Shuffling through the Circles of Hell
Disruption is endemic to any social structure. No matter how tranquil the waters, what lies beneath is always capable of roiling the surface, either to give evidence of its existence, or to influence ours. Factor in the uniqueness of each individual and it’s truly a marvel that we ever experience peace.
How do we manage this, how do we achieve cooperation long enough to move society forward? Perhaps we can discover the answer by looking to the lives of those folks whom we have memorialized in stone; the same ones under attack today.
This is why we erect monuments. To bring forward to the present the lessons learned from the past. To offer our posterity the benefit of our experience, both good and bad. It is an ubiquitous behavior among civilizations, across time and geography. It is at once cathartic and provocative; both celebration and commemoration, depending of course on the subject matter.
No one considers the preservation of Nazi concentration camps an endorsement of genocide, nor do the sane and rational among us view a statue of a Confederate General as a call to “Civil War - Part Deux.” They are monuments with myriad meaning, as all monuments are. The unique nature of each human being ensures there will be as many varied perceptions of a statue, monument or historical marker as there are people to perceive them.
“But I’m deeply offended!” you say, and you may well be, but that is almost always a function of your own misperception, not an aim of the monument. History is the chronicle of human advancement and, all too frequently, the record of human error. Of course Thomas Jefferson owned slaves - as did hundreds of thousands of others who came before and after him. It was culturally and socially acceptable in the time they lived.
To ignore the context of the times is to devalue - even dismiss - the hard-won advances in human conduct that have taken place between then and now. Advances purchased with the blood, treasure and lives of our ancestors. There is something to be learned from ALL aspects of human nature, even if that lesson is what NOT to do. Our statues exist because the people of that era willed them to exist, and it is incumbent on us to learn what was so important to them that they felt it necessary to memorialize it for eternity.
Understanding the “why” of a statue or monument is the key to understanding ourselves and each other, and our best chance to avoid the same mistakes, or to follow the example set, depending on the nature of the artifact. We aren’t defending stone or concrete, we’re defending the truth of ourselves, regardless of how unflattering that truth proves to be.
To erase the past only ensures we will relive it, as those now-lost lessons are as necessary as air and water for our survival. Remaking history is the true offense, as it robs us all of the benefit of experience.
I, for one, have no desire to start society from scratch with each rising of the sun.