A great paradox of humankind is that a historic building, a cathedral, a museum, something that is admired throughout the world and which required decades to build, can be quickly destroyed by those who have the will to do so. A rainforest ecosystem that develops over hundreds of years to reach maturity can be wiped out in days by an arsonist or a logging crew. A fabulous work of art that took endless hours to create can be destroyed in a moment by the slash of a knife, a burning match, or a vandal’s bucket of paint.

The Bamiyan Buddhas, massive statues carved into Afghan cliffs in the 6th century, survived for nearly 1,500 years before being demolished with explosives by the Taliban in a matter of weeks in 2001. The Old Summer Palace in China, known as Yuanmingyuan, required decades of Qing dynasty imperial architectural mastery. In 1860, its vast art collections were looted and burned over a span of three days during the Second Opium War.

Obsessive Deconstruction in the West

The quintessential struggle for those who wish to maintain and preserve great works of art, history as it actually unfolded, and all other affairs of humankind is that deconstructionists can act boldly and swiftly, often undetected, and damage or irrevocably destroy that which was built by others with great pain, patience, skill, and affection.

Even a family name, personal honor, or corporate trust that required generations of integrity to build can be flattened by a lie or betrayal, not to........

© Townhall