We’ve all seen the images of ISIS tearing down priceless historical antiquities, trying to destroy relics of our civilization and historical heritage. Its only natural to feel anger and hatred at these actions, and cheer when the combined efforts of all our hard gained victories brought down the self-proclaimed caliphate. They had committed a crime that creates powerful revulsion, a disgusting modern example of iconoclasm. It’s a crime reserved for only the most barbaric villain. However, it should be argued that there is a different sort of iconoclasm, a subtler and more subversive version.
“Iconoclasm is the social belief in the importance of the destruction of icons and other images or monuments, most frequently for religious or political reasons”
In the west, we see a continuing and strong effort to attempt to revise history to promote “progressive” narratives, and because of this, we see a boldly direct form of iconoclasm. The attempt by progressives and their many affiliated supporters to destroy the legacies of many of the key historical figures in western history. It would be fruitless to suggest a wide ranging conspiracy to do this, but rather the ideological and philosophical nuances of the progressive ideology make their iconoclasm a necessary act of sabotage against the history of our nations. This would be because the epitome of an icon in the historical sense is someone who brings pride and inspires with his legacy of accomplishment. Progressivism is a movement not of pride, but of guilt and shame. It’s primary method of inducting new members is to appeal to a sense of shame and guilt, usually already developed by the media and academia promoting a narrative of white imperialist and colonial exploitation.
Progressives understand that their high-minded rhetoric and appeals to guilt and emotion do not actually sway most of the population. They’re primarily an urban contingent, usually university educated and are often divorced from type of lifestyle enjoyed by most people. They have recognized that the only way to push the majority of the population to their ideological end goals is to destroy the institutions and narratives that encourage our innate and natural desire to stand by and support our own country, civilization and culture above others.
That being said, it shouldn’t be assumed that a significant portion of these progressives are intelligent, despite being highly educated. For the most part they often unthinkingly adopt and espouse the rhetoric of the intellectuals of their movement.
We could see the beginnings of this with the attack on the holiday of Columbus Day, but it never stopped there. Over time new narratives have been constructed attacking the historical legacies of our civilization. One particularly strong example of this would be the movement to destroy statues and monuments meant to not only celebrate and remember the confederacy, but it’s leaders and figures too, regardless of the fact that all history both good and bad can teach us everything. However, I would point out that this was simply the easiest most politically convenient target. In the United States it’s easy to rally against ‘red necked southern racists’ in the modern world and as a result their historical legacy was targeted first.
However it hasn’t even stopped there, we’ve seen similar efforts in the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Germany to sterilize history.
There is another component to these efforts, in addition to the straight iconoclasm of muddying important names from history, there is now an increased effort to paint white/European figures as a different race. Septimius Severus, who was a Roman Emperor is being characterized by progressive ‘historians’ as the first black emperor. This is a perfect example of the wave of historical revisionism where important historical figures suddenly change their race to darker shades more identifiable to visible minorities in the eyes of the media and educated. This is done for two reasons, first the iconoclastic desire to deprive Europeans of an inspiring pride inducing history, and secondly to impart the inspiration and prestige these figures have to other races, whom for the most part lack any historical accomplishment of particular renown in the west. Thus it is easy to surmise that the progressive iconoclasm isn’t motivated by any particular scholarly and academic motive, but rather simply any attempt to covertly influence our country in a particular direction.
+Left: Roman Marble statue depicting the 'light olive skinned' Emperor. Right: Modern colourized painting for the London, UK museum exhibit.
It stands then, that those of us whom are opposed to this barbaric practice of iconoclasm, being covertly wrought on western civilization, are the last line of defense against the abrogation and sterilization of our history. We are in a life and death struggle, not only for ourselves, our future and children, but for our ancestors and our history. This is an existential struggle, the type of fight where any method that can ensure success in the face of the progressive double-think is sanctified. Our governments and state institutions have already fell into this thinking for the most part, so it stands that we are viewed revolutionaries for cherishing our culture. Not that we should be violent or seditious, but rather that we are standing against a monolithic system.
So, I say to you, we must individually be dedicated to our cause. We must live and breath our struggle against these powers, because we are living in a historical moment that could be described as pivotal. History has always been moved by great men and women, people willing to accept the risks in attempting actions that can only be defined as the essence of greatness. We could easily be these men of our era, who achieve that greatness, who restore our civilization to point of reverence where it should actually be.
So I leave you with this; keep fighting, keep struggling.
We truly have a chance at greatness.
Sources:
Northern Report 