Mark McCaughrean
It’s depressing just how eager everyone is to condemn folks throwing coloured cornflour at some rocks.
At worst, it’s performative “heritagism”, designed to avoid reactionary flag-waving nationalists questioning your patriotism.
At best, it lacks perspective.
This’ll wash off & Stonehenge has survived much greater indignities at human hands over the millennia.
And it will long outlive us as our civilisation crashes thanks to continued inaction over climate change.
Mark McCaughrean
@TimeLime I'm not disputing that the public reaction may be negative, but I think we need to be careful about quite how far we're being led by the nose to form such "outraged" opinions.
Much as the powder spread at Stonehenge yesterday was removed quickly, the tomato soup thrown at Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" did no actual damage as there was a glass cover over the painting.
This interview with Anna Holland, one of the people who did the latter, is worth reading, IMO.
Timelime
@markmccaughrean I'm a big fan of fighting climate change, but vandalizing historical and cultural objects does not make me want to support them. No one thinks, "Well now that you've thrown tomato sauce on a Van Gogh, I totally see why we should limit carbon emissions."
Alexandre Oliva
Luis Villa
@TimeLime @markmccaughrean no legislator, ever, has said “ah, I was not thinking about dealing with climate change, but now that this priceless work of art has been damaged, I’m all in on climate solutions”.
Go throw paint on a coal mine, please!
Timelime
@luis_in_brief @markmccaughrean yeah, I don't think they're bringing any constructive attention to the problem.
Timelime
@markmccaughrean I don’t agree with the greater vandalism argument at all. I agree it's happening, but that doesn't justify more pointless vandalism. Instead of trying to preserve, let's go ahead and destroy stuff now? Only by destroying stuff will you see that we're destroying stuff?
I'm not "outraged," but it's not helping and possibly hurting the cause.
Mark McCaughrean
@TimeLime Again, I think a lot of what Just Stop Oil are doing is actually short of vandalism, as with the Van Gogh painting, but the misrepresentation & vituperation that comes their way often seems deliberately confected by vested interests.
And as Anna's interview shows, it's not pointless at all – they are bringing huge attention to the most important issue facing us & even though Just Stop Oil themselves are vilified, it is having a positive coat-tail impact on ER, Greenpeace, etc.
Luis Villa
@markmccaughrean @TimeLime they’re bringing attention to themselves, not to the problem. That’s a massive difference.
Mark McCaughrean
@TimeLime And as Anna points out in that piece, the world is suffering far greater "vandalism", both to the environment & arguably to many great human cultural artefacts, in the name of profit & status quo.
For me at least, the big question is what if anything will lead to a meaningful societal pivot on climate change. Is it really going to take the deaths of millions from heat & the flooding of major cities? And if that happens in India or Africa, will Europe & North America actually care?
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