The Utah Monolith and American Guilt Syndrome – AGS

What follows represents my opinions and thoughts. I recently learned about the Utah Monolith. It is a striking bit of modern art mixed with a message to the future. Much like the petroglyphs that surround it, it speaks to people. It’s discovery caused quite a stir and, resulted in chaos, news stories and hype. We’ll be talking about American Guilt Syndrome in conjunction with the monolith in this article as part of this subject. AGS is a mental condition directly associated with the sculpture and anything like it which dares to exist in modern times outside of societal norms and expectations.

So it is predictable that people reacted in strange ways to it’s presence in the desert country of Utah. This piece of modern art was discovered in late 2020.

I must correct the “present” terminology with the regard to the Monolith. It WAS a striking piece of modern message-making to the future. It was removed by a band of people whose motivations remain as indecipherable as they are nutty. We’ll get that that band of art destroying thugs later.

Once such things become known to the Internet at large, out come the fruitcakes and publicity seekers. The band of people who arrived later in November who took the monolith down did so under the notion they were protecting the environment. They actually seem rather proud of themselves.

Of course, they videotaped their act of destruction and justified it. One wonders who actually sent them out to destroy this piece of art.

The monolith’s legacy upon it’s discovery saw the outpouring of the typical messaging the left and it’s academics like to push whenever any trace of modern humans is seen on “public land”. I have invented a term for this behavior by these people. I call it “American-Guilt Syndrome” or “AGS”.

What is AGS? It is the argument from the powers-that-be that Americans should feel GUILTY for their existence. And as part of that guilt, no American should NEVER leave a trace of modern existence on Earth because OUR PRESENCE is something to be shameful for. AGS thought process is at the very heart of thousands of government regulations and a core tenet of university teaching.

Returning to what happened as a result of the discovery of the Monolith:  The monolith was eventually given to a government agency in Utah after the publicity given to the destroyers of the monolith was fading and this act represented the final crowning glory of their war on the Monolith. I can only guess the agencies behind the destruction of it were celebrating it’s death in private.

The insanity of the human-condition never ceases to amaze me.

That monument did NOTHING but exist. Just like the petroglyphs before it. The only damage caused to the environment was the destruction of the monolith by these people whose motivations were as nutty as they were tragic.

The monolith had stood for months without being discovered until a team surveying sheep in the area spotted the structure from the air. It likely made it’s appearance in July or August of 2020. So it stood quietly for months causing NO issues in the environment in and of itself, other than the small hole in the ground that it stood within. That was all that remained in late November of 2020.

That small hole in the ground was the “crime” according to the AGS crowd. Sigh.

I’m certain the AGS sufferers are likely screaming their heads off over the hole’s existence. Perhaps they’ll mix sandstone in a slurry form to cover up the hole to “heal” the land and conduct ceremonies to “apologize” to Gaia the Earth Mother.

Modern governments have embraced AGS with reckless abandon. The people who make up these local, state and federal agencies completely buy into the central tenets of AGS with the notion that ANY trace of humanity expressing itself on the land needs to be stamped out, shamed and forcibly removed from the environment.

Yes… these people have not engaged in critical-thought. Perhaps they’ve NEVER stopped to consider their position they’ve engaged in. Or perhaps they have and are fully aware of the agenda at work.

After all, the ancient cultures who left their mark on the land engaged in the very things that modern agencies and organizations rail against.

The Utah Department of Heritage & Arts  is representative of this AGS mindset. Their statement regarding the Monolith reflects the bias towards anything modern being on public lands. They released this statement on the Monolith on Twitter:

---

The #UtahMonolith has prompted discussions about public art and inspired people to visit the site, despite efforts to keep it secret. Our department includes @UT_Indian @UTHistory @UtahArtsMuseums, and we want to raise a couple of important points. […]

First, debates about #UtahMonolith as artistic statement shouldn’t equate it with rock art. This piece is a contemporary statement. Ancient petroglyphs, pictographs, and rock art are protected archaeological treasures with established cultural and historical significance.

While curiosity is understandable, we discourage visiting the monolith. Along with safety concerns, increased crowds threaten the archaeological resources in the area. Unintentional damage is still damage.

If you still choose to visit, please do not damage any rock art and don’t gather archaeological items such as arrowheads. Leave the area as undisturbed as possible.

Finally, while the monolith has better craftsmanship than graffiti, this is still vandalism. It irreversibly altered the natural environment on public lands. While the monolith is interesting, we cannot condone vandalism of any type.

Utah Department of Heritage & Arts (28 November 2020)

---

So this is the determination of their department eh? Vandalism?

By AGS and the U.S. government standards, even the Egpytian Obelisks, the ancient equivalent of the Utah Monolith, are equally a form of Vandalism.

Perhaps the ancient Egyptians could be accused of acts of vandalism for their creation of ancient versions of the Utah Monolith?

Perhaps the mound-builders in ancient America were also vandals?

After all, they defaced the environment and caused “irreparable harm” by expressing themselves. Those sods! What a pack of ingrates! How DARE they leave a message to the future in their art and monuments!

I love the dual-message in this press-release. They call it art, but because of their slavish dedication to AGS, they HAD to follow their university AGS indoctrination mindset… I find it humorous that one can clearly see their confusion on how to respond to this so prominently in the press-release.

The statement that the “#UtahMonolith as artistic statement shouldn’t equate it with rock art” is also notable. Metal is a form of mineral and a component of rock. This is the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts escape valve to justify their position. Evidently there is some mystical quality of modern materials that invalidates their use in artistic expressions on public land.

I wonder if the tribes who created the petroglyphs, had they been modern people, would have had their messages to the future which we now enjoy called “vandalism” by this department. After all, the rocker carvers “irreversibly altered the natural environment on public lands“.

Discovery of the Monolith in November 2020

So, my message to the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts is that you should be going after the Petrogylph-makers, mound builders and ancient Egyptians if you are so determined to prevent ANY sort of human alteration of the environment. After all, how DARE these people leave messages to the future about what they felt and wanted to share with us here in the present!

The Utah Department of Heritage and Arts speaks about heritage and treasures on one side of it’s mouth while excoriating the presence of a  modern equivalent of a petroglyph out the other side of it’s mouth. The hypocrisy is so evident as to be laughable.

The Man-Apes discover the monolith in their territory

Could it be that the appearance of the monolith in terrain that closely matches that of the classic film 2001 A Space Oddysey was a direct test and social commentary by an artist and social commentator? The reaction of the governments, agencies and people who destroyed the Utah Monolith closely matches the ape reaction to the TMA-1 monolith in my opinion. I’d say that all involved were seriously punked by someone who knows Humanity very well indeed.

It strikes me that AGS is such a common mindset now in government and academic thinking that these people adopt it without considering the hypocrisy of their position. Public policy is guided by AGS and we’re all the victims of it now.

TMA-1 – The Sci-Fi “Tycho Magnetic Anomaly” that was a central feature of Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001, A Space Odyssey” – Even science fiction speaks of leaving messages to the future in rock form. This is a replica of the monolith from the story.

The sad thing is that there is no modern program to allow various groups like American Indians, or… dare I say it, ORDINARY AMERICANS, to leave messages in rock to our descendants. Of course, if there was a program for this, it would be so rife with regulation, political correctness and outright hostility that it is no wonder people are doing this on their own to go around the filters of government and the elites.

The American Indians did think about the future and wanted to insure we knew what they were thinking. Rock was the only real canvas they had to share their messages. And, despite modern technology, rock (and now metals and quartz) remains the only viable means of passing on important messages over thousands or even millions of years.

The beauty of this monolith is that more people are well aware of the hypocrisy of AGS now. And many copies of the monolith are appearing all over the place. The governments affected are predictably screaming their collective AGS-dedicated heads off and we’ll see more destruction of modern messaging to the future rather than to find a middle road that allows for thoughtful placement of messages to our descendants out in the world.

AGS is endemic in our society now. It’s time to get over the “crime of existing” and guilt being peddled to the public by people who don’t even stop to consider their hypocrisy and flawed beliefs.

Video of the removal of the monolith by new vandals. The news, of course, gave them plenty of media attention and praise. The name of the art destroyer? Sylvan Christensen. This guy (my opinion of course!) is actually PROUD of his actions of art destruction. He’s everything one can expect from an eco-loon. Entitled. Self-righteous and KNOWS what is best for everyone else. And he parachutes onto the earth causing damage to plants and irrevocably altering the environment (to use the language of his friends) with every single outdoor act he commits. There, now HE can wear the labels he so willingly heaps on others with his friends. Let’s see how HE likes it. One word for artists… Keep your art away from this guy… He’ll destroy it.

The removal of the monolith is shown above. The band of people that did this had not one bit of concern shown to the artist(s) who created it, nor did they consult with the authorities. Of course, neither did the artist who created the piece, but this act of further destruction just highlighted the way the Left reacts to anything it doesn’t like.

It destroys what it perceives as a threat and cares not what others think.

They “decided” for the rest of us. And the news was right there giving them the attention they wanted.

A SMART move would have been for the piece to be heavily photographed in place and the monolith moved to a public display for everyone to enjoy. That would be been a great outcome. But NOOOOOOOO… That would have made too much sense.

Instead… we get Leftist art desecration on full display in the press, egged on by those whose sensibilities and control of the land were threatened.

The only winners were the control-freaks and eco-hysterics. The man who organized the removal of the Monolith found himself squarely in the public eye of disapproval in December of 2020 and hastily gave the piece to the Bureau of Land Management to find a new home for it. He had it in his back yard for some time before the public pressure became too much.

I tend to think he had the shock of his life when he found out just how many people he angered. The old statement of “Think before you act” comes to mind.

What the Monolith REALLY was!

The Artist who designed and installed the monolith gave it to the American People. That was the intent behind it by my estimation.

WE OWN THAT MONUMENT. Not the eco-freaks and the leftists who hated it. It was STOLEN. Period. And now it sits in a warehouse or potentially a landfill, almost forgotten… but not quite. Many other copies of the Utah Monument live on in defiance of the desecration of the original.

It’s for reasons like this my love of my fellow Americans remains intact. We’re not given to being ordered around by leftist control-freaks and their agenda. Even the New York Times, not especially known for it’s objective reporting, crafted an article on how to build a monolith!

The Utah Monolith was a statement of our civilization to the future people who we have yet to speak to. It’s form, geometry and metallic makeup would have seen it stand for hundreds of years before it would have been destroyed by time and the elements. Imagine if it was made of solid metal! It would have stood for thousands of years!

Imagine the impact it would have made to people two thousand years in the future! It’s destruction at the hands of ignorant eco-goons highlighted the insanity of governments, educational institutions and ordinary people whose responses to anything novel that violates their “sensibility” results in the celebrated destruction of art like the Monolith.

These hard-wired concepts like American Guilt Syndrome are drilled into populations minds by media, elites and propagandists more interested in control than in allowing for something beautiful and heartfelt to be in the world.

This entire shameful episode is sad commentary on the kind of people who immediately set out to destroy the Monolith and who control policies that affect us all.

We can and SHOULD leave messages to the future, in rock, metal and structures that will stand the test of time. It is my hope that you as a reader DO take this as a constructive argument and that some way can be found to address this legitimate need to speak to our descendants in a sensible and constructive way.

Rest In Peace Utah Monolith! — Original image taken by Patrick A. Mackie

Build your own? Here’s a video on how it can be done.