The function of statues is neither to tell history nor to be art. Their function is to lionize. It is to offer public approval and encourage emulation of not just that person or generation but also their cause. Aside from the fact that I believe we should just skip statues altogether — no society needs them — any statue depicting anyone in uniform needS to be evaluated on the cause for which they fought. Every single Confederate soldier fought, according to their own articles of secession, to uphold chattel slavery based on the presumption of white superiority. That’s not opinion, that’s what they themselves wrote. That cause is not worthy of glorification or public approval. It is pointless to argue that individual people are complex, neither entirely good nor entirely bad. If you’re going to have a statue at all, especially one in uniform, what matters is what they stood for.
The function of statues is neither to tell history nor to be art. Their function is to lionize. It is to offer public approval and encourage emulation of not just that person or generation but also their cause. Aside from the fact that I believe we should just skip statues altogether — no society needs them — any statue depicting anyone in uniform needS to be evaluated on the cause for which they fought. Every single Confederate soldier fought, according to their own articles of secession, to uphold chattel slavery based on the presumption of white superiority. That’s not opinion, that’s what they themselves wrote. That cause is not worthy of glorification or public approval. It is pointless to argue that individual people are complex, neither entirely good nor entirely bad. If you’re going to have a statue at all, especially one in uniform, what matters is what they stood for.