iconclasm in the west

The current wave of statue toppling by generically leftist demonstrators and mischief makers in America and elsewhere is not entirely unprecedented in human history.
In the Byzantine empire a wave of iconoclasm twice swept uncontrollably through the culture, ie for sixty years in the eighth century and for about 35 five years in the ninth.
The Byzantine eruption involved the destruction of ancient images and works of art as well as the persecution of those who wished to preserve and or pray through the veneration of those images.
The mania began simply and apparently because the Emperor Leo The 3rd wished to ban from the prayer life of his people all use and experience of such images.
And it was mania.
In China during the Cultural Revolution period from 1966 to 1976, the Communist despot Chairman Mao unleashed an iconoclastic war on what he called the Four Olds.
Chairman Mao sought to eradicate from Chinese life old customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas.
His real intention was to deify himself.
He had killed tens of millions more Chinese in the previous years of his rule from 1949 onwards.
But the Cultural Revolution was his last hurrah.
And it was good for a couple of million murders.
In a whirlwind of hysteria his followers and a portion of the enslaved populace destroyed much of the ancient glory, the unfathomable heritage, and irreplaceable cultural treasures of China. More importantly than those, as I've said, they also destroyed many many human beings. It was a decade of vandalism, terrorism, torture and murder.
Iocooclasts never stop with the statues.
They always get round to people.
In Ireland following the end of British rule in 1921, some historical statues were toppled, some stored away, and some retained.
Iconoclasm never reallly took hold here in its broadest most lunatic sense.
Even if we didn't topple statues, there was quite a bit of killing of people though in subsequent civil wars and in our current IRA mafia wars.
There was an occasional flicker of iconclasm among marginal political groupings as with the destruction of Nelson's Column in Dublin in 1966.
Iconoclastic manias have also been prevalent in the parts of the world where there is a significant Muslim population.
A famous example occurred in March 2001 when the Taliban in Afghanistan obliterated giant ancient Buddha statues at Bamiyan just for the hell of it.
By September of that year they and their Al Qaeda protegees were obliterating sky scrapers and human beings in New York.
While concern about police brutality is merited in America, Britain Ireland and elsewhere. for those who seek my guidance on such matters, I would counsel against toppling statues or human beings.
A confident, critical appreciation of history is a hallmark of merit. It is also a sign of the vitality of our culture and of our love for each other.