David Bone: Toppling statues doesn't magically change the past

Removing memorials doesnt mean the event didnt happen

In the United States, they are in the process of removing statues and memorials to Confederate generals and those who followed and died for them.

Britain has been afflicted with its own home-grown version of this with the ‘Rhodes must fall’ movement which tried to remove the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College in Oxford.

Every town in the UK has statues to some imperial soldier, a war memorial, a tribute to a former monarch. They were erected in the context of a particular time and by a particular people, who possessed a unique mindset that reflected the era they lived in, none of which makes their views or the memorials abhorrent.

It also wrongly interprets history. Some of our greatest historical figures held questionable and outmoded views, at least when viewed through our post-modern, post-colonial eyes.

Churchill, in particular, was a staunch imperialist, but his leadership and determination probably saved the United Kingdom and consequently led to the opening of a large second front against Nazi Germany.

Queen Victoria was aghast at the notion of female emancipation and frowned at the Suffragette movement.

To put people into binary archetypes of ‘good’, ‘evil’, ‘offensive’, ‘inoffensive’ is to lose sight of what many of these people actually were: human. Neither angel or demon, but human.

Of course, removing statues, plaques or memorials does not mean that the event didn’t happen or the person didn’t exist. Removing what one group deems to be offensive does us all a disservice in its attempt to expunge history from the records.

I have recently returned from a trip to Poland where I visited Auschwitz. The name itself comes loaded with preconceptions and emotional baggage. It was a heart-rending experience and the camp is filled with a sense of deep, lingering sadness.

It would have been easy after the Second World War to blast the place into oblivion, to try and cleanse its presence from the soil. But I feel that it is best to examine the dark heart of humanity, face our worst abuses and then stare our demons down.

Only through this can we come to an understanding and ensure that such places and atrocities are never brought forth again.

All events, one day, will pass from the realm of living memory and into recorded history, only accessible through some form of media. When that occurs the only physical evidence left will be our memorials, our artefacts, our statues, our plaques, our weapons, our buildings, our tools; this will be all that remains to remind us of events, even if they make us uncomfortable.

What would leave a greater legacy for future generations? Intact plinths and memorials where we have to explain the complexities of human history, motivation, culture, politics and emotion, and then reflect on them, or barren places, where history was physically removed because one generation, far removed from events, deemed their presence to be too ‘offensive’ for them?

David Bone is a third sector worker and blogger. He lives in Girvan, Ayrshire