One of the more disturbing aspects of the woke Cancel Culture is judging people (and history) of the past by contemporary woke social justice standards.

This is troubling because as Victor Davis Hansen puts it;

Once a cultural revolution gets going, there can be no contextualization of the past, no allowance for human frailty, no consideration of weighing evil vs. good.

https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2020/06/18/how-cultural-revolutions-die–or-not-n2570836

This all relates to the war on historical statues and in particular to the statue of Union General U.S. Grant and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

This is noteworthy because Grant was the general who finally ended the Civil War and was instrumental in breaking the bonds of slavery. Forrest fought for the Confederacy. He was a slave owner and an early supporter of the KKK. Yet both have had their monuments torn down thus proving it’s not really about slavery, but rather a Marxist ideology that seeks to destroy everything about American history. It’s worth quoting Hansen again:

Once a cultural revolution gets going, there can be no contextualization of the past, no allowance for human frailty, no consideration of weighing evil vs. good.

https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2020/06/18/how-cultural-revolutions-die–or-not-n2570836

I wish to deal with Hansen’s observations one at a time starting with contextualization.

The American Civil War has a historical context. The United States struggled to deal with the slavery issue since the country’s founding. The split between north and south was based on votes in congress. When a state was added would it be a free state or a slave state? In other words it was about power politics. When Lincoln, a Republican whose base was at least partially abolitionist was elected, South Carolina led the way to break away from the Union fearing the loss of power (and slavery). The Civil War was on. Slavery and the election of Abraham Lincoln were the catalysts that ignited the fire that would take the lives of over 600,000 soldiers, both north and south.

Grant was not an abolitionist, although his father certainly was. Grant later married into a family that was a slave holding family from Missouri. He later freed his slave who was given to him by his wife’s family). During the Civil War Grant became a friend of what were called contrabands, blacks who took refuge within the Union armies as they invaded the south. Grant was also for the enlisting of African Americans in the Union Army remarking that in an initial engagement, even though under trained and ill equipped they performed heroically. As President, Grant did even more for African Americans, a fact he is rarely given credit for. Grant’s context changed over time and he evolved so-to-speak; yet his statue had to come down as if he invented slavery rather than being a major factor in destroying it.

Forrest on the other hand is remembered as a brilliant general of Confederate cavalry. W.T. Sherman referred to Forrest as “that devil Forrest” as a left-handed compliment because Forrest was a natural born soldier who gave Sherman a lot of grief.

Forrest was also slave owner and the first leader of the KKK. Few people know or care that Forrest changed, quitting the KKK and breaking with the racists that continued the movement-all southern Democrats I might add. For this, Forrest was scorned by southern racists for being soft on the recently emancipated blacks. After the Civil War Forrest’s context changed and he changed for the better with it.

This leads to the second observation of Hansen’s; that of human frailty.

The woke social justice mob are in fact arrogant, self-righteous bigots who judge others by a standard that they would never judge themselves. They are incapable of introspection and blinded by what they believe is the moral high ground; even though they are largely ignorant of history. Many have been indoctrinated by an education system that is Marxist and as good little Marxists feel free to judge others by standards they never apply to themselves.

This factors into Hansen’s observation about evil versus good.

The Cancel Culture believes it has the moral high ground and as Marxists they either are atheists or at least practical atheists who have no concern for the God of the Bible who sets moral standards with absolute authority. Without the higher authority of a sovereign God they are free to reconstruct morality in their own image. And so they have.

What can be done about this? I’m not certain since anyone that objects is shamed and called a racist. The Cancel Culture shuts down debate from their lofty perchs on what they believe is the moral high ground. The majority who love their country, warts and all, are thus far cowed into silence. Few Republican leaders seem willing to push back and push back hard. Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas seems to be the exception to what should be the rule.

The country is probably more divided than at any other time and that includes the nation just prior to the Civil War. The Civil War was a war of irreconcilable differences as north and south had two very different visions for the country. So it is now. I hope saner heads prevail, but I confess to not being optimistic. God help us.

I wish to give credit where credit is due although I am fairly well read regarding the American Civil War. Three sources came together to help me form my thoughts for this blog entry. I’ve cited Victor Davis Hansen as the first. The others are the History Channel’s recent three part series on Grant. I highly recommend it. The other is a column by Scott Morefield from Townhall. In the column Morefield documents why Forrest’s bust has not yet been removed from Tennessee’s capitol building (while his statues have come down elsewhere).

History is complicated. It’s important we do not ignore it or erase it.