Narcissistic Presentist Bigotry Plus Radical Marxism–What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
The most recent monument to face desecration and destruction is The Emancipation Memorial in Washington, DC. This was the site of a confrontation between raving lunatics dressed in black and a group of elderly black gentlemen who had assembled to protect the monument:
The ostensible objection to the Memorial is that portrays a black man in a demeaning, submissive pose at Abraham Lincoln’s feet. This was indeed true of the original design, but due to the objections of African Americans who had seen the design, it was changed to portray the subject rising, with head raised.
If you were a consistent leftist (I crack myself up sometimes) you would actually endorse this portrayal–after all, the incessant drumbeat we hear about slavery as the nation’s original sin and the root of all current evils is based on the very premise that blacks were beaten down, humiliated, and suppressed. In bondage, they were on their knees–literally and figuratively: and the statue portrays that. Emancipation–and remember, this is a monument to Emancipation–gave them the opportunity to rise up and stand like full human beings. But it was just the beginning. That is, the statue conveys powerfully that slavery subjugated black people, and that Emancipation was only the first step in a painful process of rising up to the status of full citizen and full person.
What about that does anyone–including a leftist–believe is untrue?
The monument was paid for by African Americans grateful to Abraham Lincoln, without whom, they realized, they would still be in bondage, and whom they recognized was martyred for his role in freeing them. The model for the rising black man was a former slave–is the modern left insinuating that he was an ignorant Uncle Tom for collaborating in a demeaning portrayal? The oration at the Memorial’s dedication was delivered by Frederick Douglas, who movingly and realistically described Lincoln’s not-John-Brown-like racial views, but who in the end celebrated Lincoln’s greatness, and expressed his gratitude–and impliedly the gratitude of other African Americans–for what Lincoln achieved despite his imperfections (which were largely the inheritance of his time and place). Was Frederick Douglas also a fool advancing the cause of white supremacy?
Note in the video in the tweet that one of the gentlemen that this mentally imbalanced woman is haranguing is clearly doing an historical impression of Frederick Douglas. I am sure that harridan has no clue.
Let’s be clear. This baying mob is not fit even to grovel at the feet of a moral and intellectual giant like Frederick Douglas, let alone assault those doing him homage, or attempting to destroy a monument to which Douglas paid homage on that very spot.
These attacks on the monument are, at best, narcissistic presentism run amok. And presentism is a malign form of bigotry, and in this case ironically deprives mid-19th century African Americans of agency and dignity.
But let’s cut the bullshit. The attack on the Emancipation Memorial has fuck all to do with aesthetics, symbolism, or iconography. Those are just the rhetorical camouflage.
To reprise the theme of several past posts, tearing down this monument is just another act of a movement to tear down the entire nation, extirpate its history root and branch, and replace it with a Marxist paradise.
But don’t take my word for it. Take the word of the person who targeted the monument for destruction, one Glenn Foster:
Apropos my earlier post on our Schumpeter Moment, note that Foster attended Harvard. That’s what they “learn” there.
There are other examples–too many–of the fundamental nature of the movement. Here’s one:
Law enforcement officials had to respond to a large group of Black Lives Matters activists late on Friday night that stormed a Beverly Hills residential neighborhood chanting “Eat the rich!” and “Abolish capitalism now!”
I could go on. And on. And on.
At root, this is not about racial injustice, really. That issue is merely a wedge. Or better, an opiate being given to the masses to cloud their faculties and dull the pain of the radical surgery that these radicals have planned for them.
I have been wondering where the barbarians that have over run past Empires would come from to end the US empire. It begins to seem that some of them will climb over the southern border, and the rest will be supplied by your universities. You have met the enemy, and they are yours. Be grateful Donald Trump abides by the present system and the constitution.
Comment by Peewhit — June 28, 2020 @ 1:06 am
America. Hates. Democrats.
Comment by Joe Walker — June 28, 2020 @ 9:28 am
As a furriner, I’m not sure what this BLM thing is I keep hearin’ about. Does it stand for Break-Loot-Manipulate?
Comment by Ivan — June 28, 2020 @ 10:41 pm
I have done a lot of research on the Southern Secession. Most people do not understand the reasons why the South seceded from the Union and most people believe issues are the cause of war when it is actually power. While Slavery was the main issue that the regions and political parties were divided on, the fact of the matter in 1860 when Lincoln was elected President slavery as an institution was safe from any direct political measures. The South controlled the Supreme Court that just three years prior had issued the Dred Scott decision. The South also had balance in the US Senate to block any legislation on slavery or adverse appointment to the courts.
Abraham Lincoln’s election without a single Southern electoral vote or even individual ballot was the driving force in secession. The Southern leaders understood that a Northern Party independent of the South would control all of the patronage in the area. Back in the mid-19th century patronage was a very powerful political weapon as even the meanest post offices had post masters appointed by the President of the United States. The Republican Party could use these patronage appointments to establish a competitive political opposition to the Southern political power structure that could then push internal economic reforms that not only could threaten slavery but their political power.
What would be the driving factor that would make you want to dissolve the union, if any? For me it is the Electoral College. Any threat to the preservation of the electoral college which creates a majority crafted weighted to the political powers of a federal republic (it balances representative and state issues in selecting the one executive of the nation) is a true threat of tyranny. These riots and outrageous protestors demonstrate what would be in store for us as a country if we just let the President be chosen by a straight popular vote, not to mention that the political left would cheat and steal to get that power.
Comment by Mark — June 28, 2020 @ 10:50 pm
I think you’re over-processing this, unless of course you’re planning to amalgamate your posts in a cheeky submission to a political science journal (minus the call to arms bits, obvs). To my eye it’s pretty err, black and white, what’s happening. Although I wholeheartedly disagree with the implicit political thrust of BLM, I concede that they are playing a blinder (victimless acts generating acres of press – and social media – coverage), and you’re all falling for it hook, line and sinker. That said, it does serve some purpose for your side i.e. detracting from the unfolding mess that is the US’s covid response.
Comment by David Mercer — June 30, 2020 @ 5:30 am
they are using the cloak of racism to institute marxism. plain and simple.
Comment by Jeff Carter — July 4, 2020 @ 8:06 am