What's meant by 'Dog' when it's used symbolically?

Some months ago I posted my opinion on how symbols like ‘dog’ and ‘horse’ and a few others are misunderstood and misused in society. Later I realized that some of my friends had no idea about what I was talking about and that it confused some of them and possibly frighted a few others. Because I shared my opinion through Facebook I didn’t really want to write anything too long, but since this is my blog I think it's time I set the record straight.

‘Dog’ as a symbol has been used at least since the times of the greek to refer to a person who we consider a friend and sympathize with who has fallen below the ethical standards of society. A few examples of this definition can be found in stories and interpretations in greek tragics such as Medea and Hecuba. In the case of Hecuba, she is literally beastified with a dog-like face at the end of the play. 

In eastern wisdom cultures such as that of ancient Sri Lanka, a similar meaning of degradation of morality in a person is associated with the symbol of the dog. There are examples of ancient kings calling emissaries of the Dutch dogs based on the ethical standards and cultural values of the country. There are also proverbs such as ‘balo biruwata kadhu kada paath wenna’ which translates to ‘mountains don’t crumble just because dogs bark at them’ this proverb analogically refers to how just because an unethical person makes accusations at an ethical person, doesn’t mean that the ethical person's value grows less.

Needless to mention, culture is something that is in flux and is relative; meaning it changes as times change and it depends on the country or the general area of the world the culture belongs to. Ethics still depend on culture to a great extent in today’s world. So something that is unethical in one part of the world may be ethical in another. 

Getting back to the topic of discussion, this subjective symbolistic definition of ‘Dog’ which used to be known in the high culture (especially by academics) crossed into popular culture during the past century through Hollywood movies and tv shows. It is used in many ways, sometimes to depict the foreigner from a faraway land who is a friend, but has much to learn in the ways of the host's culture such as Worf from Star Trek. Or sometimes it’s used in the paternity relationship, where a father wants to bring up his son to be a good man usually referring to the son as ‘buddy’. The symbol is used in some other ways as well, but the common denominator is the subjective ethical assessment that depends on the cultural values of the person making the assessment. The general western popular culture definition of this symbol is one of friendship and a gentle form of guidance. 

Sadly this symbol which is one of care sometimes gets used in malicious and culturally insensitive ways. Partly because people don’t understand its origin and partly because people are insensitive to other cultures. As we have been getting to know each other better, becoming more cosmopolitan societies, and understanding each other's cultures better, the misuse of this symbol would become less common. 

This is what I was building up from in what I said in my Facebook post and I hope this blog post helped drive the point (took me a whole 45 minutes I could have spent watching celebrity gossip on youtube wording this).