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The recent toppling of the effigy of slave trader Edward
Colston in Bristol has once again brought into the focus
the fact that some of the statues representing figures of
former high public office have very dubious histories.
I believe there are more inventive solutions than mere
destructive
acts, and that there is an opportunity here to
bring more attention to the reprehensible acts of these
depicted in statue form.
My simple solution is to invert the statues, including
their name inscriptions and leave them in situ on their
plinths. This would be accompanied with a revised
history of the individual, outlining why their statue was
now placed in an inverted pose.
The first good opportunity to achieve this outcome is
that of Cecil Rhodes, who's statue is located in Oxford.
I'm in the process of proposing this solution to the
University's vice-chancellor Louise Richardson,
meanwhile you can view the anticipated results of such
an inversion on the link.
Inverted Rhodes
https://sodabred.tu...-halflbaked-idea-by
[xenzag, Jun 12 2020]
https://en.wikipedi...Wellington,_Glasgow
[pocmloc, Jun 12 2020]
The only Nazi statue in the whole of Europe
https://extra.ie/20...statue-sean-russell
Sinn Fein's Sean Russell [xenzag, Jun 12 2020]
[link]
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"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her", not that I believe in sin or stoning. |
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The only statue dedicated to a Nazi in the whole of
Europe is in Dublin and it commemorates Sean
Russell who actively collaborated with the Nazis to
attack the UK during WW2. He travelled backwards
and forwards between Ireland and Germany by U
boat. Once a year, Sinn Fein, being a fascist party
who greatly sympathised with the Nazis, especially
their hatred of Jews, do a pathetic little dance
around their hero. I would invert Sean Russell's
statue in a flash, placing his head in a swill bucket
to add to his much deserved desecration. |
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I like the idea of inverting the plinths of all our monuments,
so they become pits in the ground. The statues of everyone,
good and evil alike can be interred in those pits, and glass
placed over them. We can then go about our business, not
looking up to these dead folks from the past, but literally
walking with them underfoot to remind us of all the history
on which our civilisation is built, good and bad. It
happened, it got us to where we are today - let's not
venerate it like some kind of idol-worshiping cultists, but
equally, let's not forget it either. |
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So this has nothing to do with scholars or keyboards? |
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[xenzag], you excel yourself. [+] |
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Maybe a statue of Frederick Douglass thumbing his
nose at them standing nearby? |
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[+] What if we found the slaver trader Colston to be exceptional and treat his slaves with humanity and care greater than that of the time, do we mount him horizontally? |
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//he who is without sin// The original Hebrew of that text
about stoning reads: The hand of the witnesses shall be onto
him at first. |
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We do really only want to look up to the best of humanity [pashute] |
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Or do we? Maybe there should be statues for derision . |
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Good luck finding anyone wealthy over 200 years ago who never had a slave. They might not have been imported from another country, or they might have been war chattel, or they might have been wage slaves, working for only food and board, or called "serf", or worked in company towns, or been called the houseboy, or "servant", or, or... but slavery was a fact of life throughout human history. And it's technology that let us stop doing it, not some new-found enlightenment. So if that's the standard we won't have many statues rightways up! |
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//So if that's the standard we won't have many statues
rightways up!// which probably isn't such a bad thing - it's
2020 and old hangups like ancestor worship is probably best
underlined as obsolete. People erect statues to glorify the
living, but they rapidly go out of date. Maybe we should
instead encourage statues to be made from wood (cake,
frosting - anything with a shorter expected shelflife than
bronze), that way they shouldn't last much longer than a
single generation and automatically crumble before
becoming an embarrassing reminder of past nastiness. |
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Who decides which to invert? The ones
who whine the loudest? And if a decision should later be
rescinded do we pony up the expense to righten the thing? |
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Why not simply mount all statues on an axle at the midpoint
so they can be spun at will. |
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//Who decides which to invert?// I was thinking that it would be the depictions with the thickest and therefore strongest necks so that they are better able to perform as load bearing supports. Beyond that, I imagine there is universal agreement that Nazis don't make for good items of public sculpture. (apart from in Dublin where they remain quite popular - see Sinn Fein's Sean Russell.) It therefore becomes a matter of debate and consensus. I do not support mob rule (unless I'm in the mob of course! ha) |
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Every time I look at this I think of Rhode Island. Inverted.
Wow. |
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[kdf] yes. "Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it",
or something... |
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Mount statues on axles and put them in the middle of arenas. Let anyone try to turn them and anyone else try to stop them or turn them the other way. Charge admission. |
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//If anything class systems have been an equally oppressive
systemic force.// |
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Agreed. I have benefited from both race privilege and class
privilege, but if I had to give up one of those privileges, then I
would much rather be a black man of my current class than a
poor and uneducated white man. |
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//Let anyone try to turn them// You could have a large crank handle on each side, and they could be geared together using a differential gearbox or something. So if someone else is cranking the other side the opposite way, you have to crank faster than them to get anywhere. |
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A pawl could be fastened such that the statue could only be
spun in one direction, with multiple cranks to ensure fervent
spinning according to the viewpoints and anger of persons
involved. A generator attached could power a nearby
brewpub to allow relaxing music and soothing suds for those
choosing not to get involved in disagreements of trying to
change history. |
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[Voice]'s axles, [pocmloc]'s gears, [whatrock]'s generator--'battle' over geared-challenge spinning statues in a stadium, generate power, charge admission--brilliant! This is the kind of new(old) thinking we need to solve old(new) problems. |
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Elders say the Iroquois Confederacy (inventors of 'democracy') used lacrosse as a way to solve problems instead of throwing a resource-wasteful and time-consuming full-on war. The field varied in size, depending on terrain, usually about 2 to 3km long. Stones for balls (hur hur) and heavy hickory sticks meant people died. After a number of days' agreed upon game play, the winner of the game 'won' the solution to the problem*, eg: first dibs on the use a particular resource. |
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While the game was in play, Medicine people did prayers and incantations to affect the outcome, onlookers feasted and made merry (FoxNews-like bread and circuses) while diplomats sitting around the sacred fire (Office Managers, Accountants, early HalfBakers) quietly agreed on how it would actually work out. |
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Statue spinning, lacrosse... we're gonna need a bigger House of Commons/Senate! |
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*Of course, everyone agreed on the basic 'seven generations/all my relations' considerations for any resource use. A friendly-violent game of lacrosse solved local skirmishes, boundary lines, or property ownership with the understanding that present choices could not insult the ancestors or adversely affect future generations (not just humans, but also animals, plants, rocks, all the neighbourhoods of the whole of Mother Earth). |
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