Charlottesville

[Eva Elisabeth]

(08-19-2017 12:17 AM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  I personally have never quite felt comfortable with building monuments to human beings. Any human beings. The word "idolatry" comes to mind. I don't really have strong feelings about it, and I do appreciate the beauty of some of the monuments, and some are even awe-inspiring (like Mount Rushmore, if only because of the sheer size of it). .

I often feel the same - especially as for leaders/politicians/kings etc. In this field there's such a small step between mere acknowledgement/teaching of someone's meaning in history and the said idolatry. I put up better with statues of some genius in the field of arts or science, like Shakespeare or Goethe, as I don't feel those idolize the entire human but an outstanding "creative"/"productive" talent that produced some THING everlasting, timeless. Shakespeare's work or Beethoven's music will always remain and inspire the way they are, while politics/ideologies change and kingdoms vanish.
(Well, the creative geniuses set the monuments for themselves: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eMY3ivdNzwE - like Beethoven's #9)