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

[thewayne]

I'd have to say this is not terribly surprising, especially in light of those people pulling down that one statue then pulling a Spartacus moment at the courthouse.

My wife told me about an article that I did not see about one community relocating Confederate statues to their Confederate cemetery. I thought that was an excellent idea. I'd also support perhaps moving them as appropriate to civil war battle ground parks, 'as appropriate' being if there are also statuary of significant Yankee figures.

There are Southerners who believe that the war wasn't about slavery, it was about state's rights. There is a smidgen of truth to that, but it's such a small amount that it's vastly blown away by the slavery issue. This country, and a lot of the world, was founded on the backs of slaves, but was working its way off of that. And by the early 1800's, most of the world was done with it. We were one of the last holdouts, and that was because of the South.

The thing that I did not know was how vast the number of statues that were made in the early 20th century, all to intimidate and suppress voting rights.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I'd have to say this is not terribly surprising, especially in light of those people pulling down that one statue then pulling a Spartacus moment at the courthouse.<<

History indicates that one a civilization starts pulling down statues or other art, the effects tend to spread rapidly and widely. It's difficult or impossible to stop with just one, and it rarely stops with just the original target. This is why we have only fragments from many previous civilizations. The process is quite obvious and consistent, with few exceptions, and yet for some reason people still think they can pull down just the art that they dislike, without losing anything they want to keep that someone else dislikes.

>>My wife told me about an article that I did not see about one community relocating Confederate statues to their Confederate cemetery. I thought that was an excellent idea.<<

I agree.

>> I'd also support perhaps moving them as appropriate to civil war battle ground parks, 'as appropriate' being if there are also statuary of significant Yankee figures.<<

On a two-sided battlefield, it is to be preferred if both sides are represented, but that's uncommon. Usually the side the locals prefer is favored, which is typically but not always the winner. You go to a Civil War site in the north, you get the Yankee perspective; in the south, you get the Rebel perspective. For best results, research widely.

I think statue parks are also an acceptable compromise. It's pretty awesome to have a large number of statues in one area. That's convenient for tourists to view, and also for the park to offer tour guides. You could even have different themes: a Great Cause talk, a war history talk, an art history talk, a Civil Rights talk, etc.

>>There are Southerners who believe that the war wasn't about slavery, it was about state's rights. <<

These two things are equally true. If it hadn't been about state rights, the Southerners could've kept on doing what they pleased, or left the Union, free to make their own decisions. But slavery was the sticking point where the Union felt it had a right to force other people to obey, just as the South felt it had a right to force black people into slavery. Pretty ironic. If it hadn't been about slavery, it probably would've been over something else. When one group thinks they have a nation and the other a confederacy, that's going to start a major argument sooner or later.

Re: Thoughts

[thewayne]

When I was researching Berlin before we went there, I discovered an island with three museums on it.  I thought that was very cool, sadly we didn't have time to visit it.  I don't know that I've heard of a statuary park, but what an excellent purpose for an island.  You could do a man-made island in a lagoon in a park, have a nice bridge or paddle boat connection to it.  That could be all sorts of awesome.  Or a chain of islands with moon bridges between them that boats/canoes could pass under.  Unfortunately my area isn't temperately suited to such use of water.  A few years ago our main river, the Rio Grande, was low enough that you could pretty much run across it.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>When I was researching Berlin before we went there, I discovered an island with three museums on it. I thought that was very cool<<

That does sound awesome.

>>A few years ago our main river, the Rio Grande, was low enough that you could pretty much run across it.<<

Yeah, they're going to have a hard time defending that wetfoot/dryfoot schtick when there's no water left. :P