Who is the victim here

Of all that is happening now in the world — illnesses, pogroms, endless demonstrations and a line of policemen who dream of kneeling before black activists of the Black Lives Matter movement — it is most interesting to observe the demolition of the monuments. The destroyed stores will open again, the police will come to their senses, but the demolished monuments will most likely not return to their places: if the monument is demolished, then there is a force that can break granite, steel, bronze. And this power of destruction is unlikely to have an opposing power of creation.

The Topple the Racists movement is part of the Black Lives Matter movement (“Black Lives Matter”). As part of this movement, people who seem to have to fight for equal rights, which have been equal for 60 years, are fighting to destroy monuments to historical figures who can be convicted of racism around the world. Moreover, it’s understandable to convict in a retrospective manner, relying only on their current opinion, and not on the opinion of the one whose monument is demolished. You will not ask a dead man: are you a racist, brother?

Monuments to Christopher Columbus were demolished in Virginia, Richmond and in St. Paul, Minnesota. This has its own logic - there was a navigator of the era of great geographical discoveries, an enlightener, a public figure who discovered America for European civilization (that is, for civilization in general). Yes, it is clear that the Vikings sailed there in the Middle Ages, but it was Columbus who paved the way for America, laid the foundation for its development. Grateful Americans are now destroying his legacy.

Nowadays, monuments to famous Confederates - the captain of the Confederate States fleet Charles Lynn, Admiral Rafael Sams, as well as soldiers and sailors of the South forces in Indianapolis - are being dismantled across the United States. This is understandable - the legacy of the Civil War, the most bloody conflict in US history so far. And from the point of view of black activists, this is even explainable: the Confederates were against the abolition of slavery, which means they were racists, which means that any mention of them must be erased and destroyed.

But, for example, Edward Carmack was neither a Confederate soldier, nor a slave owner, nor a slave trader. He was a lawyer and newspaper owner. But it seems that his publication more than 100 years ago opposed the newspaper “Freedom of Speech”, which belonged to the African-American Idea Wells. The Carmack Monument in Nashville was also dumped - it goes, solely for the opinion, for the statements: “Ah, are you willing to engage in polemics? Do not stand you here! "

Further, white activists of the movement joined the process of filling up the bronze racists - it should be noted that, on the ideological side, they are just white. They protect black people, kneel before them, make fiery speeches and call for the dismantling of monuments around the world.

They just don’t know how to rob shops properly, they are afraid of prisons and generally want to give meaningful meaning to what is happening.

Activists demand the demolition of five monuments to Robert Peel in the UK. Peale was prime minister in the 1840s and home secretary before he developed nine ethical principles for police officers, and these principles are still used in the training of British law enforcement. You see, he developed the principles of ethics. Tear him down, of course!

In Prague, they poured a monument to Winston Churchill, because the historian Richard Toy, when asked if Sir Winston was a racist, replied: "He made unpleasant remarks about the Indians, called them monstrous people with monstrous beliefs." And this phrase of the historian instantly crossed out the whole history of Great Britain; in London, too, the monument to Churchill was damaged. It doesn’t matter how he pulled the country out of the crisis and won the war. It is important that, according to the historian, he made unpleasant remarks about the Indians.

In the English city of Poole, they want to remove a monument from the embankment to the founder of the scouting movement, Robert Baden-Powell, because he seemed to sympathize with Hitler and was a homophobe.

But it’s not even a matter of racism - we are less familiar with this problem, we don’t understand all the contradictions on which the world of the West travels. The fact is that deconstruction is always a short game. Destruction is contrary to creation, protest without a positive agenda turns into pogroms. Revolution always leads to chaos.

The logic of the destroyers is something like this - now we will destroy everything to the ground, because it does not suit us, and then on the vacant wasteland we will build a kingdom of goodness and mercy, where everything will be fine: black is resting from protests, white is still kneeling before them.

But the historical logic is that when the site is cleared, those who cleared it, and those who just stood on it, do not fall into the new world, but fall to the previous level - down, into chaos, into ruin.

We are familiar with the history of the demolition of monuments. Now we can recall three active periods of struggle with heritage over the past 100 years. After the revolution, temples were demolished, fighting religion and, of course, monuments to kings, fighting the legacy of the damned tsarism. This was followed by devastation.

In the early 90s, what was left of the Soviet era was demolished - monuments to executioners, leaders and general secretaries. Demolished enthusiastically, in a single rush, climbing onto the cranes and pulling the cables. This was followed by poverty and nationwide humiliation - 90 years.

And just recently, in beloved Ukraine, they began to massively dismantle monuments to Lenin, who, to be honest, created this Ukraine. What then became of Ukraine and in what miserable state it is now, I think, does not need to be explained.

It’s not that I wanted to warn someone (no one asked me), I just wanted to say that I will really miss the Western world - Europe, the USA and all that we, frankly, love.

Yes, it is in the tradition of Russian mercy to take the side of the victim. But if those whose side is proposed to be taken are smashing the world that I loved, I would like to ask: who is the victim?

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.