Thursday, February 23, 2023

The birds certainly won't care.


      The Sun-Times ran a story on Tuesday about how the Chicago Audubon Society is dropping the name of its inspiration, John James Audubon, because the famed artist owned slaves and believed various strands of nonsense that were popular in the early 19th century. They didn't say what the new name will be: The Chicago Bird Lovers Society, maybe. They also urge the national Audubon Society to do the same.
      I'm sincerely conflicted when it comes to this sort of thing. On one hand, times change and we change with them.  Language changes. We don't have asylums for the criminally insane, or schools for poor orphans, or that sort of thing.  Out with the old, in with the new.
     Values change. Blind obedience to authority was once drilled in our children. Now, not so much.
     That said, the idea of purging those morally tainted by residing in the past — it's always low-hanging fruit. They never say, you know, this Jesus Christ, when we tote up all the harm done in his name, geez, it's second only to disease. Let''s shitcan him. Actually, I could get behind that. But no. Instead they go after Audubon, wandering the pristine forests of our nascent country with his boxes of paints and his "Bird of America." It isn't a show of strength, but of weakness. 
      And yet. Why not show a bad man the gate. The Audubon Society, in the second paragraph of their biography of the organization's namesake, unleashes this:
It’s fair to describe John James Audubon as a genius, a pioneer, a fabulist, and a man whose actions reflected a dominant white view of the pursuit of scientific knowledge. His contributions to ornithology, art, and culture are enormous, but he was a complex and troubling character who did despicable things even by the standards of his day. He was contemporaneously and posthumously accused of — and most certainly committed — both academic fraud and plagiarism. But far worse, he enslaved Black people and wrote critically about emancipation. He stole human remains and sent the skulls to a colleague who used them to assert that whites were superior to non-whites.
     So there it is. Obviously the national Audubon Society plans to try to skate by on candor. And there is an argument that being named after Audubon embeds this grim history into their story where it might be found, to the benefit of those who know more bird lore than human history. Join for birds, get a lesson in the loathsome side of early 19th century America. To me, that is a good thing, and the best argument against this kind of makeover. Plus some of those crimes weigh heavier on him than others. Martin Luther King was also a serial plagiarist. Yet he gets by.
     It isn't as if the 435 life-size plates in "Birds of America" are being pushed into a drawer, to strike a tardy blow against their creator. Not yet anyway. Maybe that's next. Revive the idea of degenerate art. You already see it regarding Paul Gauguin. Whitewashing the name is a step in that direction: it seems to me healthier to live with difficult truths, not hide them. But I also get there is honor in naming a society, and John James Audubon has already received honor aplenty. More than he deserves, in realms apart from glorious paintings of birds. 
      

12 comments:

  1. Let's modify Audubon's stature. Remove his name from the organizations and assign it to one species. Rename the Canadian Goose. Call it The Audubon Shitbird. Two birds with one stone.

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  2. So how will we rename Christians?
    I vote for Jew Haters that worship a dead Jew that never even existed!

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    Replies
    1. Gee, Clark St — just when I think you’ve reached a new low, you outdo yourself.
      SandyK

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    2. Neil - My apologies for the delayed posting but upon reading the above attempt at humor by Clark St, I felt the need to respond to the above "joke" at the expense of Catholcism on one of its most holy days. I've read your S-T column for decades and have read the blog since 9 months or so into your first year, I purchase your books (new when I can, used for some of the older writings) and I support your sponsor and enjoy their delicious cheesecakes. I do my aboslute best to support your writing as I find that we're generally of the same mindset and appreciate your ability to voice similarly held beliefs so insightfully and eloquently. I also believe we are of similar ages (62, here) so I feel a sense kindredness being of the same generation and age. I agree wholeheartedly with your stances against authoritarianism and all forms of hate, derision, divisiveness, and exlusion, which I is why i find the above comment so repulsive. I myself, as a person with a disability who has experienced bias, would never harbor any such form of derision regarding race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc,.let alone post it on a public site, because it's disrespectful, insulting, demeaning, damaging and simply wrong. I expect more of this site in the way of inclusivity given your writings, beliefs, attitudes and ideas, and so I respectfully request that the above comment by Clark St. be taken down on the basis of it's abject derision and unquestioned effort to demean in a form of immature, sophomoric humor. Thank you. Jim

      Delete
    3. Neil - My apologies for the delayed posting but upon reading the above at humor by Clark St, I felt the need to respond to the above "joke" at the expense of Catholcism on one of its most holy days. I've read your S-T column for decades and have read the blog since 9 months or so into your first year, I purchase your books (new when I can, used for some of the older writings) and I support your sponsor and enjoy their delicious cheesecakes. I do my aboslute best to support your writing as I find that we're generally of the same mindset and appreciate your ability to voice similarly held beliefs so insightfully and eloquently. I also believe we are of similar ages (62, here) so I feel a sense kindredness being of the same generation and age. I agree wholeheartedly with your stances against authoritarianism and all forms of hate, derision, divisiveness, and exclusion, which is why i find the above comment so repulsive. I myself, as a person with a disability who has experienced bias, would never harbor any such form of derision regarding race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc,.let alone post it on a public site, because it's disrespectful, insulting, demeaning, damaging and simply wrong. I expect more of this site in the way of inclusivity given your writings, beliefs, attitudes and ideas, and so I respectfully request that the above comment by Clark St. be taken down on the basis of it's abject derision and unquestioned effort to demean in an attempt at immature and sophomoric humor. Thank you. Jim

      Delete
  3. Not sure blind obedience to authority is losing ground. As we continue to teach a rosy US history, conveniently omitting some really bad stuff we’ve done, add to that the indoctrination children’s parents are unloading on them and you have a passive form of blind obedience.
    Regarding Audubon, it’s another one of those love the art, not the artist things.

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  4. Whoa, you slammed Jesus! Can't wait to see the religious fartturds get out their pitchforks and torches, tars n feathers, nooses and brass knuckles, and have at you and your temerity.

    Bravo!

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  5. Well, that's not a very friendly way to kick off Lent! An uncharacteristically mean shot at JC, which is pretty much of a non sequitur, as far as I can tell, spicing up a post about a nasty bird aficionado.

    The followers of Audubon are rightfully concerned about some of his own actions and attitudes. I'm not sure exactly what should be done about that situation, myself.

    Why that has anything to do with "all the harm done in his name" by nominal followers of Christ, acting in their own interest and for their own reasons, which had nothing to do with what he preached and which is antithetical to his life and core message (uh, love your neighbor as yourself) seems pretty questionable to me. The relative roles of the founding figures and their followers seem to be flipped.

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  6. Ancient Hebrew school joke:

    Q.) What do Jews call a crucifix?
    A.) A mezuzah with handlebars...

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  7. At this point Audubon is pretty much a generic term for bird lovers, I doubt many people know or care about the actual person. I think we do a dis-service to history by trying to cleanse honorifics like this that come into common usage. Its like IU in Bloomington suddenly realizing that David Starr Jordan had a history as a eugenist in the 1890s and rushing to rename all the campus landmarks bearing his name. Hence the much loved small creek that meanders through campus is no longer Jordan River, but is now College River. John Belushi has won, we’re now all just “college” and “biology building.”

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