Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History Quotes

“Social justice is collective injustice. Actual justice is administered to individuals on the basis of their actions. Social justice is retributive punishment meted out by one party upon another group to enact vengeance and express a nurtured grievance.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“[The Newspeak word blackwhite] means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past […][5] (George Orwell, 1984)”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“As President Lincoln in his final days acknowledged, the only way to win and preserve a peace is to afford the loser some dignity.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“Destruction of war memorials is collective punishment for descendants of the war dead and an attempt at damnatio memoriae. Revenge against history ensures there will be no peaceful future.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“And why not? If we live in an intersectional society where the most oppressed win the greatest prizes, victimhood becomes a currency to be traded and forged.[20] This cynicism makes us despise heroes and makes us susceptible to imprecations to tear down statues.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“The point of heroes is that they are heroic. They embody values to which we aspire; they are virtuous.[19] If one does not believe theological reasoning which gives meaning to suffering, then one finds less emotional connection to the example of heroes. Today, we are taught to take victims and survivors as our heroes. Undoubtedly, individuals who have suffered greatly can have heroic qualities but in a climate within which weakness, failure and helplessness become venerated, such flaws will be cultivated.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“Feminist admirers of direct action often overlook Mary Richardson’s later public life. After participating in bombing and arson campaigns in support of suffragism, Richardson became a very senior member of the British Union of Fascists,[14] a path that other Suffragettes followed.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“Not least, it was an expression of psychologically driven resentment towards commonly admired objects of beauty, as the attackers themselves admitted. As much of the aggression can be ascribed to animosity towards uneven distribution of beauty and grace as it can be towards unequal distribution of rights. In statements of attackers and their supporters, there is palpable envy towards images of ageless perfection.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“Libraries, railway stations and three Scottish castles were burned. A bomb exploded in Westminster Abbey, damaging a stained-glass window.[8] There were over 200 acts of damage against property in the space of four years. The suffrage campaign of assault on art was driven by moral anger and self-righteousness. It was part cultural terrorism, part publicity campaign and part blackmail.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“There were at least 32 attacks by suffragettes on art on public display between 14 January 1913 and 17 July 1914.[6] There is dispute about whether or not the targets of attacks were all specifically chosen for their symbolic value or whether some were random. Whilst attacks on representations of beautiful mythological women seem to be planned defacements of conventional images of femininity,[7] others seem haphazard choices directed by impulse and opportunity.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“To project our own worldview is to refuse to learn what happened, which prevents us comprehending worldviews that differ significantly from our own. If we insist on treating history as a mirror, we shall see only ourselves.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.[130] (George Orwell, 1984)”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to take part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one’s”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“They have the intoxicating illusion of personifying the will of the people, which means they assume the people is monolithic. They are Manicheans, dividing the world into two camps: light and darkness, the revolution and its enemies. They despise all traditions, received wisdoms, icons, and superstition. They believe society can be a tabula rasa on which revolution will write.”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History

“All revolutions have liberté, egalité, fraternité, and other noble slogans inscribed on their banners. All revolutionaries are enthusiasts, zealots; all are utopians, with dreams of creating a new world in which the injustice, corruption, and apathy of the old world are banished forever. They are intolerant of disagreement; incapable of compromise, mesmerized by big, distant goals; violent, suspicious, and destructive. Revolutionaries are unrealistic and inexperienced in government; their institutions and procedures are extemporized”
― Alexander Adams, Iconoclasm, Identity Politics and the Erasure of History