Which Statues Should We Take Down? How To Fairly Judge Historical Figures by Today’s Standards
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Description
In the United States, questions of how we celebrate – or condemn – leaders in the past have never been more contentious. In 2017, a statue of Robert E. Lee...
show moreTo discuss this incredibly challenging topic is someone perhaps nobody better qualified: Dr. Victor Davis Hanson. He is an emeritus classics professor and author of books on the Peloponnesian War or assessing the ancient world’s best military leader. He was also awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 and was a presidential appointee in 2007–2008 on the American Battle Monuments Commission.
We discuss the following:
•Times when American’s feared the removal of Jefferson or Theodore Roosevelt statues in 2021 (or their toppling in riots). But we have also celebrated statue removal, such as the removal of Saddam Hussein’s statues after the fall of his regime in 2003 or the removal of Marx/Lenin Statues in Eastern Europe in 1991. What is the difference?
•The criteria for a community to remove a statue in a healthy way
•How we judge those of the past and determine that some character flaws are due to their times of birth, while other character flaws are universally condemnable – Essentially, what makes a slave-owning Jefferson a product of his time while, say, a Nero, is universally understood as cruel
•The dangers of canceling anyone who doesn’t meet our 21st century standards; conversely, the dangers of slavish worship of them
•Who deserves more statues today
Comments
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Nensi Roberts
2 months ago
Information
Author | Parthenon Podcast Network |
Organization | Salem Media (USA) |
Website | - |
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