Quote:
Originally Posted by niwell
The statue brigade will always be out in force, ready to defend statues they had never heard of before.
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There's two sides to everything and in the excitement to toss everything down the memory hole once it becomes unpalatable for historical injustice - no matter the context of the times - it eliminates what makes us, you know, us.
I have no use for statues of monsters or symbols of overt oppression.
But...
Historical figures are flawed and products of their times. In certain ways, they were ahead of their time with thinking and it's why we remember them in a positive light.
I'm not going to advocate the tearing down of every John A. Macdonald statue despite the man being an alcoholic, a boor and having regressive views of the Indigenous people of this country. On balance, the man was instrumental in creating a country that - despite its flaws - is one of the better examples of the positive aspects of humanity.
If one wants purity of this sort of thing, go to Singapore. It has almost no signs of its flaws and history. It's Disneyland for technocrats - as close to "purity" as you'll get on planet Earth from a cultural conflict point-of-view. You get unbridled economic prosperity at the cost of huge cultural blandness. Just don't annoy the government or think outside the box and one will be fine.