Getting rid of statues.

[WHL]

Looking at whats happening in the USA, regards the troubles over getting rid of a statue of General Lee,...whats your views on erasing history, I heard someone on the radio today, mention that, if you go down that road, President Washington's statues should be taken down also as he was a slave owner..thoughts.

[Royal]

It depends...

Statues of Pol Pot, Hitler, Mussolini and Saddam Hussein were rightly all torn down after they were ejected from power to prevent hero worship of evil people.

Statues that last beyond the lifetime of the individual or are erected in memory of an individual are, as Hudswell says, part of history and should be retained.

History shouldn't be rewritten or interfered with in order to reflect 21st Century life and morals.

[josef k]

There is an old saying that history is written by the victors. Lets face it, history has always been rewritten, including within the UK and it's empire. Statues are erected to commemorate an individual and their activities that met general approval at the time the statue was erected. As time passes the individual can be forgotten or no longer meets with general approval. Statues and memorials of Jimmy Saville were very quickly removed when his true activities came to light, for example. As Royal notes, statues of a number of dictators were removed around the world as local views and governments changed. It has always happened and always will. There is nothing to say a statue has to remain in place for ever. Even some statues of Archbishop Makarios have been moved to less public areas.

Don't blink.

[Dominic]

Pol Pot's statue was replaced with monuments like Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek. So his memory certainly won't be forgotten.

Personally I am against the removal of General Lee's statue though. If London followed suite there would be an awful lot of empty plinths. These statues can help remind us about some of our less admirable actions

[Cogs123]

I totally agree Dominic, the irony is that one of the most vocal protagonists involved in the Cecil Rhodes campaign, was a Rhodes scholar himself!...., you couldn't make it up!

[Dominic]

Most people at university are not left wing activists. But University life gives them a mouthpiece, so they tend to be heard more from there.

[Firefly]

They are/were at LSE.

[Jimgward]

The Charlottesville statue wasn’t erecte to commemorate the Civil War or Lee, but 60 years later, as a “know your place, Black scum” by racists.

The people of Charlottesville wanted it removed.

Similarly, many in Bristol want commemorations to a slave past erased as it offends black people today.

It’s funny how slave cities in the UK, like Glasgow, have never acknowledged their Tobbacco Lords, as slave masters, but had statues and streets in their name, continue to this day.

Yes, in their day, perhaps large parts of society accepted standards we don’t, but in modern, enlightened worlds, we could, for example, erect a plackard stating the truth.

I’d personally remove statues to people such as Cromwell, as he was a despot. I could easily provide a large list of others....

[Pete G]

Martin Luther King was vehemently against the normalisation of homosexual activity in society.

Perhaps the LGBT community should start tearing his statues down, rather than commemorate a bigot?

[WHL]

Some very good posts.. my take is, unless the people involved were maniacs like Hitler, Stalin, etc, they should remain, you should not try and rewrite History, maybe at the bottom of the plinth there should be a plague saying this person was responsible for the slave trade etc to balance things up.

[Jimgym]

Martin Luther King was vehemently against the normalisation of homosexual activity in society.

Perhaps the LGBT community should start tearing his statues down, rather than commemorate a bigot?

Very well put. There is always going to be something that people are or will be offended by. Personally I don't mind about MLK or others like him. Things have changed and a statue doesn't affect how I live my life. I have far more important things to think/worry about. Each to their own though but perhaps some in this world should spend less time trying to be offended on behalf of others, not on this thread I don't mean before anyone jumps on me!

[Jimgward]

To be honest, a statue doesn’t offend me.... however, I wasn’t affected by events and I am sure if I was black and living in Charlottesville, I would feel different. I therefore can only feel support for some in this situation. It doesn’t mean all statues have to dissapear.... just as there is a huge portrait of Hitler in the British museum.... that’s appropriately placed....