As the waters rise, a two-year sentence for throwing soup. That’s the farcical reality of British justice
As the waters rise, a two-year sentence for throwing soup. That’s the farcical reality of British justice | George Monbiot
If the earth is fucked, the art won’t matter anyway. Fossil fuel companies continue to ruin the planet and expensive art is something that only the wealthiest can afford. So I view this like I do BDS: an attack on the things the wealthy need and want (money) because it’s the only attack vector available to the working class. The art is secondary to the message anyway. You don’t have to support the tactics but it helps to understand how we got here and recognize that extreme responses to extremely dire situations are going to become more commonplace as things inevitably get worse.
Also, the art has protective plexiglass over it and soup wipes off.
Because Oligarchs own the world
Art isn't going to matter if noone is alive to look at it.
I bought high altitude land in the hopes that it will eventually become beachfront property. C'mon, climate. Change!
I bought beach front property to sell to Aquaman.
They got sentenced for vandalizing irreplaceable art, not for ‘throwing soup’.
People who damage culturally significant, irreplaceable things to get attention for their cause deserve this kind of punishment or worse. They have the same mindset as the Taliban blowing up cliff carvings. And they lack the intelligence and creativity to bring attention to their cause without destroying things.
Do we need to fix our societies destruction of our own planet’s habitability? Yes without question. This isn’t the way.
They didn't damage it. They did throw soup at it.
Their tactic is also working. You're aware of the event, who they are, what they stand for, and why they did it.
The people who vandalize Ferraris and private jets also get into the news and don’t damage irreplaceable cultural artifacts.
Their lack of success is irrelevant. They tried to damage it.
I was already aware we're destroying the planet. I don't need stupid kids trying to destroy art in a museum to inform me about that.
I come from a hoarding home where everything was important. My approach to preservation is colored through this lens. At some point we either exist solely to preserve artifacts created before us or we learn to let go. Not every Van Gogh or Picasso in a museum’s collection will be put on display and many museums struggle to maintain their hidden collections full of what curators would honestly call junk art of interest to only the most specialized of scholar. Assuming we only keep the “best” samples (that’s another debatable topic) there will be a point when we simply cannot collect any more art or culturally relevant things any more, similar to the eventual trade off between graves and arable land.
Hoarding aside, why are you not arguing to prosecute oil as hard as these folks? The number of indigenous cultural sites across the world destroyed by drilling astronomically outweighs the number of paintings with soup on them. Sure, we can prosecute both, but I don’t see you saying that either.
What defines “irreplaceable art”
A good place to start would be art made by a great artist that can't make it anymore, usually because they are dead.
How much of the earth’s resources are we willing to dedicate to “culturally significant, irreplaceable things”
I don't think the footprint of the world's art museums would even show up on a chart when you consider waste or climate impact.
I'm not arguing to "prosecute oil as hard as these folks" because that's not the discussion we're having. That's just what-about-ism. But since you asked, I think just about every C level in the oil industry should be in prison for the harm they have caused and the coverups they conspired to perpetrate while doing it. That's not relevant to the discussion of 'activists' trying to destroy art to get headlines.
I agree with their message, I completely disagree with the method of delivery.
I like how confidently wrong you are.
I don't really support defacing art either, but at the same time, it's not like the art is gonna matter if the planet burns, is it? The only people who'll still be around to enjoy it are rich people, and they'll probably just ditch it the moment they realize it doesn't have a monetary value anymore due to societal collapse.
So what's the point? Throw soup at art (in Minecraft). Throw grenades at yachts (in Minecraft). None of this will matter soon (in the real world).
it's not like the art is gonna matter if the planet burns, is it?
I mean... You could use this same argument to justify literally anything. After all, it's not gonna matter once the planet burns.
Of course it won't matter if the planet burns. But as a great philospher once said, "until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." Destroying art can't be undone. Throwing hand grenades at yachts would be way better, assuming nobody gets hurt. I still don't condone it (because somebody will get hurt), but nobody is going to give a shit if some asshole's yacht goes to the bottom of the marina.
I'm sorry I didn't realize we were all in the art museum to see the frame.
I agree, people who damage irreplaceable things (for example, our planet) deserve worse.
Pourque no los dos ?
Hey look it’s the corporate shill trying to get our attention away from Real issues!
Fuck those shitheads for vandalizing art.
If you really need attention there are plenty of expensive things without cultural value to future generations.
the art in question was not damaged
is the environment of the earth not of cultural significance to you?
It is and I don't agree with the sentence - way too harsh, especially considering that the art was undamaged.
That said I feel, while there should be some punishment for almost running a work of art for future generations and the ends do not justify the means - it basically feels like the cause (saving the Earth) wasn't taken into account here. Also, the "almost" part wasn't either - they're treating it like these were vandals who successfully destroyed a valuable work of art forever because they were bored.
That's .. ridiculous. Especially compared two the guys who got off with a suspended sentence because they beat up a cop or two for fun.
We had to destroy culture to save it!
How about no.
fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you
Why do you care more about a painting frame and disrupting a day at the gallery than the likely prospect of entire fucking inhabited islands being submerged? Will you hide in an art gallery when millions of refugees are pounding at your door demanding the entirely reasonable right to resettle in the less ravaged land of the climate ravagers?
What have you done to try target oil execs? How much money have you put on the line paying the legal fees of people that target them? Have you risked your safety and freedom in radical protests?
From what position do you criticise them? What do you see as the likely outcome of the future? Do you see people living like you changing that?
Didn't know plexiglass had so much cultural value.
How dare they damage the frame of an artwork and make the curators have to wipe off soup from the protective plexiglas, while leaving the artwork entirely intact?
How dare they throw easily-removed biodegradable cornstarch-based paint onto Stonehenge? Don't these monsters know Stonehenge is made of such fragile stones?
But it potentially could have damaged the lichens which will totally not be affected by climate change!!! Won't someone think of the lichens?!