Psychosis Abhors A Vacuum – What Fresh Madness Will Replace Confederate Monuments?
Psychosis Abhors A Vacuum
What Do the Protesters Really Want?
When the offensive monuments have all been toppled and hidden away, will the protesters be happy?
What will replace these objects of their anger?
Baltimore, Maryland Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of Confederate statues in the city after the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, VA.
“After the removal of the Lee Jackson monument, activists had put the Madre Luz figure on top of the empty pedestal where the Lee Jackson monument stood. But then someone knocked it over.” – Baltimore Sun
Madre Luz is a papier-mâché sculpture created in 2015 by Pablo Machioli, in collaboration with activist Owen Silverman Andrews. It is a rendition of a pregnant black woman, raising a gold-frosted hand in the air while holding another small child in a carrier on her back.
Whether it was Confederate history aficionados or abortion-worshiping Progressives who persisted in knocking Madre Luz over, remains to be seen. It doesn’t appear that the majority of monument haters are interested in replacing the offensive statues with other symbols.
Nothing represents unresolved anger like an empty pedestal.
According to Leon F. Seltzer Ph.D., writing for Psychology Today:
“a good deal of our anger is motivated by a desire not to experience guilt—and beyond this, the distressing emotions of hurt and fear. It’s by now generally agreed upon that anger, as prevalent as it is in our species, is almost never a primary emotion. For underlying it… are such core hurts as feeling disregarded, unimportant, accused, guilty, untrustworthy, devalued, rejected, powerless, and unlovable. And these feelings are capable of engendering considerable emotional pain. It’s therefore understandable that so many of us might go to great lengths to find ways of distancing ourselves from them.”
These angry protesters are bereft. Their “love-tanks” are empty. What assuages the pain is knocking down the symbols of those who have been acknowledged and appreciated for their own passionate and dedicated efforts.
The easiest object to attack is one that can’t fight back.
Confederate history is a convenient target, that’s all. Any revered statue will suffice, as proved by the morphing and expanding definitions of offensive material.
These protesters are in pain. They can’t envision their own renowned valid contributions to history. They want to be adored but eschew the gallant efforts and commitment needed to accomplish great things. They fear a future inhabited by millions just like them. “What great things will our generation achieve? How will history remember us?”
Participation trophies earned in their youth now mock them. If they can’t have real trophies, no one else can, either!
The misplaced anger of this generation will be commemorated by empty monuments as a testimony to their fears of being utterly forgettable.
Nature and politics abhor a vacuum.
The real danger lies in those who will capitalize on the results of the actions of fragile egos and replace the “offensive monuments” with other idols that advance a new, unfounded agenda.
In the volatile atmosphere of Nationalism, racial tensions, and rampant ignorance, anything that replaces these historical monuments is bound to be much worse.
Complete drivel. I am a proud Southerner who has walked in the shadow of memorials to racism’s power my entire life. As the white friend of black people, I could only empathize with them having to use separate water fountains because it might pollute white lips with water coming from the same fount they used. Or not being able to use the bathroom where none were provided for black posteriors whose blackness might rub off on delicate white buttocks even days later. Watching while bleach was applied deliberately and plentifully to silverware that had to be cleansed of it’s brief presence between black lips. The best thing for the South is to break apart those monuments to our shame and bury them with the remnants of the racism that erected them.
There is no need to search hard for replacements to put in places of honor in communities across the South. Simply ask the other Southerners living in the communities the monuments have overshadowed so long: Black Southerners.
Thank you for reading and responding. Your commentary, while compelling, is unrelated to the premise of the article you deem “complete drivel”.