iconoclasm

[kevin at limits.org]

On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, pynchon-l-digest wrote:
> Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 17:12:46 -0700
> From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
> Subject: Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #1704
> 
> It doesn't remain confined to traditional religious movements, either 
> - -- in China in the Great Cultural Proletarian Revolution of 1968-69, 
> for example, some Red Guards defaced or destroyed temples, statues 
> therein, and just about anything else (secular art, books, etc.) that 
> they saw within the frame of the "Four Olds" against which they 
> struggled as revolutionaries. Rebels did this, perhaps to a lesser 
> degree, in France in their revolution (some statuary at Notre Dame de 
> Paris and the cathederal at Chartres, if I remember correctly). It's 
> probably safe to say this is a hallmark of revolutions in general, to 
> deface the icons of the pre-existing regime.

Yes, this is true, but keep in mind that the Buddhist statuary in
Afganistan does not belong to the "pre-existing regime."  They've been
there for centuries.  They even survived the days of Mahmud of Ghazni, who
was known as the "destroyer of idols."

The Taliban does have reasons for destroying the statues, but none of them
bode very well for the health and weal of their people.