Piss Marx (James Lindsay)

As Evan Platinum pointed out on Twitter, Lindsay didn’t even urinate on Marx’s (rather ostentatious) tomb—so, as Taleb might say, no (fore)skin in the game. If you’re going to transgress, at least transgress in actuality and face the consequences—but it was all a narcissistic joke.

I can’t say I haven’t contemplated similar activities myself—I’ve contemplated sex in a graveyard, on a tombstone. However, I decided it was a bit too much (not to mention they put CCTV everywhere today)—although, on reflection, I don’t think it is disrespectful (so long as you ask permission from the tomb first, then you can imbibe their energy—put it in a baby, perhaps). Yet to piss on a grave…yes, it’s an expression but for me that’s just beyond redemption (and also very petty—let the dead bury the dead).

It shows Lindsay isn’t a “conservative” because for a genuine conservative this action is unthinkable. Can you imagine Scruton ever contemplating such a thing? To violate the sanctity of a tomb (even as a joke)? For a man like Scruton, this would be “what the Bolsheviks do”—digging up nuns and shooting them. It’s not honourable, it’s not Christian, it’s not…it’s just not done.

You don’t even need to have a conservative philosophy to find it distasteful—any neurotic or agreeable (aka “nice”) person would find it too much, “just mean” and “crude”.

The other point is that it is not dangerous at all. Here’s a dangerous proposal for you: do the same at the grave of Martin Luther King (even without the actual piss)—no, really. Marxism is a dead ideology—it’s not like the Soviet Embassy will issue a communiqué against the “fascist imperialist gangster Lindsay and his outrages in London”. Nobody cares, at least in the sense they care about the “image of the Prophet”—not in the sense you can be an iconoclast, assassinated for it (like Rushdie).

It’s easy to be against Marxism—it’s hard to be against LGBT and BLM, against “living religions” (and their saints). So I’ll respect Lindsay when I see his actual piss on the grave of Martin Luther King, George Floyd, or Harvey Milk—that would be transgressive, real, and with genuine consequences (which Lindsay could practice taking responsibility for—as conservatives always advise).

Men like Lindsay love to fight yesterday’s war—against Marxism, an idea that vanished over 30 years ago; and there’s no risk in that (they’re cowards)—but, you know, there are still plenty of murals of George Floyd people care about…