Monumental Wars: What the Destruction of Historical Monuments Leads To

The war on monuments that broke out in the U.S. has entered a new phase since anti-racist Black Lives Matter activists tore down multiple statues in several American states. Rather than waiting for an angry mob, the American Museum of Natural History has decided to remove the equestrian statue of the 26th American president, Republican, and 1906 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Theodore Roosevelt from the building’s entrance. (Roosevelt received the prize for brokering the Treaty of Portsmouth between Russia and Japan, ending the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.)

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio noted that the monument has long been considered a symbol of discrimination. For that reason, the museum has asked for it to be removed because the African American and Native American figures located beside Roosevelt appear “subjugated and racially inferior.” At the same time, President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican Party member, defended the statue. “Ridiculous, don’t do it!” the president tweeted.

Although the “war on monuments” has historically been a fairly common way of asserting new value-based paradigms, what has been happening in recent weeks in the U.S. more and more resembles surrealist cinema. During protests, crowds have demolished, decapitated or thrown paint on statues of historical figures who “disgraced” themselves through either colonialism, support for the slave trade or both. Statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, President George Washington and numerous Confederate generals, as well as Christopher Columbus, the person who discovered America, have already fallen. Politicians and police symbolically kneel, paying respect to African Americans who have died as a result of police brutality, while also expressing objection to the historical oppression of Black people in America.

This “revolutionary” energy has spread to Europe. For example, it was applied to Gen. Charles de Gaulle in France for his support of racial discrimination as well as to King Leopold II in Belgium. In Great Britain, a memorial to Winston Churchill was defaced, and thousands of supporters signed a petition demanding that The Guardian newspaper be shut down for its “historical ties to slavery.” In Berlin, they are calling for the renaming of the Mohrenstrasse or Moor Street metro station to “George Floyd Street.” (This refers to the death of George Floyd, an African American in Minneapolis, who was killed by a policeman while under arrest.) In Rome, street renaming began spontaneously.

The current surge of activity obviously has serious sociocultural and political causes that need to be dealt with in detail. However, without diminishing the honorable motivation of the Black Lives Matter movement, an all-out “war on monuments” seems like a dangerous path toward the complete deconstruction of history. Why, for example, did protesters merely limit themselves to pulling down a monument of a slave owner and Founding Father of the United States, George Washington? Following this logic, it would be necessary to rename the U.S. capital and give it a more politically correct name. Or, for instance, why is the American Democratic Party, which historically grew from a citizen group representing the interests of large landowners and slave traders, limiting itself only to an act of kneeling by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? It would follow that activity by this political force should stop altogether since it is historically based on the depraved ideas of racial superiority. There are an infinite number of similar examples.

In other words, this is Pandora’s Box and it will result in the need to completely ban America and the West. And actually, it already seems like it would be so much simpler to just found the country all over again and build a new world, honorable and tolerant, like Eden. However, these are only fantasies, and the reality is that our world is imperfect; in fact, it is cruel and unfair. It developed through many difficult and dramatic periods and dark chapters in history: slavery, apartheid, Nazism, fascism, anti-Semitism, and a host of other perverse events. Many of these issues still have not been addressed, and not just in the United States. For example, during colonial expansion in Southeast Asia, Great Britain caused a catastrophic famine in Bengal (this territory is now divided between India and Bangladesh) which led to the deaths of millions of people in the 1660s and 1670s during the 17th century and in the 1940s during the 20th century.*

For the U.S., Europe and the West as a whole, regions which have reached a certain understanding of human rights, among other things, it is important today to try and work through and rectify historical mistakes. History involves a difficult evolutionary process. We can’t just up and erase some parts because one argues it is politically correct to do so.

A comparable example in this sense can be found in the modern German practice of examining the details of its past. On one of Germany’s medieval churches in the city of Wittenberg, one can find a derisive and anti-Semitic bas relief which depicts Jews suckling a sow while a rabbi looks under her tail. This motif was common in German churches during the late Middle Ages, and similar depictions still exist on several religious buildings today. A quote from an anti-Jewish pamphlet by Martin Luther, founder of the Reformation in Germany, was also inscribed on the Wittenberg bas relief. Naturally, Jewish organizations and numerous activists consider the sculpture offensive, and have long demanded that the court order it to be immediately removed. But, in February 2020, the court ruled that while the motif may indeed be considered offensive, in an architectural and historical context, the sculpture is part of the cultural heritage and could not be destroyed. Moreover, it must remain in place as part of a dark chapter in German history and as a living reminder of the enormity and depravity of anti-Semitism as a matter of state policy.

Тo some extent this seems like a balanced and rational approach to the historical past. Besides, the war on symbols does not bring with it any financial advantage for America’s African American population. It is worth talking about educational and social reforms in creating appropriate funding and policy levers for enhancing the African American standard of living. To what extent the destruction of these monuments will contribute to all this is a moot point.

*Editor’s Note: The first Great Famine of Bengal occurred between 1769 and 1773 in the 18th century.