As a traveler, of course I was always saddened by the toll taken on poor helpless statuary and scrolls.
From the Sphinx and Parthenon to China and Maya, each regime change seemed to come with defacement and destruction of prior venerated carvings and texts.
Much more civilized, by far, was the Soviet example of converting unwanted churches into public buildings. No more harmful than preserving Versailles or the Coliseum.
But now we have neos re-venerating the old symbols. Wiccans and Druids making putatively serious revivals at ancient sites and laying claim to artifacts out of “sacred principles”. And of course Russian churches being reconsecrated.
The world would know so much more about the Maya and Aztecs if their texts hadn’t been burned. But their descendants are still around, and many have an ax to grind with the current political systems. Would the scripts and hymns of bloody rituals inspire new zealots?
Ok, I can see I’m the only one who’s thought of this.
Nobody thinks they have an opinion.
Recall how you felt when these two events happened (Wikipedia):
1)“In March 2001, the Taliban ordered the demolition of two statues of Buddha carved into cliffsides at Bamiyan, one 38 metres (125 ft) tall and about 1,800 years old, the other 53 metres (174 ft) tall and about 1,500 years old.”
2)“Before a conglomerate of international press (and small crowd of around 100 U.S.-supported Iraqi militia), a 20-foot tall statue of Saddam in Firdus Square was toppled by an American armoured recovery vehicle, and various remnants of the president’s personality cult were defaced. The event was heavily criticized as having been staged, and images of the celebrating Iraqis during the toppling were found to have been doctored to make the crowd appear larger than it actually was”
We are told we must believe the first was an outrage to humanity and the second a triumph of humanity.
But on the other hand, the first was a couple of religious statues that, besides providing curios for westerners to take pictures in front of, brought pilgrimages of many people who would get inspired and enthusiastic and religious in anti-Christian, anti-Islamic ways.
And in the case of the second event, many Sunnis may want to resurrect those same statues when and if they win some or all of their territory back. Just as we venerate and speechify in front of our grand statues of Washington and Lincoln, and those four in the South Dakota hillside.
Actually, despite having read accounts of these actions, I don’t recall reading opinions at all.
Perhaps this has more to do with the greatness of the individuals involved than with … well, what else could it involve? Are you saying Saddam was just as worthy as the various Buddhas?
The artistic merits of the pieces plays a part as well. Libraries choose to sell or throw out donated books all the time: are they playing a part in the “Memory Hole” as well?
Won’t there always be at least two copies of any (U.S. anyway) book in the Library of Congress?
Regarding the statues of Saddam vs Buddha - the local governing authority has a right to make those decisions. It is certainly unfortunate the the Taliban was ever in the position of being the local governing authority. For Iraq, is there some point in which the US Armed forces are deemed to be the local governing authority? Or once the forces have control is the US government the de facto governing authority? Either way, I would say we should have let them stand until the new Iraqi government made a decision. They may have wanted to keep it like that church that they left in Berlin.
“Going down the memory hole,” refers to a mechanism for censorship in George Orwell’s novel, 1984.
And, yes, as you say that is a real problem. I tried to find the original copies of Ellery Queen’s mystery novels in the Berkeley library and were told they were in the basement awaiting destruction because nobody would want to read them. The fact that I wanted to read them made no difference.
