Monuments and Monarchies
These past few years have seen monuments to military generals, nation-founders, explorers, and former leaders torn down for their past crimes, alleged or otherwise. Cities particularly in the West have been taking steps to remove them even when faced with backlash from supporters and traditionalists. Where they haven’t been removed, they have often been protested and desecrated with paint or baseball bats. Regardless of where you find yourself in this debate, you have likely seen a lot more furor surrounding the dead than the living.
Stranger still, how is it that Barbados is the only place in recent memory to drop the monarchy?
To be specific, the British monarchy which few can argue wasn’t one of the most brutal and oppressive forces this world has ever seen. The sun never set on the British Empire so its slaves and colonies never stopped working for its benefit. Even if the abolitionists got their way earlier than their contemporaries, the sheer scale and scope of their atrocities over such a long period is likely unmatched. And while there are other countries that at least discuss the idea (and others still who would like to but wish to keep their limbs), there seems to be little movement on this front during a time that’s supposedly all about structural change.
Today we decry entire institutions for having systemic issues born of historical prejudice yet we are comfortable with (and sometimes celebrate) wealthy unemployables globetrotting with funds from public coffers. While some would say that their funds are separate from the government’s, consider how they accumulated that wealth to begin with. Being ordained by God to be the leaders of our nations meant they were owed land and taxes to do with as they pleased. Their current humanitarian photo op missions do not change the fact that their money came from their often unwilling subjects. They also do not excuse the expansionist and tyrannical rule that millions have suffered under simply because they were not of “noble blood.”
One can think of another school of thought that determines a person’s worth based on their blood. We call them supremacists. They come in a variety of flavours, even if each leaves the same bad taste in one’s mouth.
Does taking down a statue really hold as much weight in the fight for justice as making unelected heads of state answer for the crimes of their families? Keeping in mind that only very recent history has seen them relinquish most of their power.
“They’re just figureheads” is the common refrain from apologists, “they don’t have any real power.” All the more reason to hold them accountable for the institutions they figurehead. Why not answer for what you represent if your sole function is to represent it? Doubly so if you are no longer the despots of old and those taking you to task do not have to fear a beheading. If we are to hold the dead accountable for their past misdeeds surely we can spare some effort for the living embodiments and benefactors of an organization that spent centuries brutalizing their populations and sending them off to die in pursuit of royal glory and prestige. This is to say nothing of the economic oppression that saw people begging for scraps while the sovereign gorged itself.
Taking a step back from fantasies of accountability or, even less likely, recompense. It’s baffling to see throngs of supporters cheer their kings and queens in the streets while simultaneously demanding systemic change. Even if there is little overlap between a monarchy’s staunchest supporters and those protesting today’s injustices, the latter seems eerily disinterested in holding to account those who have performed some of the greatest injustices in our collective history.
This is not a defense of our monuments or the people they represent. By all means, protest and discuss and demand and do so openly. This is the foundation of a healthy civilization. Societies change and what is deemed acceptable or worth preserving is entirely dependent on the sentiments of a group at a given time. And while we should pay homage to our forebears and learn from their teachings that brought us to where we are today (among the most stable, safe, and peaceful societies ever to exist, even if we would like to think otherwise), we should also recognize that they were very much human beings and not the idealized heroes we wish them to be. Hold them to account and teach accurate histories regarding their decisions. But perhaps we should focus our primary energies on those who are here before holding posthumous trials and executing mannequins.
If you’re looking for change, dropping inbred figureheads that serve no real purpose but to propagate a diseased system of government may be a good place to start.
