Mount Rushmore is Disgusting

Ive never been to Mount Rushmore. And ive only seen picutres of it here and there in my life.

But the latest Trump nonsense story got me to look at it again…

Look at those pictures.

That monument is totally disgusting.

It really disgusts me.

It offends me in so many ways. Really.

What a beautiful landscape. Ruined by vanity. Conceived by a moron , and we revere it as patriotic; it’s more like idiotic.

A pure symbol of what is most putrid of humanity. And it’s not the figures; I’m not indicting the presidents. It’s the plain sight of destruction and imposition. Like a gaping wound in the scene.

dude.

Seriously; we should dynamite the thing. It would be more beautiful.

Posted

4 Jul 2020

reality

landzek

Tags:

lame, Mount Rushmore

Comments

29 responses to “Mount Rushmore is Disgusting”

James Snetsinger

7 Jul 2020

I think a broad-based conversation about unmaking Rushmore would be very positive. Let’s not waste time in conversation about IF it should be done. Instead, let’s be creative and explore how to proceed. And no, I’m not talking about where too procure dynamite. Let’s say we had enough money and access and legitimised support to remake it.

I think we eould we build a giant CNC machine to carve and polish away rock to “reveal” the deeper truth over a period of weeks instead of years. It could be remarkably complex, looking like one think from a distance, and as you move progresively closer, more and more detail is revealed.

Maybe the entire sculpture remains as it is from a distance, only until you move closer do you see the thousands of faces and names of BIPOC people who lost their rights, lives, land, homes, families, ways of lives, and opportunities, over the past 500 years.

Maybe the whole thing is carved to be a perfectly flat surface, to represent this moment after which nothing is “carved in stone”. The meaning of which could be up to the individual. Perhaps there is no Manifesto Destiny, decided by wealthy people who owned slaves, but perhaps a future of ongoing progressive enlightenment. Perhaps each individual’s future is up to each individual. Perhaps the blankness of the huge wall could be a tabula rasa which people would come to to gaze into and discover their own solutions to their own questions and fears.

Or how about each face is carved to reveal parabola reflectors. Climb up to where the faces used to be, stand in front in just the right spot and whisper your secret, and from 1000 feet away, your own voice would come back to your ears. Or perhaps your echo would not come back to you, but to someone else in a different location on site, representing our close connectedness to people we don’t even know. Our actions do matter.

And of course, the facility would be staffed with docents trained to help people get the most out of the experience.

Imagine diverse people from around the world sending in CAD designs showing how they see the unmaking of Rushmore. Perhaps they’re eventually kept by the Rushmore foundation (or whatever it’s called) to share with visitors. Or maybe Ladzek, you’ll be the custodian for now. For the foreseeable future, that would be good enough for me.

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Dave

5 Jul 2020

I like a lot of things that Jefferson, Washington, and Lincoln, in particular, represent. I think there’s tremendous wisdom in Jefferson’s statement, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . . .”

There’s no question that the USA has not lived up to its ideals. But, I also like the fact that we have made meaningful movements toward those ideals.

As far as the statue in South Dakota goes. It simply isn’t a PURE symbol of what is most putrid about humanity. There are many great ideals represented in that statue. I like a pine-covered mountain in the west as much as most people, but now that the statue is there, I probably wouldn’t be in favor of dynamiting it.

I don’t know what the next best steps are to living well with native American people in South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado. . . .

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1. landzek
  
  5 Jul 2020
  
  Yes. But interesting how the rights of the people were trampled on and ignored to put up this symbol of liberty. Makes one wonder if liberty really means anything, or what it actually represents.
  
  Did we have to destroy a beautiful mountain for this symbol?
  
  Maybe we could have just built one somewhere .
  
  So I’d say that they chose to destroy a mountain range that was Sacred to the people that had been living here since before we knew of history. Says a lot about what was really going on. And what is still going on.
  
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  1. Dave
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    I don’t know what rights of the people were trampled on and ignored to make the monument at Mt. Rushmore. Do you?
    
    How do you evaluate the Crazy Horse monument about 15 miles down the road from Mt. Rushmore? Natural beauty was altered there as well.
    
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  2. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    The crazy horse one was made in response.
    
    Interesting how we still do not recognize native people as equal human beings. Your statements evidence either your being a devils advaocate for the sake of argument, or you are completely oblivious, which is to say, an example of the “innocent white person”. White people wrote history in a context to justify white innocence, in a manner which appears neutral. And the persists in today’s white person saying “I don’t see color; I only see human beings”. If you don’t understand how that is a racist statement. Then I suggest, for the sake of Christian morality of the good, you look into it.
    
    I think you might do well in looking at de Angelo “what does it mean to be white”. As well. Look into the history of systemic native extermination and oppression.
    
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  3. Dave
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    The reason I asked is because you seemed to have an issue with white men’s “blatant disconcern for beauty” as it has to do with the Mt. Rushmore monument. I was wondering if you have a similar problem with the men involved with the Crazy Horse monument. (To say that it was made in response isn’t a very satisfying answer – kind of like, “He did it first!”) I wasn’t playing devil’s advocate, and I’m doubtful about your “innocent white person” diagnosis.
    
    I read a little bit in Wikipedia about Mt. Rushmore, and I was interested to read about a treaty violation that might be important as it has to do with the monument. I was even more interested to read about a 1980 Supreme Court decision that said that fair compensation was never given to the Lakota for the land. If injustice was recognized and acknowledged in that decision, that seems like an important point when it comes to the legitimacy of the monument at Mt. Rushmore.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
  4. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    I’m not surprised. Lol
    
    Really though, this post just came out of just looking at the monument. I’ve never really seen it before except from pictures up close. It just looks disgusting. And I’m severely offended by it. Never mind the politics; the politics about it or just not surprising.
    
    🙂
    
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  5. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    I can’t go into all the details about whiteness that you may not be privy to. If you’re interested then you’ll start to investigate it for yourself. If not, then you’ll want me to tell you Argue with me.
    
    I’m not saying that I’m not white. I’m not saying that I don’t encounter the same kind of privilege that probably you do. But I am saying that I acknowledge many things about my whiteness in about my heritage that perhaps you are not aware of in yourself, or you explain it to Whaley as if “we are all just human beings”.
    
    When we look around the world it’s obvious that we are not all just human beings, some human beings, particularly light-skinned human beings, get the benefit while mostly people of darker skin get trampled upon. That is a historical fact, and every way along the track it’s been white people saying “it’s OK we have your best interest at heart because we are Christians and all human beings are equal in the sight of God”.
    
    That is called white innocence. If you’re interested And you’ll look honestly into it. If you’re not then, good luck!
    
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  6. Dave
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    I don’t think you’re on an especially helpful track when you speak of whiteness as if you are referring to something essentially white that is at the heart of a world-wide problem. I think my time will probably be better spent continuing to grow in the diverse friendships that I’ve been in, for the last 12 years especially, rather than listening to lectures designed to make me privy to details about whiteness. The fact that I don’t know what specific rights were trampled on or ignored having to do with the land that Mt. Rushmore is on doesn’t necessarily mean that I live in a bubble of whiteness. Maybe you already knew the details of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and the Great Sioux War of 1876 and the Supreme Court decision of 1980 and what they all have to do with Mt. Rushmore, but I doubt it. And, I doubt that, if I called three of my native friends, they would be very familiar with those things either.
    
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  7. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    Maybe you should call them and begin a discussion about what we are talking about here.
    👍🏾
    
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  8. Dave
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    begin?
    
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  9. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    Begin a conversation about race. As opposed to a conversation where you avoid talking about race and talk about everything else Becuase you think it’s unimportant. Ask your friend about race. I would be curious about what might come up.
    
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  10. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    …and maybe you might find out somethings. But maybe not. I can’t presume to know peoples views and experience. 🙂
    
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  11. Dave
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    “Begin a conversation about race. As opposed to a conversation where you avoid talking about race and talk about everything else Becuase you think it’s unimportant”
    
    The assumptions that you are making about me are remarkable.
    
    Seminary, back in the mid-2000s, gave me some pretty good opportunities to be part of the conversation. Back then, a similar conversation was being framed in terms of “the invisible knapsack. . . .”
    
    During the 2010s, there were several years when I worked with families in a church of relatively recent Ethiopian immigrants. From week to week, I was the only white face in the congregation. That also gave me some good opportunities to be part of the conversation.
    
    Also during the 2010s, I had some good opportunities to be part of the conversation when I worked with the Union Gospel Mission for several summers.
    
    White people are a minority in the church we currently go to. The opportunities to be part of the conversation continue.
    
    So, I’ve been part of the conversation for a while. Is there something that makes you think that I haven’t been listening well?
    
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  12. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    Great ! I’m glad for you. Perhaps I jump to conclusions.
    
    But Maybe you havnt been talking about race.
    
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  13. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    I am
    Only responding to what you are posting. That’s why I said “maybe your just being a devils advocate”. But you said you weren’t. So.
    
    Do you ever bring up the topic of race? Do you ever talk about yourself as a white man? Or just a man.
    
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  14. Dave
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    The impact of skin color on relationships has been part of the conversation.
    
    I don’t think I understand the devil’s advocate thing. What did you think I was advocating?
    
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  15. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    Can’t hurt. It can only assist in understanding.
    
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  16. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    …and withiit getting into all the politics: both are a desecration. My original point underlying this post is that people are idiots.
    
    It was really just a side kind of comment kind of just noting how ironic the Mount Rushmore statue is. It’s like flaunting my tiny penis so everyone can know how powerful I am even though I feel important and unattractive .loL
    
    My point is that we ruined a mountain
    
    all the politics I’m not really caring about right at this moment in this post. .
    
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  17. landzek
    
    5 Jul 2020
    
    And, if you don’t know what rights of people were trampled on, then you must live in a bubble of whiteness. It is incredible to me that you would not be aware. You must be joking.
    
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2. landzek
  
  5 Jul 2020
  
  Ingesting his the Christian God so leaves native Americans as collateral damn-age. For the sake of the great white liberty.
  
  Sounds fishy!
  
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Dave

4 Jul 2020

“A pure symbol of what is most putrid of humanity.”

Might be a little bit of an over-statement.

Hope you’re doing well, Lance!

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1. landzek
  
  4 Jul 2020
  
  Lol. White people proclaiming themselves master of everything else. Destroying pure beauty to put their own image in its place ? Sounds putrid. Rotten.
  
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  1. Dave
    
    4 Jul 2020
    
    That’s all those four men represent is “white people proclaiming themselves master of everything else”?
    
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  2. landzek
    
    4 Jul 2020
    
    No. They represent in the monument a blatant disconcern for beauty. But yes, it can be seen as “white people are the best and we’re just gonna ignore everyone else”. I mean, that particular mountain area, I understand, was actually a sacred place of the native people who lived in that area, and white people just kind of said “we don’t care”. Still to this day, America shoves native people under the rug, sweeps them away, does not want to think about our American history around them. There is a reason why they are the poorest group in America: is because white people basically raped them, killed them and took their land away from them.
    
    What do you think about the big statue ?
    
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2. landzek
  
  4 Jul 2020
  
  Have 4th Dave! Hope ur well.
  
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James Snetsinger

4 Jul 2020

I agree. In its natural state, it used to be called the Six Grandfathers. Blowing it up would be satisfying, permanent, and quick enough to be a smash and grab if the government is hostile to the idea. But what if we were granted permission to create something with more universal appeal? By removing material, could we make it look natural again? Could we create abstract art? Could we let the First Nations who we stole it from create something meaningful and healing to them? I know this is very hypothetical, but have you ever heard of an artist with plan for remediation?

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1. landzek
  
  4 Jul 2020
  
  Blue thier faces off and spray the area with the seed/fertilizer stuff they do with sides of mountains to help it not slide. 😄. Then let it be.
  
  It is I think a quite ironic statement. Though. Of modern white ideological devistation.
  
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Jon Awbrey

4 Jul 2020

A little bit of history beyond the limitations of statues …

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