The mob is now iconoclast. It is a very frightening evolution point to have reached because iconoclasm always is the philosophy adopted just before absolute persecution. For those who have had their heads in holes, this iconoclasm I refer to is the practice of defacing and toppling stone monuments to certain historical figures such as Robert E. Lee and Columbus. The mob has been committing these acts for several weeks with vigor and with stupidity. Both of these traits, so prominent in all mobs, are inherited from the mob bosses who puppeteer the herds of human animals which occupy society. People say that the mobs wish to erase history, but this aim is subordinate to a larger ambition. The mob bosses, those who control these mobs, wish to re-invent the consciousness of the modern world and so they are attacking the means by which consciousness is conveyed: archetypes and symbols. The monuments of society are not purely individualistic; that is to say that a certain statue of Lee does not pay especial tribute to Lee in the cultural consciousness, but it does convey an archetypal idea to the minds of the people who inhabit this culture. Lee is the archetypal representation of an idea which existed in the minds of many Americans of former times, the idea that men should be willing to struggle and die upon the battlefield for what they believe in. His statue may pay an especial remembrance to him, but only insofar as he had admirable qualities. In other words, his statue celebrates not his support of slavery, but his grit, his military genius, his fierce bravery. Those traits should be honored because they are universal strivings. There are other archetypal representations which seem even antithetical to Lee’s: Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln statues are archetypes of that freedom for which Americans fought, the freedom from slavery for all men. His statues pay tribute to his wholeness of dedication for that cause and those who wholly dedicated themselves with him; in other words, statues honor the hero in a man, not the human in a man. They praise not his faults, but the extent to which he developed greatness even amidst those faults. Above this, the presence of these symbols in stone have cast into the American consciousness an idea which cannot be forgotten: there was once a time when freedom was not given freely, or even universally. Many men gave their lives to attain a freedom for others which they never enjoyed. There were generally two ideas of what freedom exactly was, and Lee and Lincoln are both archetypes of those two antithetical notions. To put one on a pedestal is not to praise all he did, but merely to acknowledge that he was a giant in some manner, a giant who exerted gigantic influence upon a certain culture, and that his shadow falls in patches upon that culture still. But with old symbols there is an old consciousness; the modern mob bosses to not wish for an old consciousness, they wish for a new one. It will be one of their own making, and the consciousness will be conveyed through symbols and archetypes too, for all communication, from spoken words to musical notes, are metaphors for another reality. What is so despicable about this old consciousness reminiscent of this old reality? The old consciousness remembers a time when there was great oppression and times when certain men called plantation owners oppressed other men who were called slaves. These plantation owners were dictators, or mini-dictators. The old consciousness remembers that certain men perceived a cultural tension over this wide-spread mini-dictatorship and strove to put an end to it. Others resisted them and a war was waged: the wager of those men who strove to stop this dictatorship was, “If some men are oppressed, all men are oppressed.” The wager of those who fought to preserve this dictatorship was less defined, but perhaps it was something such as, “This institution is not slavery for those on whom it is practiced: it is liberation.” Slavery was ended, but oppression was not. Oppression had to be fought on different battle fields for a longer period. The victory over oppression came later. The modern mob bosses are afraid of those who have a consciousness which remembers slavery and oppression and those who fought to end it, for they themselves intend to force all people back into oppression and slavery, though it will be a new form of slavery and oppression. You see, people who have a consciousness which remembers slavery and oppression are not likely to dash back into slavery and oppression. The even more dangerous thing about preserving a consciousness of slavery and oppression in the people is that the people may then be able to discern the tell-tale signs of oncoming slavery and oppression. The people may just be able to make out the characteristics of a mini-dictator, or even a mega-dictator, on the rise, for their consciousness knows well the characteristics of dictators and oppressors. The modern mob bosses must not tolerate this; it is their imperative to eliminate this consciousness from the minds of the people so that the people live destitute without discernment. After all, people are much more likely to put on he mantles and shackles of slavery and oppression if they do not know what is to live under such constructs. Time is a teacher, I might argue even the best teacher, and time teaches only one thing: the practical truth. Now the practical truth about slavery and oppression is that it is bad. But the modern mob bosses do not want people to know, to any extent or purpose, that slavery and oppression are bad. So time, the ultimate teacher of practical truth, must be done away with. The mob bosses rejoice when they see Lee torn down, and they rejoice when they behold the fall of Lincoln, they greatest opponent to slavery and oppression in American history, because, above all, Lincoln and Lee represent a consciousness of time, the greater teacher of truth. Every time a statue falls under the hands of the mob there crumbles ten years of the past into the ash heap of history. No symbols, no consciousness, no remembrance of what slavery and oppression is really. And the mob bosses are one hour closer to leading the masses into slavery and oppression again.
[Note from SunNewsTucson editor: two statues of Christopher Columbus in Chicago were removed from Grant Park yesterday, July 24, 2020]
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