Stephen Marche wrote Confederates, Columbus and everyone else: Let's justtear down all the public memorials to 'great' men, an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. Marche writes a
monthly column about “our culture” for Esquire,
and has authored six books. I’m not sure who the intended audience is, or if
there even was one. This article appears
less than two months after the Charlottesville protests, which amplified the
debate over the removal of Confederate statues. Marche argues that ALL statues
should come down. He makes other leaps
too, relying heavily on iconoclasm. This
article is mainly about how this Columbus Day “will be a confrontation with
history.”
Marche
quotes/disparages Thomas Carlyle’s reverence for the “Great Men” who’ve made
history. Marche claims, “The notion that an individual, any individual, can embody human
ideals is null and void.” We don’t know which human ideals he is referring to.
We also don’t receive any proof as to why that notion is pointless. According
to Human Rights Watch, Obama never genuinely prioritized human rights, so he
left office “with many opportunities wasted.” The author thinks this is a
perfectly sound reason to invalidate our former president’s other achievements.
Only Malala Yousafzai could get away scotch free in Marche’s view, and he isn’t
even sure about that. It reminds me of a Talladega Nights: “If you ain’t
first, you’re last!”
The
point at which I stopped taking the article seriously was when he advised “to
take the worst thing a historical figure has ever said or done, establish it as
their whole being and then make the destruction of their memory a collective
benefit.” What a gigantic deadweight! He gives examples of iconoclasm in
action, but not it’s effects or how it could be used to destroy precious history
by certain religious groups. It’s like instead of cleaning the baking pan, you
just throw the whole thing away and buy a new one. We can’t afford that,
realistically. I like imagining a world where none of us are raised above the
rest, being ‘accept’ional not exceptional. Though nature can be chaotic, as
well as mass populations, politics should encourage steadiness and balance.
Stark changes in governance may influence people to go to other extremes. Let
us demonstrate caution before proceeding.
But
seriously… get rid of Confederate statues, street names, etc.
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