It’s been a funny eight hours, for certain. About lunchtime today, just before the creeping dread of knowing you’ve much work to do and not much time left, came some news that added an additional spanner to the day. Let’s summarise it simply.
Just Stop Oil paint Stonehenge orange.
It’s outlandish to read or say it, and that’s the whole point. They achieved what they wanted. Picking a high profile target and spraying it with orange cornstarch paint, at a time of year that’s most relevant to it and celebrated. Worldwide chatter and media coverage, guaranteed..
For shock value, they hit the motherlode with an attack on an internationally recognised cultural icon. There was the expected wave of outrage and anger, but perhaps more intensified this time round.
I was caught up in it too. The general consensus is that people are pretty pissed off at the activist group for this stunt, right across the board. Look past the usual culture wars chatter and it’s there.
The reason I was angry mirrored that of others giving their two-pence on the matter. Historic, symbolic, cultural and spiritual. An attack on the monument feels like an attack on us all.
Within my peers, the concern of damage to ancient lichen growing on the stones was a focal point, along with the potential for further restrictions to the site. Visiting Stonehenge may be a guided-on-rails experience, but this, and other Neolithic sites across the country are always under threat from vandalism, despite protection in law. The more such attacks and damage occurs, the greater the likeliness of the public being denied access to a site, partial if not all.
People hold such sites like Stonehenge in regard for a number of reasons. The earliest evidence of civilisation, as faded and precious as the past. History you can walk amongst and touch (although to do so at Stonehenge will cost you extra). A portal to escape the pressures of everyday life for just a moment, only to be rudely dragged back into the maelstrom of the ever-present online howl, kicking and screaming.
For the spiritual, it’s an attack on their beliefs or something which they feel to be an intrinsic part of them. The timing, on the evening of the Summer Solstice is intentional. Rather than bringing the public to their fight, they’re fighting the public.
As one of the few mysteries we hope to remain sacrosanct, to be reminded that others can defile it on a whim is a matter of great concern to all.
Stone Diaries 