I often write about situations where we say something is about X, but it is actually more than we admit about Y. In some cases, this is mostly unconscious, and most people are surprised to hear what is going on. In other cases most people kind of know it, even if they don’t tend to talk about it. So if what I’m about to tell you seems obvious, well just stop reading.
You're not wrong about these monuments collectively being rather poor teachers of history. I never took them as objects that try to do that, despite the "remember" carvings. To me they always served as instruments that connect me to the past and help me see myself as a time-slice of a very long and eventful process, full of local heroism, villainy, brilliance, stupidity, and all the other stuff that remains with us. When history feels more real, it also feels bigger, and that makes our present concerns feel proportionately smaller. That's a useful feeling for monuments to evoke. When I visited the Pantheon in Rome, I remember a thought like "Man, this thing has seen a lot of shit come and go." Monuments have a way of "de-abstracting" the past. They won't help you pass any history tests, but do help you appreciate a continuity between the present and past. They could bear inscriptions like "Hey, picture us back here in the past. We had lives just as eventful and dramatic as yours. Now you're doing new stuff in this part of town, but before all that happened we were here, and in our time we thought we were up to something pretty damn important." But that's a lot of carving, so they can be forgiven for shortening it to "remember".
You're not wrong about these monuments collectively being rather poor teachers of history. I never took them as objects that try to do that, despite the "remember" carvings. To me they always served as instruments that connect me to the past and help me see myself as a time-slice of a very long and eventful process, full of local heroism, villainy, brilliance, stupidity, and all the other stuff that remains with us. When history feels more real, it also feels bigger, and that makes our present concerns feel proportionately smaller. That's a useful feeling for monuments to evoke. When I visited the Pantheon in Rome, I remember a thought like "Man, this thing has seen a lot of shit come and go." Monuments have a way of "de-abstracting" the past. They won't help you pass any history tests, but do help you appreciate a continuity between the present and past. They could bear inscriptions like "Hey, picture us back here in the past. We had lives just as eventful and dramatic as yours. Now you're doing new stuff in this part of town, but before all that happened we were here, and in our time we thought we were up to something pretty damn important." But that's a lot of carving, so they can be forgiven for shortening it to "remember".
fixed; thanks
Hmm. An "extortion to remember"? I admit that's clever, and may even apply in some cases, but I think you really meant "exhortation."
fixed; thanks
FYI, for future readers you may want to replace the four instances of moment with monument.