, it’s the news at six o’clock, it’s the death of my first dog, it’s the angels up above me, it’s the song that they don’t sing, It’s a little bit of everything.”
- Dawes, A little bit of everything

Posted by: x Foman123 xHa! Interesting back story there, thanks for researching that. I would have just assumed that it was some odd construction term, but it makes sense considering the propaganda that was used back then (and now, but let's not talk about that or else the terrorists win).

[Edited on 07.12.2012 9:22 PM PDT]

  • 07.12.2012 9:21 PM PDT


Posted by: x Foman123 x
Interesting. I just spent a few minutes trying to figure out where this reference comes from. Perhaps a bit of a tangent, but an interesting piece of history:

A "fifth column" is a name for a group of spies and saboteurs who act against their own country, out of sympathy for the country's enemy. The name comes from the Spanish National Revolutionary War from 1936-1939, when a general declared over the radio that revolutionary insurgents had four columns marching on Madrid and a "fifth column" of sympathizers in the city ready to rise and betray it. The claim turned out to be false, but the name persisted. (source)

From the "fifth column" arose the term "sixth column," used to refer to a group of people who help out the fifth column by spreading rumors and lowering morale. source

From these terms arose the term "seventh column" during World War II, which generally refers to carelessness that causes accidents and which, in the heavily industrial and pre-workplace-safety-conscious world of the 1940s, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries per year. source As a result, "carelessness" in the workplace was seen as a genuine and ominous enemy, worse than spies, and worthy of a terrifying name to strike fear into the public :-)

Interesting! And of course completely irrelevant :-D


Hmm... could it be this fear-striking that Bungie is referencing with the name?

  • 07.12.2012 9:22 PM PDT
  •  | 
  • Exalted Mythic Member

I came for Halo, but I heard the Tru7h, fought thru Carnage, and stayed for Bungie.

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.--Teddy Roosevelt

So... we the Community have been actually hurting Bungie's quest for world domination the entire time? What a disappointment.

[Edited on 07.12.2012 9:57 PM PDT]

  • 07.12.2012 9:57 PM PDT

Non facete nobis calcitrare vestrvm perinaevm.

Posted by: Achronos
You imply a level of control over Halo: Reach matchmaking that we no longer have. Or, in your vernacular, it isn't our shiznit anymore.


Active 9/1/11, Heroic 12/25/12

Posted by: x Foman123 x
From these terms arose the term "seventh column" during World War II, which generally refers to carelessness that causes accidents and which, in the heavily industrial and pre-workplace-safety-conscious world of the 1940s, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries per year. source As a result, "carelessness" in the workplace was seen as a genuine and ominous enemy, worse than spies, and worthy of a terrifying name to strike fear into the public :-)

Interesting! And of course completely irrelevant :-D
Wow, I've never heard of propaganda for "carelessness" in the workplace. This is indeed very interesting, I wonder when Bungie coined the name for its community if they wanted to keep some of the historical meaning for the Seventh Column.

  • 07.12.2012 10:39 PM PDT

"No, Hoobla. No."
~DeeJ


Posted by: robby118
Don't worry, Professor.

I can't believe that was on TV!
/thread

  • 07.13.2012 3:54 AM PDT


Posted by: Kr1egerdude
Posted by: x Foman123 x
From these terms arose the term "seventh column" during World War II, which generally refers to carelessness that causes accidents and which, in the heavily industrial and pre-workplace-safety-conscious world of the 1940s, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries per year. source As a result, "carelessness" in the workplace was seen as a genuine and ominous enemy, worse than spies, and worthy of a terrifying name to strike fear into the public :-)

Interesting! And of course completely irrelevant :-D
Wow, I've never heard of propaganda for "carelessness" in the workplace. This is indeed very interesting, I wonder when Bungie coined the name for its community if they wanted to keep some of the historical meaning for the Seventh Column.


We still have this today, actually. I've seen plenty of posters about workplace safety, and some PSAs about it as well.

  • 07.13.2012 8:56 AM PDT

Clutchin' is a habit! 7th Column fo' lyfe


Posted by: spartain ken 15
""The 7th Column" is a fairly obscure way to refer to workplace accidents during wartime"

Yeah I could see that


word

  • 07.13.2012 9:11 AM PDT

Strange, but interesting.

  • 07.13.2012 9:28 AM PDT

Hey I am a big Bungie fan ever since I played Halo 2. I love the series, I love Bungie. I have made a few Bungie logos in my metal shop.

Yes Quite Indeed

  • 07.13.2012 9:31 AM PDT

Oh hey there

Posted by: petarded2
It's a metaphor for the 07s' lack of identity. too old to be newfa­g, yet too new to be oldfa­g, we wander b.net in search of a home, forever trying to be something we are not.

Curiouser and curiouser.

[Edited on 07.13.2012 10:41 AM PDT]

  • 07.13.2012 10:41 AM PDT