Brief Thoughts on Cultural Destruction

We have an obligation to the Muses, who preside over history, poetry, epics, science, and many other forms of human knowledge, to refrain from base destruction of cultural relics. Polytheists, Christians, Muslims, and others have all destroyed sacred artifacts and all forms of literature housed in sacred and secular places.

I was moved to speak not because it's Banned Books Week (um ... that was two weeks ago) or Cultural Genocide Awareness Month (I wish), but because I picked up A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Báez from the library. Parts of it are somewhat dry, but in it Fernando Báez discusses the reasons why people destroy books and why such destruction continues to present a real problem to the preservation and continuation of diverse types of human knowledge.

Reading the book made me more anti-war than I already am. I support intervention in genocides to protect those harmed by the psychotic and powerful, and I support assisting countries in determining their own destinies. A Universal History of the Destruction of Books gave me a concrete way of articulating my objections to invasion and violence.

As a child, I remember learning about World War II and thinking that the Nazis and Allies would never have bombed libraries or museums because they both would have understood what a terrible crime against history the destruction of cultural artifacts is.

The world doesn't work that way. Libraries and museums are destroyed. The people who initiate wars may do so on purpose to humiliate the defending nation or people, or they may do so because destroying the past and the written word makes appropriating the conquered so much easier. Still more nations are so indifferent to the cultural centers that the soldiers do not protect them from looters.

I think that many Hellenic Polytheists can relate to the destruction of knowledge and culture that accompanies a warlike attitude. This warfare extends to ideology, such as the pressure Christianity placed on non-Christians to convert during the past seventeen hundred years and the devaluation placed on people who believe polytheism works. It is the pressure currently being applied to those who practice traditional Sanatana Dharma, Shinto, and other primary religions.

Think about it. Sacred statues broken. Books conflicting with official Christian doctrine destroyed. Prominent polytheists murdered in cold blood. Our intellectual heritage --- Plato, Aristotle, Iamblichus, and others --- Christianized or encouraged to be forgotten. Conversion and missionary work are forms of warfare that destroys or perverts everything it touches.

Is one culture really so superior that all others must be forgotten? Shouldn't we speak out louder against a continuation of hatred? Shouldn't we condemn ideologies that perpetuate the destruction of others' gods, artifacts, books, and ideas?

Those who advocate for cultures that have been victimized by forms of cultural genocide have an obligation to speak out against current things that degrade people. You may disagree with me, but this is why I support the Kalashi fight against those who want them to convert to Islam. This is why I support Native American tribes' fight for their spirituality in the face of plastic shamans.

War, no matter how carefully we may do it, destroys just as many positive as negative cultural traits, and it frequently allows the more negative traits more organic expression. Diplomacy is the slow blade that can penetrate the shield. This is why, in most cases, at least, I prefer to leave Ares bound at the city gate and rely on Hermes's quick wit.