Rules for Terrorists?

There is a scene in Tim Burton’s 1989 movie “Batman” where Jack Nicholson as the Joker leads his band of merry men on a rampage through the Fluegelheim Art Museum in Gotham City. Suggesting that his henchman broaden their minds, Nicholson orchestrates a parade defacing and destroying the artwork, accompanied by a Prince jam called Partyman. The scene ends with the Joker’s minions throwing buckets of paint onto a series of recognizable masterpieces, including works by Rembrandt and Degas.

I have read several articles calling this one of the best in all the Batman movies. They may be right, because it is the one that stuck with me even after most of this Batman film blended into all the others. I always found the pure random chaos of this sequence extremely disturbing.

This scene came to mind recently when climate activists Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland threw a can of tomato soup across Vincent van Gogh’s iconic “Sunflowers” painting inside the National Gallery in London. Plummer and Holland justified their act as bringing attention to their campaign to obtain a government commitment to end the issuance of licenses and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.

A climate change protest also occurred here in Philadelphia at the halftime of the Penn/Yale game. Roughly 75 students overran Franklin Field protesting their school’s inaction on climate change. The protesters, a campus advocacy group called Fossil Free Penn, wants Penn to divest its holdings in the fossil fuel industry, as well as invest in Philadelphia public schools, and provide aid for families in affordable housing. 

The Penn protestors were apparently channeling another pop culture stalwart, Don McLean’s “American Pie”. Like the marching band in that song, when the players tried to take the field for the second half, the protestors refused to yield. McLean never tells us what happened when the players and band clashed, though having been a band nerd for many years, I would guess it wasn’t pretty. At Penn, the protesters were cuffed, led away and charged with defiant trespass (as opposed to amenable trespass).

To me there is a world of difference between these protests. While both were peaceful, the London defacing of the Van Gogh was a direct attack upon the artistic legacy that helped reframe how we look at the world. The protestors swear that the painting was not permanently damaged, which the museum confirmed. I wish that I could be so confident, but I have had enough cheap tomato soup to think that it could eat through anything (hopefully it wasn’t Campbells, though considering Warhol’s Soup Cans, that may have been fitting).

The London attack echoed not only Batman, but the destruction by the Taliban and ISIS of irreplaceable relics of our past. The obliteration of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in 2001 and the ransacking of the Mesopotamian antiquities in the Mosul Museum were designed to eliminate rivals to the hard line philosophies of these organizations, real or imagined. Presumably, the Sunflowers protestors had no such intent. Yet, in their desire for publicity they risked a similar result.

This goes back to the age-old question of whether the ends justify the means. I am sympathetic to the aims of Plummer and Holland in a way that I could never be to the ugly, narrow religious visions of the Taliban and ISIS, but still my inclination is to turn away in disgust. The message behind their actions was lost in the revulsion engendered by seeing a masterwork defaced.

In contrast, the Penn protest welcomed reflection on the issues raised. Penn is a huge, incredibly wealthy institution in Philadelphia that is exempt from real estate taxes. That is all well and good, but with great benefit comes great responsibility. They should find ways to support the struggling Philadelphia schools that could sorely use the revenue that would be generated by a tax on the Penn holdings. They also need to be cognizant of the implications of expansion on their neighbors. The Penn protest highlighted these issues.

It also brought to the fore institutional complicity in climate change. Since many Penn Professors, such as recently hired Michael Mann, are leaders in the fight on environmental issues, Penn should look at whether its investment policies are contrary to its own faculty research. The football protest raised this issue without causing any damage persons or property. The protestors did not pillage the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archeology or throw hummus on Andrew Wyeth’s Early Morning in the Penn art collection to make their point. To me, it made their protest that much more effective.

I admit that it’s unfair to compare Plummer and Holland to the Taliban and ISIS. They are unlikely to chop off any heads or ban girls from schools. Yet, it’s unclear where they go from here if their National Gallery stunt does not get them the attention they desire. Will they decide that an ultimately harmless act is not enough and actually cause damage? Will they topple Stonehenge or decapitate the Peter Pan statute in Kensington Gardens? Maybe that’s unlikely, but so was the thought of someone throwing Creamy Tomato at Van Gogh.

So, what is my rule for terrorists? Don’t do anything that would convince the rest of us that we would not want to live in a world where you are in charge. I do not trust the judgement of Plummer and Holland, no matter what their intent. On the other hand, the issues raised by Fossil Free Penn deserve consideration, not handcuffs, even if they did delay the second half. I know that looking for rationality from terrorists is absurd, but if the whole point is making a point, then they should step back and think about the message they are sending.