Portfolio The Bonfire of the Left: Jefferson, Slaver;  Hume, Supremacist;  Columbus, Balthus...

Portfolio The Bonfire of the Left: Jefferson, Slaver; Hume, Supremacist; Columbus, Balthus...

As well as one of the great liberal thinkers, David Hume (1711-1776) was an excellent economist and historian. In a 2009 poll asking philosophers around the world for their favorite dead thinker, Hume came in first, ahead of either Socrates or Kant. Enlightened and agnostic, he conceived of his philosophy as an antidote to the evils of superstition and ignorance. It's hard to overestimate the importance of this Scotsman and Edinburgh University alumnus.

However, students from what was his university have managed to get the Board of Directors to change the name of the tallest building on campus (David Hume's Tower). They reproach him for certain supremacist opinions in his essay On National Characters, written almost 300 years ago.

In June 2020, in London, the phrase "he was a racist" was painted on the bust of Winston Churchill erected a few meters from 10 Downing Street, the residence of the prime minister. A seven-minute walk away is Trafalgar Square, where, 52 meters above pedestrians, the statue of Horatio Nelson still stands amid dust, pigeons and growing rejection from activists who accuse the admiral of being a "white supremacist". "for defending slavery.

Black Lives Matter protests at the statue of Winston Churchill in London. gtres

That monument offends the Goldsmith College of the University of London, which has just promoted a survey on the future of several statues, including those of Nelson and Francis Drake, names that, like Churchill, were considered untouchable until now. They have ceased to be so because a certain left has been labeling those supposed patriots as immoral.

After the hangover of May 68 in Paris, Jean Paul Sartre, one of the leading philosophers of the revolts, summarily diagnosed the achievements of that effervescence: "They have not brought down the statues of horses, but they have broadened the horizons of what is possible ".

The story is not linear but capricious and zigzagging like the footsteps of a drunk: now inquisitorial winds are blowing which, under the guise of a better world, leave a trail of discredited heroes and dejected statues. There is a better world, but you can't get there.

Old David Hume Tower at the University of Edinburgh.David M. Gray Flickr

The debate surrounding iconoclasm this season revolves around the question of whether a man from the past can be judged by modern moral standards. Just as the Romans Seneca, Cicero or Marcus Aurelius were racist many centuries before, it is certain that Hume, Nelson and Drake were too, as were the vast majority of men and women of their time. From a time when African Americans lived in slavery despite the fact that the United States Declaration of Independence already stated that "all men are created equal." Slavery was the engine of the economy and not only the United States was involved in it, but also the United Kingdom and half of Europe.

Edinburgh undergraduates rightly argue that racism was wrong then and wrong now. In fact, one of Hume's contemporaries, Professor of Moral Philosophy James Beattie, harshly attacked Hume's supremacist views, accusing him of Eurocentric arrogance and ignoring other civilizations.

The Woke move

Even so, a part of the Edinburgh university faculty believes that the university could make it clear that it abhors Hume's racist comments without ignoring that they are only a footnote in his colossal oeuvre. That is, do not throw the dirty water with the baby inside. Because changing the name of the Tower could be just a first step to slide from "we don't want the building to be named after a racist" to "we don't want to study the thoughts of a racist".

The engine and fuel of this emerging "cancel culture" is provided by the Woke movement, which means raising awareness of the injustices that weigh on minorities. From the "culture of awakening" comes denunciation, playing bowling with the past culture and pointing a finger at a dead person for having lived in the wrong era.

Assessing, judging and sentencing events of the past based on the moral rules of the present, the iconoclastic fever advances and intensifies through a feedback loop that flows through social networks. Especially since the Black Lives Matter movement increased protests after the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white police officer in May 2020 in Minneapolis.

Sir Francis Drake, another criticized historical character.

On October 18, the New York City Council voted unanimously to remove the statue of Thomas Jefferson that is located in a gallery of the great hall of the City Hall, south of the island of Manhattan. Monuments to the founding father of the United States have been vandalized because he owned slaves. In 2019, the city of Charlottesville (Virginia), where Jefferson was governor, decided to stop celebrating the politician's birthday with a holiday.

According to the Data + Feminism Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), there are many, up to 6,000, the places that bear the name of Christopher Columbus in the United States, from the District of Columbia in which Washington is located to cities, streets, rivers or mountains. There are still 149 monuments still standing that evoke the discoverer, which places him in third place, behind Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. But, pointed out as a pioneer of a genocide in America, Columbus loses friends and statues on that continent that has turned the fever of knocking down his memory into a déjà vu that repeats itself all the time, as former professional baseball player Yogi Berra would say. .

In recent months, more than thirty Columbus monuments have been decapitated, burned, defaced or removed by the authorities, from Philadelphia to Boston, from Columbus to Miami. They blame him for being the cause of the transatlantic slave trade and the extermination of indigenous peoples for centuries. Imputation that, according to the most rigorous historians, is only supported by an anachronistic and decontextualized interpretation of historical facts.

Removal in 2020 of a statue of Christopher Columbus in New Haven. gtres

presenteeism

Similar reproaches deserve those historians the announcement of the removal of the admiral's statue on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, which will be replaced by a sculpture in homage to indigenous women. A deputy from the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico declared that "Mexicans should not venerate the statues of Christopher Columbus and Hernán Cortés, nor recognize them as heroes because they were tyrants and murderers."

Presentism, which ignores contexts and judges history from a contemporary perspective, leads to historical revisionism, which not only tears down statues, but also ruins reputations and burns books. In 2019, the Providence School Board in Ontario, Canada, which brought together 30 schools and 10,000 students, blacklisted almost 5,000 books accused of disparaging natives. A purification ceremony was carried out by the flame; that is, an auto-da-fe. The ashes served as fertilizer to plant a tree.

Purification ceremony, using the ashes of burned books as fertilizer in Ontario, Canada.

Some parents of students, who had not yet woken up to the virtues of pyromania, complained. Since then, the idea of ​​burning books in schoolyards has been abandoned. They will simply be discarded. Which might seem encouraging when compared to what's happening on its neighbor's campuses to the south where, from coast to coast, the hunt for biased opinion is putting freedom of thought in the spotlight.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker has appeared four times in Foreign Policy magazine's ranking of the World's 100 Greatest Thinkers. Still, more than 500 scholars signed a letter calling on the Linguistic Society of America to revoke Pinker's "distinguished researcher" status for opinions expressed in his books or on his Twitter account. His defense of the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment — which he often boils down to values ​​such as reason and science — upset a legion of leftist intellectuals who accuse Enlightenment thought of having spawned atrocities.

It is just another of many skirmishes in the war unleashed in the academic world by the "cancel culture", which tries to cover the mouth and put out of work professors who postulate uncomfortable ideas for the Woke.

But the new cases suggest that we have not yet seen the worst. In its Serengeti of prey and predators, the postmodern left is almost certain to find new fodder for its razor-sharp fangs. And material for a new crusade that would infantilize and make even more guilty - if that is still possible - the average Western citizen, who has the misfortune of having poorly pigmented skin and a deficit of enslaved immigrants in his family tree. "[Woke's] Wokistan," says Iranian journalist and writer Abnousse Shalmani, "has declared war on civilization."

The Thinker Steven Pinker.Rose Lincoln Harvard University

Iranian journalist and writer Abnousse Shalmani. Vaclav Havel Library

The auto-da-fe against books in Providence reminded this refugee writer in France of her family's panic in Iran when "beards and crows came to power." She reminded him of the hundreds of books that her family buried in her family garden for fear of ending up, at best, behind bars if they fell under the eyes of the moral guardians. She reminded him that books are the best weapon against darkness because if literature doesn't change the world, it at least offends the fans.

How can there be a right to think without the freedom to offend? The fight against slavery, against religious dogmatism, the defense of the civil rights of minorities, the development of science, all of this offended many people. Galileo had to retract for having offended the feelings of Catholics with the heliocentric theory. Offended feelings are becoming customs that filter what can or cannot be said. But if we can't bother other people's feelings, what room is left to disagree?

humiliated and canceled

1.- SERRANUS HASTINGS, founder and patron of the Hastings College of the Law of the University of California in 1878, to which he donated the equivalent of 170 million euros. This college wants to change its name because they accuse the founder of organizing Indian hunts that wiped out most of the Native American population in Mendocino County, California.

2.- ABRAHAM LINCOLN, president of the United States who abolished slavery. Black Lives Matter protesters scrawled on the statue of him in Parliament Square with names of black people killed while in police custody. They accused him of being racist.

3.- JEFFERSON DAVIS, the only president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. the statue of him in Richmond, located in a walk full of sculptures dedicated to heroes of the Confederacy, was torn down. They accuse him of advocating the defense of the slave system.

4.- ROBERT E. LEE, commanding general of the Confederate States Army in the Civil War. Revered by his men and respected and feared by his adversaries in the Union Army. His monument in Richmond, Virginia was removed on September 8, 2021. He is accused of being a supporter of slavery.

5.- THOMAS STONEWALL JACKSON, one of the best known Confederate generals during the Civil War. In 2019 the mayor of Richmond ordered the removal of the monument in his memory. They accuse him of racism.

6.- WILLIAMS CARTER WICKHAM, Confederate general in the Civil War. After the southern defeat, he founded the Central Railroad, one of the first railroad companies in Virginia. His statue in Richmond's Monroe Park was torn down during protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer. He is accused of being a supporter of slavery.

7.- FRANCIS DRAKE, English corsair who in the 16th century attacked Spanish possessions in America, assaulted galleons, attacked Cádiz and La Coruña and faced the Invincible Armada. His statue in Marin City, California was attacked and there were demonstrations calling for his removal and for Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to be renamed. He is accused of trafficking in slaves.

8.- EDWARD COLSTON, English slave trader of the 17th century. Protesters in Bristol toppled a bronze statue of him in the city center and rolled it through the streets to the bottom of the River Avon. He is accused of being a slave trader.

9.- ROBERT MILLIGAN, Scottish shipowner and slaver from the 18th century. The statue of him outside the Museum in London Docklands was removed by the City Council to "attend to the wishes of the community". He is accused of owning sugar plantations where he enslaved hundreds of Jamaicans.

10.- THOMAS ARNE, 18th-century English composer, best known for his patriotic song Rule Britannia, which celebrates the days of British imperial naval power and remains an unofficial anthem of the United Kingdom. At the Proms, the annual summer concert series at London's Royal Albert Hall, the BBC wanted to ban it because some groups consider it imperialistic and immoral. Boris Johnson disavowed the BBC.

11.- DAVID HUME, eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, economist and historian. The University of Edinburgh has removed his name from the tallest building on campus. They reproach him for certain supremacist opinions in his essay On National Characters.

12.- HORATIO NELSON, British admiral and hero of the Battle of Trafalgar. The Goldsmith College of the University of London has proposed to remove the monument of him in Trafalgar Square. They accuse him of imperialism.

13.- CECIL RHODES, 19th century British colonizer and founder of Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) and of the De Beers diamond mining company. Oriel College, one of the first colleges of the University of Oxford, has removed its statue from the façade. He is accused of imperialism.

14.- WINSTON CHURCHILL, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and protagonist in the Allied victory against the Nazis. In June 2020, in London, the phrase "he was a racist" was painted on the bust erected next to 10 Downing Street. They accuse him of being imperialist and racist.

15.- CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, Genoese discoverer. Attacked in dozens of cities in the United States. The effigy of him in New York's Central Park appeared with a graffiti that read: "Hate will not be tolerated." His monument in Baltimore was smashed to pieces. In Richmond, his statue ended up in a pond. The Los Angeles City Council removed his name from the party on the second Monday in October. He is accused of being the advance guard of a centuries-long genocide.

16.- HERNÁN CORTÉS, conqueror of Mexico. The protests of the indigenous community of Coyoacán forced the government of Miguel de la Madrid to move the statue of him, placed in the center of the city, to the Xicoténcatl park, where it still stands today. They accuse him of "tyrant and murderer".

17.- JUAN PONCE DE LEÓN, explorer and conqueror, first ruler of Puerto Rico and discoverer of Florida. The image of him woke up unrecognizable in Miami. He is accused of genocide.

18.- MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, author of Don Quixote. The bust of him in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was smeared with blood-red paint and the word "bastard" accompanied by fascist symbols. He was never in America. It is not known what he is accused of.

19.- FRAY JUNÍPERO SERRA, a Franciscan religious from the 18th century who founded nine missions in California. His effigy in Los Angeles was attacked and several of his sculptures were toppled. The statue of him at the Santa Barbara mission was decapitated. His statue in Palma de Mallorca was also attacked. He is accused of racism and genocide for having destroyed indigenous culture.

20.- BALTHUS, Polish-French artist of the 20th century. Ten thousand people signed a petition for the Metropolitan of New York to withdraw Teresa dreaming, a painting that shows a sleeping girl with her legs spread and her underwear in sight of her. He is accused of sexualizing girls.

21.- INDRO MONTANELLI, writer and journalist. His statue in Milan was found covered in red paint and the words "racist" and "rapist." He is accused of having accepted a 12-year-old girl as his wife during the war in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).

22.- ROMAN POLANSKI, Polish director. His last film, The Officer and the Spy, was the subject of boycott calls for having been charged and convicted of sexual assault in the 1970s in the US.

23.- STEVEN PINKER, Harvard psychologist and author of such well-known essays as The Blank Slate, The Angels Within Us or In Defense of the Enlightenment. More than 500 scholars signed a letter calling on the Linguistic Society of America to revoke his distinguished researcher status. He is accused of "hiding that the Enlightenment led to atrocities."

24.- JK ROWLING, creator of Harry Potter. Called transphobic, calls to boycott her books intensified on social networks. She is accused of implying in a tweet that transgender women are not women.

The freedom to think, at the price of having to offend, puts us between two fires. Steven Pinker says in his defense —that is, in defense of the Enlightenment— that "we are facing the struggle of two currents championed by an authoritarian, nationalist and populist right and a postmodern, identitarian and politically correct left. If we only debate about certain ideas , we will guarantee ignorance".

We live in times of individual empowerment for the punishment of those who are not on the same wavelength. The networks stink of the sermons of Savonarolas [a 15th-century religious sentenced to death after denouncing the corruption of the ruling classes] ready to punish anyone who leaves the Woke herd. Each one feels that they have a letter of marque to approach those who sail with their own flag in the ocean of opinions. The cultural battle is just that, a battle: reputations are at stake and academic careers are ruined.

Sometimes, for a simple tweet. JK Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, hinted on Twitter that transgender women are not women. Called transphobic on social media, calls to boycott her books intensified. The cancellation also reaches frames and movies. Gone with the Wind was temporarily removed from the catalog of the HBO platform because it had been described as racist. It was also intended to suppress the kissing scene in Disney's remake of Snow White because the sleeping heroine did not give her consent to Prince Charming.

Mythical scene from 'Gone with the wind'.

Painting 'Thérèse dreaming', by Balthus. MET

In 2017, 10,000 people signed a petition for the New York Metropolitan to remove Teresa Dreaming, a painting by Balthus that shows a sleeping girl with her legs spread and her underwear on view. The scandal is less in the painting than in the gaze of the scandalized, who described the painting as "disturbing, offensive and disturbing". As if art were not precisely that, the territory of desecration. The museum rejected the claim out of respect for creative expression.

We tend to think of these moralists as pure-blooded conservative pimps, but the censorship—which used to be associated with right-wing authoritarianism—for the first time in this generation is coming from a so-called left. Lighting bonfires to sterilize history and culture is not only a threat against democracy, but against the very fact of thinking. Cancellation makes us more myopic and ignorant.

The virus of censorship

Argentinian sociologist Esteban de Gori maintains that thought no longer "dies in the mouth" as the poet Nicanor Parra used to say, but rather on the networks. The virus of censorship and denunciation has jumped from the universities to the media and to the entire society. It has ceased to be a sporadic phenomenon to become a daily earthquake that devastates the present as well as the past.

The risk is that of any totalitarianism, left or right. Totalitarian societies believe it is legitimate to impose ideas by force or violence. And to this the fascists and Nazis, Stalinists and Maoists stuck — with tremendous success.

In his Treatise on Human Nature, David Hume wrote that "mankind is its own greatest enemy." It was not only demonstrated by the ISIS terrorists blowing up the monuments of Palmyra, but also by the beautiful souls who in Baltimore (Maryland) tied a statue of Columbus in the Little Italy neighborhood with ropes and brought it down. The navigator lost his head when he crashed to the ground. The body was dragged and thrown into the water of the port. What makes them different from ISIS and the iconoclastic Taliban who, twenty years ago, killed the Buddhas of Bamiyān because they were idols, and therefore contrary to the Koran? To knock down statues is not to defend the cause of oppressed minorities, it is just a definition of rage and corrupting any cause, because the temptation of purity leads directly to war and the mass grave.

Collapse of the statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore, USA.

The cultural battle is not over. The counteroffensive against cancellation began last year with an open letter in Harper's Magazine from 153 artists and intellectuals —from Wynton Marsalis to Margaret Atwood, Fukuyama, Salman Rushdie and Noam Chomsky— to denounce "the intolerance of dissenting opinions, the taste for public humiliation and ostracism". The resistance rejects a world where, as the German poet Hölderlin foretold, the promise of a better future hides a new advent of hell. A paradise for a lobotomized humanity.

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