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@cliveo
Statues are totally irrelevant. Their removal is not censuring the past or amending history. It reflects a dismantling of the prejudices that create history as it is taught. Much of our history is based upon the prejudices and opinion of Whig and Victorian historians who saw the world through those prejudices.
There have been numerous examples of widespread iconoclasm over the centuries. A couple are worth examining.
After the reformation, most public art in this country; statues and paintings, were destroyed. Most art to that stage was religious in nature. It was wiped out. Centuries of art; statues of venerated saints; frescoes and wall paintings. All gone. That iconoclasm is part of our history. It is part of what makes Britain Britain. I don't hear Johnson or his acolytes complaining about it.
At the fall of the USSR, statues of Lenin were removed from everywhere. They are now housed in the grounds of a modern art museum in Moscow. Again. No complaints. It was a fitting way to deal with them.
As I said, the statues are an irrelevance; a distraction from the real issues.