Victory
White supremacy and fascism has stolen from European antiquity since its inception. Norse rune script, Celtic crosses and knotwork, and in recent years especially, carved marble statues from Greco-Roman and Renaissance cultural centers have each long since been used to symbolize white (European, and by extension a whitewashed version of America) strength, power, Modern neo-nazis will often use these symbols to (as laid out in Umberto Eco's essay "Ur-Fascism") appeal to insecure people who feel lost and without social purpose and identity to harken to a lost and corrupted past. That we were once strong like angry greek man in statue, or big strong Viking that killed for glory and honor (and simultaneously to steal stuff, but who needs details like that getting in the way), or bound by moral virtue like this knight on a horse who gave his life to a monastic cult of militarist zealous who killed white pagans for a living and hasn't seen a Muslim since 1190. Perhaps, even, these fascists will say that we have lost our cultural way, our strength, our place in the sun, that we must restore it to former glory; we must make it great again.
These ideas are entirely fabricated for propaganda, of course. "The West" did not branch out in large scale until the Americas were colonized en masse, and since Alexander and Rome. The Greeks and Romans engaged in homosexuality often, those statues were painted (hence why the figure was brushed with white, literally being whitewashed and constructed to be a symbol of the aesthetically original and superior tastes inherent to suppositions of whiteness), Vikings were mostly seafaring traders who were incredibly multicultural and would meet with African and Arab travelers often, and monastic crusaders were often just as if not more flawed morally than the Saracens they purged from the holy land.
And so, with this piece we have a triumphant Greek hoplite, dome shield and spear in hand, kneeling victoriously on a fasces, the Roman symbol co-opted by the Italian fascist party in the early 20th century, the one currently considered by the ADL as a symbol mostly used by hate groups. This is because it was not the adherence to authority, or the militarism, or the strength and power that colonized the world that made the West great. it was the opposite. It was freedom, it was the ability to criticize what loomed over us, be it church or state. It was thought, it was enlightenment science. It was Voltaire and liberalism, not fear and hatred in pursuit of glory.
The primary issue with the piece was one of practicality. It does not stand without backward support, and its limbs and head would consistently fall or sever from the body. The resulting glue, that may require more and more of itself with every bit of damage it sustains, is decently ugly.
These ideas are entirely fabricated for propaganda, of course. "The West" did not branch out in large scale until the Americas were colonized en masse, and since Alexander and Rome. The Greeks and Romans engaged in homosexuality often, those statues were painted (hence why the figure was brushed with white, literally being whitewashed and constructed to be a symbol of the aesthetically original and superior tastes inherent to suppositions of whiteness), Vikings were mostly seafaring traders who were incredibly multicultural and would meet with African and Arab travelers often, and monastic crusaders were often just as if not more flawed morally than the Saracens they purged from the holy land.
And so, with this piece we have a triumphant Greek hoplite, dome shield and spear in hand, kneeling victoriously on a fasces, the Roman symbol co-opted by the Italian fascist party in the early 20th century, the one currently considered by the ADL as a symbol mostly used by hate groups. This is because it was not the adherence to authority, or the militarism, or the strength and power that colonized the world that made the West great. it was the opposite. It was freedom, it was the ability to criticize what loomed over us, be it church or state. It was thought, it was enlightenment science. It was Voltaire and liberalism, not fear and hatred in pursuit of glory.
The primary issue with the piece was one of practicality. It does not stand without backward support, and its limbs and head would consistently fall or sever from the body. The resulting glue, that may require more and more of itself with every bit of damage it sustains, is decently ugly.