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Vandalism is the conspicuous defacement or destruction of a structure or symbol against the will of the owner/governing body. Historically, it has been justified by painter Gustave Courbet as destruction of monuments symbolizing "war and conquest". Therefore, it can be done as an expression of contempt, creativity, or both. Vandalism only makes sense in a culture that recognizes history and archeology. Like other similar terms (Barbarian/barbary, and Philistine), the term Vandal was originally an ethnic slur referring to the Vandals, who sacked Rome in 455, but unlike the Berbers, the Vandals, like the Philistines, no longer exist as an identifiable ethnic group.

The term was coined in January 1794 during the French Revolution, by Henri Grégoire, constitutional bishop of Blois, in his report directed to the Republican Convention, where he used word Vandalisme to describe some aspects of the behaviour of the republican army. Gustave Courbet's attempt, during the 1871 Paris Commune, to dismantle the Vendôme column, a symbol of the past Napoleon III authoritarian Empire, was one of the most celebrated events of vandalism. Nietzsche himself would meditate after the Commune on the "fight against culture", taking as example the intentional burning of the Tuileries Palace on May 23, 1871. "The criminal fight against culture is only the reverse side of a criminal culture" wrote Klossowski after quoting Nietzsche .

Official vandalism

Throughout history, the ritual destruction of monuments of a previous government or power has been one of the largest symbols showing the attempt at transition of power. In Rome damnatio memoriae ("damnation of his memory") was normally expressed by erasing the name of the hated individual from inscriptions and removing or replacing statues or replacing just their heads after their death and subsequent disgrace. Damnatio memoriae was effected after their death by the rivals and heirs of Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Commodus and Elagabulus. After the Emperor Caracalla had his co-Emperor Geta assassinated, all depictions or references to Geta were systematically destroyed as part of a damnatio memoriae. Faces and genitals of surviving Greek and Roman sculpture often show how they have been systematically attacked. In palimpsests, text has been washed off parchment that have been overwritten with new text; the existence of effaced manuscripts that were not subsequently overwritten reveals an element of vandalism in this process.

In Egypt, the return of the priests of Amun to power after the religious innovations of Akhenaten was accompanied by desecration of the pharaoh's tomb and the ritual obliteration of his image from temple reliefs and inscriptions - this is official vandalism.

Recent cases of vandalism in this vein include the toppling and destruction of Soviet monuments after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Taliban destruction of Buddhist statuary in Afghanistan, and the well-known toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue by the multinational force in Iraq. In a country with an unpopular dictator, vandalism of the leader's portraits and other elements of his personality cult can be a common form of dissent.

Vandalism of Jewish properties and Jewish-owned businesses was part of the Nazi program, surfacing in the widespread, coordinated vandalism of Kristallnacht the night of November 9 – 10, 1938, when shopwindows were smashed all over Nazi Germany.

Notes

• See Pierre Klossowski, Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle, first Chapter: What is the value of culture if those who are exploited by it destroy it? "En sorte qu'il nous faut être bien loin de vouloir, du haut de notre sentiment de nous-mêmes, imputer le crime d'un combat contre la culture exclusivement à ces malheureux. Je sais ce que cela veut dire: le combat contre la culture. (...) je me campronnai avec une conviction sérieuse à la valeur métaphysique de l'art, lequel ne saurait exister à cause des pauvres gens, mais doit accomplir des missions plus hautes. Mais, en dépit de mon extrême douleur, je n'étais pas en état de jeter la moindre pierre à ces profanateurs qui, pour moi, n'étaient que les suppôts de la culpabilité universelle, sur laquelle il ya beaucoup à méditer!" (Nietzsche quoted by Klossowski pp.29-30 French edition, who adds: "Le combat criminel contre la culture n'est lui-même que l'envers d'une culture criminelle" ("The criminal fight against culture is only the reverse side of a criminal culture")

See also

• Iconoclasm
• Wiki vandalism

External links

• Graffiti.org
• Vandal Tees - Vandalism inspired t-shirts

• Crimes