[CPProt.net] Dear MSN subscribers

[Artnose Editor]

Dear Cultural Property Network subscribers,

I have sat quietly for the past 48 hours watching my email tray fill with vitriol and contumely, following my posting of an opinionated item relating to the looting of Iraqi cultural heritage. This was no surprise. After all, if you dish it out, you have to be prepared to accept the consequences. However, I am concerned about the future of the list and for Ton as moderator. The exchanges are generating more heat than light and so I feel a certain obligation to try and put a finger in the dyke.

 

I appreciate that most of the people who expressed deepest outrage, will not be reading this letter, as they have already unsubscribed from the list in protest. If I made an error, it was not in what I wrote, but rather in assuming that the list was a forum for a free exchange of ideas. That said, I have read numerous personal comments and opinions on the Museum Security Mailing List in recent years, on a whole range of topics. But this time it was different, because this time it went (rather bluntly and provocatively, I grant you) to the heart of an issue on which the world was and remains very divided. 

 

I have been vilified for conflating politics with cultural heritage, but what is cultural heritage if not a deeply political issue? The crisis in Iraq illustrates this with shocking clarity. It would seem that neither those American people who are in favour of this war, nor their British counterparts, want to accept that other people might be against the conflict, but in fact the vast majority of people in Europe oppose this war and are appalled at the humanitarian and cultural consequences. However, at least the European mentality is prepared to listen to opposing views. That is why Britain is regarded as one of the most intellectually sophisticated liberal democracies in the world. The greatest struggle of the twentieth century was between democracy and communism. If this kind of intolerance is what results from the triumph of freedom over tyranny, then the future looks bleak indeed.

 

I have no desire to add further fuel to this argument, partly because it appears to have upset too many people already and my intention was not to upset fellow subscribers but to stimulate lively discussion. I have great respect for Americans and their country, if not for current American foreign policy, which I believe to be potentially divisive. Nevertheless I am afraid that if we are unable to be outspoken about matters on which we feel very strongly - and many of us feel very passionately that the current conflict and its aftermath were avoidable - then freedom and democracy are meaningless. It may help, however, if the moderator of the list made it categorically clear whether the list was a legitimate space for comment and opinion (however unpalatable to some), or strictly limited to news and factual postings. I, for one, will desist from posting anything further until this is clarified.

 

Regards

Editor

Artknows 

 

 

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