Posted on 22-05-2008

What sort of person vandalises Stonehenge?

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I just couldn’t believe it when I read it; two men have been caught chipping fragments from the Heel Stone at Stonehenge. The BBC refers to them as both vandals and “souvenir hunters,” and, while I suspect it’s technically true, I can’t help feeling that the second term lends an undeserved air of legitimacy to what they did. Let’s be clear about this; there is no excuse for their actions. They thought it was acceptable behaviour to damage a beloved and fascinating national treasure, which belongs to us all, in order to claim exclusive ownership of a tiny fragment of it. They’re scum, pure and simple.

What sort of person vandalises Stonehenge? by I Wish I Knew, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.

1 Comment

  1. Not the Messiah on 22.05.2008 at 18:45 (Reply)

    I shared the same feeling of outraged disbelief on hearing this, which is why I found this revelation so interesting:

    “English Heritage said souvenir hunting was once a legitimate practice and chisels used to be handed out to people visiting the stones.” It’s hard to even contemplate the mindset of people to whom that seemed perfectly acceptable.

    Alongside modern attitudes to slavery, whaling, imperialism and other once acceptable (and even laudable) phenomena, it’s a perfect illustration of how our ethical and moral sensibilities evolve over time.

    Which of course (as wiser men than me have pointed out), serves to highlight the folly of trying to derive moral guidance from bronze-age scripture. B.

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