~Max
Whether or not someone should be honored is a separate debate. What I disaagree with is the idea that statues, monuments, memorials, etc. are about education and history. They aren’t. They’re about honoring the person depicted.
And if I agreed with you, I would support tearing down the Jefferson memorial.
~Max
When people opined that removing statues was erasing history, I responded with my belief that it was more like taking down cigarette advertising billboards: it didn’t eliminate smoking.
You could still buy cigarettes from legitimate sellers. They just weren’t being glorified as conspicuously and as lavishly.
When somebody ‘debadges’ their car, it really doesn’t render the car unidentifiable; it just means other ways to determine its make and model might be more practical.
When conservatives burned the Dixie Chicks’ CDs, it didn’t actually make their music go away.
Etc.
Well stated!
Yeah, I had thought that relying on visual depictions such as statues, painted inn signs, stained glass windows, etc., for one’s understanding of history went out with the old days of near-universal illiteracy.
Nowadays we have this thing called “the printed word” (and its even more versatile digital cousin) that enables people to find out metric assloads of historical information about Confederate generals, or any other subject we choose, at the touch of a finger. Schlepping downtown to go stare at a hunk of bronze or granite not required.
Typical snowflake generation nonsense.
When I got my history degree I did it the hard way: first I spent months and years staring at statues in rapt contemplation - in the snow, thank you very much! -, and then in my final exam I had to carve three bas-reliefs, one 8ft frieze and two busts under timed conditions in order to demonstrate my grasp of, respectively, the emergence of the Dutch Republic, the political economy of the Duchy of Lithuania, and the impact of Machiavelli on early modern historiography.
And that’s not counting my undergraduate dissertation, which was a monumental cast bronze statue representing repercussions of the Black Death on women’s social and economic freedom in Northumbria. Still hurts to think about - did it in several all-nighters and managed through sleep deprivation to overheat the bronze, which of course completely reversed the argument I was making about the overemphasis on brewing as women’s main opportunity for economic independence in recent historiography. Gutted.
And what do you think the purpose is of putting up a monument or memorial to someone is, if not to honor them?
That’s why physics is so hard. Get a single hair wrong on the bust of Albert Einstein, and black holes devour the universe.
I’d provide a quote of FDR speaking in glowing terms about the fact that he’s honoring Jefferson, except that’s the entire address. This isn’t exactly a historical mystery.
Hey look – Cancel culture got Phil Mickelson!
What he said (about Saudis) that got him into trouble:
“We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
This is actually interesting (to me, anyway) because Mickelson seems to be speaking from an almost woke-ish perspective, although he does paint all Saudis with the brush of their despicable leaders … and then turns around and says he might deal with them anyway, because money.
Anyway … CANCELLED!