Vera Mukhina, THE sculptor behind the worker and kolkhoz woman sculpture, would’ve probably convinced people to keep it purely for artistic value. She allegedly did it with the “Freedom monument” in Latvia, but the Latvian “Freedom” statue is so ugly I wouldn’t have listened.
Melt it down and use the material for a statue that celebrates the working class:
You could turn the supposed values the statue is representing against the State that’s refusing to uphold them. That’s what I would do personally.
It’s a rather morbid sight to have a statue of liberty, in a city where even a single person goes unsheltered and hungry.
I care less about the statue. It’s symbolism can be changed. If we are gonna talk about destroying monuments, they should do what they can to wipe that shit off if Mt. Rushmore.
I grew up near Mt. Rushmore. I loved it when I was a kid. Now I abhor everything about it.
We need the statue of liberty because it’s Chekov’s Giant Rolling Head. Any kind of disaster movie set in New York involves the statue turning into a bowling ball that takes out Wall Street. Turn it into a museum for immigrant justice, make sure the head is welded on very poorly.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever been, but the island the statue is on along with the pedestal itself is fairly small, so you wouldn’t have much space to work with for a museum. The nearby Ellis island already has a large museum dedicated to immigrant justice too, as that’s where immigrants actually transited into the United States, so another museum would be fairly redundant.
did you know that they actually have to scale the statue up sometimes in movies? The makers of Cloverfield initially depicted Liberty’s head at actual size when it rolls through the streets but test audiences didn’t even recognize it because of how small it is IRL. So they made it way bigger. And in X-Men it’s big enough to have a whole fight on top of the head with room to spare lol
It should be even larger than Cloverfield’s. 100% body size, 800% head size, a guillotine looming over the skyscrapers.
Personally although I don’t hold an attachment to it, getting rid of it is more trouble then it’s worth.
Even if a revolution happens in the US, that doesn’t mean the people as a whole are commited ideological socialists. They will largely be politically unaware but supportive of the new revolutionary government, however that doesn’t mean they won’t have any affection for old symbols. Removing lady liberty doesn’t really help the new revolutionary leadership, and could end up Sparking unnecessary reaction in a likely turbulent time.
It’s not as if the Bolshevik’s defaced the famous cathedrals of Moscow and one of the CPCs critiques if the chinese cultural revolution is the destruction of historical artifacts important to Chinese identity.
Now, US memorabilia is different due to its settler colonial nature, however I’d imagine later generations would probably choose to recontexualize it or remove it. I’ve no issue either way, and personally I’d say it should be up to the indigenous communities that descended from the area.
I’d keep it but replace the torch and tablet with a sickle and hammer.
There’s loads of spec-fic and comics etc from both during and after the Cold War about what if the US loses/lost the Cold War illustrated with the Statue of Liberty having the torch replaced with a hammer and sickle or the book she’s holding is changed to be a copy of Quotations from Chairman Mao or whatever. Just do that.
Not the statues fault that its ideals are ignored. I’d keep the SoL, and destroy the monuments dedicated to the historical figures; Washington Monument, Jefferson & Lincoln Memorials, and those dedicated to war leaders. I’d hand over Mount Rushmore to the Lakota tribes to do with as they wish.
We need to leave something for Charleton Heston to find
I’d vote to keep it.
But I probably wouldn’t have a vote, because I’m not a USian and wouldn’t be a voting member of the hypothetical people’s republic, and it’s unlikely that I’d be invited onto a consultative committee to deliberate on what to do with it.
In such a hypothetical setting, though, that statue would be a reminder of the lies USians were told. People could see it as aspirational, a benchmark of progress in their new republic if it finally earned the reputation that that torchbearer claimed.
But any decision to keep it would have to be subject to the approval/veto of minority groups who saw it as a symbol of their oppression.
We wouldn’t have to worry about white supremacists shites seeing it as ‘their’ symbol and a rallying cry, because they’ll all either be in gulags (where they can’t see it) or rotting in ditches (where they can’t think about it).
The context of it being a gift from a colonizer to a settler-colony makes it clear that the “poor/huddled masses” refers to settlers yearning to be free yeomen farmers and she stands beside the “golden door” to stolen land.
I would argue to keep it .It’s historical and iconic. But It’s a symbol of oppression, not liberty. Just change it a wee bit. The local nations should ultimately be the deciding factor though.
I’d keep it, maybe just change the plaque. It’s a bit disappointing how tiny the actual statue is, even T-posing Jesus looks more impressive so I think some smart architect could easily improve it. Make it cool like The Motherland Calls or the African Renaissance Monument.
The solution is simple, you do a public consultation, with particular focus on the people of NYC, with debate and propositions, and what the people feel it’s best is to be done, quite simple in my oppinion. Since to my eyes it’s not an inherently reactionary symbol, so I’d say the people should decide on a post revolutionary NYC
Taking it down costs money and resources that would be better spent elsewhere.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with liberty as a concept, but in this specific context, it’s meant as the liberty of bourgeois colonists
