Prometheus 6

Imagine a Museum of the Third Reich in Nuremburg, celebrating the Second World War by preserving Nazi memorabilia.

You now have an inkling of how I feel about the Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center, which were profiled in the NY Times Arts section on Wednesday.

I mean, I might have some use for its existence if they really told the history they claim to want to preserve. Might.

But as things are...

There is also little discussion of slavery before or during the Confederacy. Instead there is a short display titled “Confederate Preparation for War: Mobilizing the African-American Population.” This mobilization called up “tens of thousands of African-American laborers” described as both “enslaved and free.” This is so peculiar a reference to a society in which, in 1860, one-third of the South’s population — 3,950,511 souls — was enslaved, that it seems deluded or obfuscatory. The exhibition’s refusal to illuminate fully the lives of the Confederacy’s black inhabitants (during the war more than a half-million fled to freedom in the North) suggests that an embrace of the Lost Cause has not been fully relinquished.

...they both stand as defenses of the undefendable. You can't defend that culture unless you excise the brutality of slavery, and if you do you aren't telling the story...you are just lying.

Besides, it doesn't need a museum because they never actually gave up (an entirely different affair than a military surrender).

And to tell the truth, I really don't care about the culchuh you're trying to preserve. It's the outcome of a 200 year long Stanford Prison Experiment. It is, at its root, an immoral and inhumane culture that should not survive.