I don't know if this is still happening, but a few years ago a bunch of statues got replaced because they were of people whose ethics don't match our what our society currently thinks is OK.
Our new ethics is a vast improvement—slavery is abhorrent. I'm devastated that it's still happening. And slightly ashamed of our species.
But I wish we would add a whip to the Jefferson statues. Or add the other women to the MLK statue, or whatever. Someone more thoughtful and educated than me should make these specific decisions for any given statue and context, please don't take these as actual suggestions but rather examples of the kind of synthesis I want our society to be able to contend with. We need to face the realities of our history, both good and bad.
1) We need to recognize that deeply flawed people can make a positive impact on the trajectory of society. Because we are deeply flawed, and we need to make positive impacts.
2) We need to learn from the past, and we can't if we're not faced with it's realities. Like Germany's Holocaust memorials, South Africa's apartheid museums, Rwanda's genocide memorial sites, we must be willing to confront our own personal and cultural darkness or risk repeating ourselves.
Idk if this is the right solution, but this is the kind of nuanced and synthetic views I think UpTrust can help us discover instead of binaries and false dilemmas and tribalism.
#synthesis