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Revise history on the fly by destroying monuments?
This is bullshit too, history isn't changed by getting rid of a statue, it all still happened. Now maybe it's being recalled more honestly in places and monuments to it's most successful monsters are rightly being evaluated as to whether they should be on prominent display in front of the descendents of people they may have owned.
snottyotter-
Would it not be more (going back to the Bristol incident) useful to add an information plaque to the plinth detailing his crimes against humanity?
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Exactly, the whole argument about history being "erased" or "revised" when statues are gone, or when the funding sources of National Trust properties is revealed is such utter shite.
The name Colston is so much more familiar to people now than it would have been if they'd added a small plaque to the statue or left it alone - people now understand more rather than less about how much of the wealth of some British cities was built up on the backs of Africans. That can only be bad for history if you want to cover your ears for the bad bits and present some nationalist bullshit.
The "where will it end?" is a misnomer too - we're talking about somebody who made huge wealth from brutal kidnap and trafficking.
I think it's worth having an honest debate about Jan Smuts, Churchill, etc, and what message their statues give - but for slave traders I don't think there's a debate necessary.
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Revise history on the fly by destroying monuments?
This is bullshit too, history isn't changed by getting rid of a statue
My biggest bugbear about the "changing history" argument, asides from it not making sense, is that I never hear anyone complaining about quite major revisionist history that is happily spread in general discourse.
There are lots of examples, but the casual undermining of THE extent of the Soviets role in WWII in favour of the USA and Britain is an obvious one.
RagnarHairybreeks
tbc
hugo7
So the chaps that tear down a statue and throw it in the harbour because there was slave trading involved in the making of the fortune (unforgivable) that lead to enormous philanthropy toward Bristol are acquitted? Could you just not add a plaque with information?
I tell you what, J M Barrie had a very dodgy relationship with the small boy that was the inspiration for Peter Pan. Quick! Go tear down the statue of Peter Pan in Regents Park.
Churchill was misogynist and racist. Rip them all down and rename the streets and pubs!
Where does it end? Education, yes. Provide further information, yes. Revise history on the fly by destroying monuments? (Umm, wasn’t that one of the big things that ticked people off about the Taliban and Daesh?)
Not that in anyway I can forgive Colston for his involvement in the slave trade, but find me a single major figure without a blemish on their soul. Ghandi and Mother Theresa did some pretty horrible things.