To the Editor:Re “In Search of the Lost Altar of Oblivion,” by Linda Kinstler (Opinion guest essay, June 16), about how America is still processing the events of Jan. 6 and other traumas:Like Dr. Kinstler, I too have been unable to find any surviving trace of an “altar of oblivion” at the Acropolis in Athens.
Perhaps the plain answer is that there never was one.
After all, the ancient Athenians were far too smart to erect an architectural contradiction in terms — a memorial to the very act of forgetting.
But forgetting is what oblivion is all about, and oblivion — not for themselves but for inconvenient truths — is what careerist politicians then and now have always craved, eager as they are to sweep embarrassing facts under history’s carpet.
Remembering the Jan. 6 insurrection in all its ugliness, not forgetting it and naïvely moving on, is precisely what America needs if we are to preserve a democracy worth saving.
Persons:
Linda Kinstler, Kinstler, —, Socrates, didn’t
Locations:
America, Athens