discussion-2961

Please I need a good disucssion reply based on the following response.Use the below respones when you draft a disucssion response.

During the readings and upon the initial understanding of what iconoclasm is, I was amazed/shocked at how much of this was done by governments, militia leaders, and people of high importance. Seeing the two sides of each the Taliban and Islamic debate over the destruction of great ancient statues of buddha as recently as the early 2000’s is terrible. The article said something I couldn’t agree with more, any destruction of images, let alone cultural and religious images is and will never be anything more than “an act of cultural genocide against humanity.” The argument from religions having reason to destroy images until the idea of it being idolatry is viable, yet still no reason to have them destroyed, they are artifacts of cultures we simple must preserve. If one considers something idolatrous, they should acknowledge the other person is worshipping their way and does not have to do it any other way. Butting heads, especially over religious practice, as far as we can see will never end, but the world as a whole need to enact laws to protect against this Iconoclasm. It amazes me how much history a place can have in its architecture and archelogy, and yet they people that live their now want to destroy it because they don’t adhere to the same practices??? Imagine how much knowledge, how much information, and how much clarity we would have on things that have since been destroyed. I found this quote interesting and pondered it myself as to whether or not I agree. “I wish to be absolutely clear,” writes Deblauwe, “no epic Sumerian cuneiform tablet, majestic Neo-Assyrian lamassu sculpture or any other Mesopotamian artifact is worth a human life, be it Iraqi, American, British or other.” I find that statement as something said simply for the general public possibly? Do we really put one single human life above these artifacts that hold so much history to them, surely there has to be people willing to lay down their life not only to preserve these things but also to make a statement against Iconoclasm. Be it my youthful ignorance, but in my eyes nothing good comes of war, sure maybe some good but war creates a path of destruction, art, artifacts, and architecture included… not worth it right!? Zainab Bahrani put it in great words, “The entirety of Iraq is a world cultural heritage site, and there is no way that a strategic bombing can avoid something archaeological.” As for the removal of confederate monuments and memorials my stance stays, sure they may represent a time of white supremacy and slavery, without the recognition of this won’t history simply repeat itself, these monuments serve as a showing of how far we’ve come from then. If we are not showing both sides, and learning from them, what good was the war in the first place? As for some museums not wanting to hold them, that to me sounds more like a business move than a personal issue, the idea of paying to see these monuments that have been taken down is almost supportive of them in their purpose, which is not good right, so let’s just keep them where they are to remind us of who we were then, and how we’ve made ourselves as a country better. As an artist trying to join in on this new wave of visionary art I hold spirituality in art dear, and it can mean different things for different people, its all our own journey. I couldn’t imagine seeing the works of Alex Grey and the sacred places he has created alongside his wife and other visionary artists being destroyed, it would destroy me. If art is a freedom of expression, then destroying it due to disliking its meaning or use, is taking that freedom away, now that truly scares me. Lastly a thought I had was the irony in destroying some ancient creations, it’s a double loss. Not only is the work destroyed but now it gets attention because of its destruction, bringing light to the original piece. Some artist now do things like this with their own works, Banksy has been known to “destroy” his pieces, perhaps you remember his last stunt of shredding a piece of artwork after it was sold, this only made it more valuable. In the case of these great monuments it doesn’t quite translate the same howe