"When smashing monuments, save the pedestals - they always come in handy"

Stanislaw Lec’s aphorism reminds us of the cyclical nature of ideals and power. By suggesting the preservation of pedestals even as monuments topple, there is an ironic nod to humanity’s tendency to continually seek new icons or leaders to elevate. The monument, in its traditional sense, represents ideals, heroes, or dogmas revered by society. Tearing down such statues is a powerful act of rebellion or societal change, a rejection of values or figures once held sacred. Yet, Lec’s attention shifts to the less obvious, the pedestal that remains.

The pedestal is more than a physical support; it becomes a symbol of the propensity to venerate. When causes, dogmas, or leaders fall out of favor, the underlying societal need for objects of admiration or authority persists. The pedestal’s endurance hints that society may discard yesterday’s heroes, only to search for replacements to fill the void. This cycle reveals a deeper truth about collective psychology: the tendency to oscillate between admiration and iconoclasm, while the structures that enable such reverence are rarely questioned or dismantled.

Lec’s statement carries a subtle admonition. Even as each generation claims to overthrow outdated or oppressive systems, it often leaves untouched the cultural or institutional foundations that allowed those revered figures to rise. The pedestals, ready for another occupant, testify to the resilience of hierarchy and adulation. Rather than true transformation, change often becomes superficial, as new heroes or ideologies ascend where the old have fallen.

There is also a darkly comic undertone in Lec’s metaphor. It points to the futility of supposed revolutions when the impulse to idolize simply shifts its focus. The act of smashing is cathartic, but the readiness to reuse the pedestal suggests that human nature, and thus human society, is fundamentally unchanged, perpetually in need of something, or someone, to place above itself.