Bust of Lincoln Destroyed

[ysabetwordsmith]

So this happened. 

The same principle behind this leads to this and this.

I told you so.  I have been saying and saying that when a society starts pulling down statues, it tends to mushroom, because people get it in their heads they can destroy all the art they dislike.  Sure it's tempting.  Everybody loves to pull down something they hate and stomp on it.  That's very gratifying.  But it's a bad idea because it destroys the past and then nobody has nice things for a long time.  It also sucks when other people pull down stuff that YOU like just because THEY don't, and there is probably not one piece of art on the planet which is liked by everyone.  

Seriously, people, stop doing this shit.  Unpopular art can be moved to a place where it won't annoy folks, but destroying it is counter-civilization.

Comments

[chanter1944]

Historical context, clever wordplay, reason crossed with ferocity, active community-linking, that swipe at Breitbart as an outlet... uh, that's more than three, isn't it? :P Truly, I more pulled a number out of my ear than anything else, but it wasn't at all hard to find that many warm fuzzies and more with quick reflection. :)

For the record: Breitbart gives me the yucks. Ysabet, you do not. <3 <3 And I do see your point about relocating or updating vs. destroying statues. I can't deny that occasionally, some things really *do* need toppling, though... Catharsis on a wider level, hopefully with some braking measures (as opposed to breaking measures) in place to keep the destruction from spreading. I'm thinking of dictators' statues falling in squares here, which is slightly beside the point...

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> For the record: Breitbart gives me the yucks. Ysabet, you do not. <<

I try to be flexible about reading different sources to avoid the echo chamber effect. I did double-check to see that the destruction/damage of the statue had been reported other places, but that's the first one I saw and it had a photo.

I don't read or link to Fox Noise though.

>>I can't deny that occasionally, some things really *do* need toppling, though... Catharsis on a wider level, hopefully with some braking measures (as opposed to breaking measures) in place to keep the destruction from spreading. I'm thinking of dictators' statues falling in squares here, which is slightly beside the point... <<

That's what I meant when I said it's super tempting. Lots of people feel that way. Black people feel like that about hauling down slaveowner statues. The problem is, the Taliban felt that way about blowing up the Buddha, and somebody thought Abe Lincoln deserved his head bashed in.

Just because something feels good doesn't necessarily mean it is good.

Re: Thoughts

[chanter1944]

Got me there re: Faux Noise. :P

Re: feeling good vs. being good: Fair points all. I can, and I wince at using the phrase given recent events, see both sides of this one. I'd very probably end up taking things case by case. I admit I would much sooner most statues under the hammer's consideration ended up in museums or, if not too horribly provocative, modified plaque-wise rather than toppled.

My city (Madison, WI) has just quietly removed two Confederate monuments from a city-owned cemetery. They will, however, be replacing a portion of one of them; a list of the names of Confederate dead, who died while prisoners of war, will go back up. It seems to me that's a very reasonable compromise between respect for lives lost and respect for a given cause. Just my view on it.