Swedes Recycle Their History as Scrap

[SuburbanFarmer]

We destroy our historic sites in the U.S. all the time. The government doesn't stop it. I don't see any 'patriots' showing up here to prevent the teardown of a colonial era tavern where an early minuteman militia was formed. I can walk down the block and look at the shell of a mid 18th century house where Washington actually did sleep, everything of value stripped and sold by a guy whose ancestors were in Germany when it was built.

That's a shame too. I admit though, that it doesn't have the same impact as sites that may be a millenia old or so.
Those things should always be preserved when possible, regardless of immediate development 'needs'.

[DBTrek]

That's a shame too. I admit though, that it doesn't have the same impact as sites that may be a millenia old or so.
Those things should always be preserved when possible, regardless of immediate development 'needs'.

Right . . . I mean, look how well that's working out for the Confederacy.

[SuburbanFarmer]

That's a shame too. I admit though, that it doesn't have the same impact as sites that may be a millenia old or so.
Those things should always be preserved when possible, regardless of immediate development 'needs'.

Right . . . I mean, look how well that's working out for the Confederacy.

For the record, I'm against tearing down Confederate monuments/historical sites.

[MilSpecs]

It doesn't have the same impact but it still breaks my heart to see it. It just gets worse here as we move back in time. There is barely a trace left of our origins here.

[MilSpecs]

For the record, I'm against tearing down Confederate monuments/historical sites.

I'm of mixed feelings. It's one thing to recognize the history or the artistry, but another to celebrate it. There's a shed down the street on my friend's property. A child slave lived in it. She didn't tear it down but it stands in disuse so people can recognize the inhumanity of what we did to a small child.

[BjornP]

It's true.

The problem is with the museums. They only accept conserved items now. I blame the politically motivated meddling in museum mission statements. They are now to focus more on "education and compelling storytelling" and less on collecting stuff. You can guess what kind of stories the leftists in charge wants to be told. It needs to be stopped. The linked Op-Ed is a good example of the push back that is under way. The minister in charge is from the Green party. They are the most culturally marxist of them all.

Don't the museums handle the conservation process themselves, then? How are/can politicians be meddling in that? It's common sense that a museum should not simply take artifacts directly from the ground, dust them off abit and then put them on a shelf in a non-climate controlled, non-moisture controlled storage facility. At worst it will mean the artifacts decay faster than they'd do laying in the ground, at best they decay at the same rate. No point in collecting something only to let it rot on a shelf.

Destroying historical artifacts also occurs in Danish museums, and has been become more of an issue lately, but it's limited to incredibly common, usually late modern (18th cent onwards) artifacts. Not ancient or even medieval artifacts, or artifacts with a well-established provenence. As recently as twenty years ago, alot of local yet state/municaply-funded museums didn't have any sort of admittance policy of artifacts. If a family was cleaning their garage or attic and found some old plates, clothes irons or broken dolls.... they brought that down to the local museum. That's what gets trashed today mostly. Today, if someone comes in with an early 20th century clothes iron, or one of those billions of stone age daggers or axes we got, we simply tell them to keep it.

The idea of destroying unique historical artifacts, particularly ancient metalwork like the one in the picture, would not be considered defensible. It's not neccesarily sign of leftist, cultural self-hate, though. The Liberal-Conservative/Neo-Liberal government we have today declared a massive spending cut on all of the Danish museums, including historical museums and archives. They're focused on making museums more "profitable", as in rewarding museums by how many tickets they can sell each year. Has meant cutting costs for research work by the museums' archaeologists and historians. While admittance strategies did need to change, destruction of exiting artifacts, even if they're just granny's old clothes iron, is new with the change to a more Liberal (classical and neo-) government.

[Hastur]

It's true.

The problem is with the museums. They only accept conserved items now. I blame the politically motivated meddling in museum mission statements. They are now to focus more on "education and compelling storytelling" and less on collecting stuff. You can guess what kind of stories the leftists in charge wants to be told. It needs to be stopped. The linked Op-Ed is a good example of the push back that is under way. The minister in charge is from the Green party. They are the most culturally marxist of them all.

Don't the museums handle the conservation process themselves, then? How are/can politicians be meddling in that? It's common sense that a museum should not simply take artifacts directly from the ground, dust them off abit and then put them on a shelf in a non-climate controlled, non-moisture controlled storage facility. At worst it will mean the artifacts decay faster than they'd do laying in the ground, at best they decay at the same rate. No point in collecting something only to let it rot on a shelf.

Destroying historical artifacts also occurs in Danish museums, and has been become more of an issue lately, but it's limited to incredibly common, usually late modern (18th cent onwards) artifacts. Not ancient or even medieval artifacts, or artifacts with a well-established provenence. As recently as twenty years ago, alot of local yet state/municaply-funded museums didn't have any sort of admittance policy of artifacts. If a family was cleaning their garage or attic and found some old plates, clothes irons or broken dolls.... they brought that down to the local museum. That's what gets trashed today mostly. Today, if someone comes in with an early 20th century clothes iron, or one of those billions of stone age daggers or axes we got, we simply tell them to keep it.

The idea of destroying unique historical artifacts, particularly ancient metalwork like the one in the picture, would not be considered defensible. It's not neccesarily sign of leftist, cultural self-hate, though. The Liberal-Conservative/Neo-Liberal government we have today declared a massive spending cut on all of the Danish museums, including historical museums and archives. They're focused on making museums more "profitable", as in rewarding museums by how many tickets they can sell each year. Has meant cutting costs for research work by the museums' archaeologists and historians. While admittance strategies did need to change, destruction of exiting artifacts, even if they're just granny's old clothes iron, is new with the change to a more Liberal (classical and neo-) government.

The museums are under the ministry of culture. Their independence is being limited. For example Some very important museums are proposed to being merged and they are expected to reduce their collections in the process.
To a cultural Marxist these material items are incconsiquential. All knowledge is relative so material evidence is just dust. Have the historical museum do an exhibit about gender roles in the Viking age and the military museum do one about being a woman in Gustavus Adolphus army and do both with multimedia and paper standup dolls. That's what it's down to now. Fucking disgrace.

[BjornP]

The museums are under the ministry of culture. Their independence is being limited. For example Some very important museums are proposed to being merged and they are expected to reduce their collections in the process.
To a cultural Marxist these material items are incconsiquential. All knowledge is relative so material evidence is just dust. Have the historical museum do an exhibit about gender roles in the Viking age and the military museum do one about being a woman in Gustavus Adolphus army and do both with multimedia and paper standup dolls. That's what it's down to now. Fucking disgrace.

I was more interested to which extent conservator-restoration as a field and in the institutional sense was subject to political interference, and if it wasn't the museums responsible for the education of conservator-restorers. Looking it up on google, it appears it is. I was wondering if politicians had say over the types of historical artifacts, and which historical subjects museums and their staff (archaeologists, historians, conservators, etc.) get to work with.

I find it very hard to believe that your ministry of culture micro-manages the conservation strategies of your historical museums based on political compliance with gender studies-thinking, especially given the fact that a greater mass of historical artifacts, coupled with textual sources, would provide them with more sources for that gender history they might want. I can almost believe if they want to cut costs of preservation techniques due to some sort of extreme reading of post-modernism, but even the OP story doesn't say preservation is cut entirely of the culture ministry's budget, do they?

Btw, I can't really imagine what a so-called "Cultural Marxist" historian would look like. It's like imagining a "Cultural Marxist" cop doing policework.

[SuburbanFarmer]

For the record, I'm against tearing down Confederate monuments/historical sites.

I'm of mixed feelings. It's one thing to recognize the history or the artistry, but another to celebrate it. There's a shed down the street on my friend's property. A child slave lived in it. She didn't tear it down but it stands in disuse so people can recognize the inhumanity of what we did to a small child.

Not we. Somebody did, but not we.

[BjornP]

For the record, I'm against tearing down Confederate monuments/historical sites.

I'm of mixed feelings. It's one thing to recognize the history or the artistry, but another to celebrate it. There's a shed down the street on my friend's property. A child slave lived in it. She didn't tear it down but it stands in disuse so people can recognize the inhumanity of what we did to a small child.

Not we. Somebody did, but not we.

Truth.

Guilt by association doesn't become any less dumb by being pointed at oneself. Unless you want to bring back ancient blood feuding, MilSpecs, I suggest not assigning for yourself responsibility for your ancestor's actions.