2003-04-16 - 10:23 p.m. - the new mythology
i listened on NPR tonight to a feature about the museum looting in Iraq. It made me sad. I love museums, but have always felt that maybe too much importance was put on them. Like, maybe as important as everything in museums is, maybe sometimes life needs to be concentrated on what goes on outside of them. but as i listened to this report, i couldn't help but feel the profound devastation of, the death of history. the idea has been kicked around for a long time. its a part of postmodernism, that history is dead and everything that can be done is done and that the present merely loots the past.well here it is. the iraqi museum was the 11th highest ranked museum in the world and had items dating back up to 500,000 years ago. to think of so much history stolen, destroyed, gone. it makes me want to weep.
and then in this report it talked about the American tanks surrounding the museum, the museum employees who ran out and asked some of the soldiers to help stop the pillaging. and how the soldiers said they had no orders, and just stood there and let history vanish.
i can't help that this is symbolic of this new era we are moving into. i can't help thinking that this was somehow intended. i think about all of it, all of the stories and moments that time left us that are gone now, forever, and all i can see is another phase in imperialism.
could it be that the united states government and millitary didn't think that Iraqi history was worth preserving? could it be that instead of preserving these peoples' past, we are giving them a new one?
only time will answer these questions, but i fear that the Iraqi people's new history will begin in 1776.
we are destroying history, if not destroying, then responsible for letting it be destroyed.
let us wish for the well being of the new, post-modern Iraq.
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