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

[cmcmck]

As a historian, I get very uncomfortable with a certain sort of intellectual wishing to pretend that the past never happened.

The answer is education, not destruction.

Oh and by the way, I'm not a Tory, but a left radical socialist before anyone asks!

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's how I feel.

The urge to destroy is part of human nature. But if you look at history, you can see that it is almost always a terrible idea. People have these strong feelings, and that's fine, but we need better ways to express them. We also need more effective ways to solve the problems that cause them, so we don't wind up in this mess.

[gingicat]

Trust me, no-one injured by the statues thinks that the history behind them should be erased. But take them off the giant pedestals, for heavens' sakes.

[siliconshaman]

Or add a plaque to the pedestal saying why they're controversial. Then they can serve as warning. [as well as a pidgin perch and toilet.]

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

I am now tempted to chalk a hydrogen atom on the silly things.

[cmcmck]

Oh I know the arguments, but then you also get the bowdlerisation of books because certain words and the next step is book burning and art taken down because it's 'degenerate art' and we all know where that leads (and with my Latvian Jewish and Romani ancestry, I certainly do).

Educate and explain, add plaques telling people what ghastly people some of them were (see my comment and pic above) but don't destroy or deny the past.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yes, exactly.

I worry about political correctness because of the impact on free speech. Okay, hate speech is bad and causes problems. Emotional abuse is not good. But when you start banning specific words or topics or beliefs, or mandating that people speak in specific ways which are pleasing to someone else, well ... all the historic examples of that consistently lead to horrible places. :/