The Georgia Guidestones are no more. After surviving random incidents of vandalism for many years, at 4am this morning an explosive device was detonated by as-yet unknown individuals, completely shattering one of the four main pillars of the modern megalithic monument. And due to the significant amount of structural damage this caused, since then officials have now levelled the rest of the stones as well.
Barely a month ago, I wrote about the enduring ability of the Georgia Guidestones to terrify conspiracy theorists, after a Republican Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Kandiss Taylor, made the demolition of the monument – which she claimed was ‘Satanic’ – one of her leading campaign promises.
This position will no doubt put some focus on Taylor for possibly instigating the incident. However, the list of possible perpetrators would be a long one: while the Guidestones were certainly reviled by the burgeoning right-wing/Christian conspiracy crowd, revelations in recent years that the original mystery architect (pseudonymously known as ‘R.C. Christian’) was almost certainly one Herbert Kersten, a Republican supporter with an alleged history of racist remarks, and support for former KKK leader David Duke and the eugenicist views of Nobel Prize-winning physicist William Shockley, could perhaps just as easily have made the monument a target of left-wing activists.
Personally, the destruction of the Georgia Guidestones saddens me. While the man behind them seems to have held some particularly odious views, for the most part the monument itself had a positive message of living in harmony with nature (Kersten was, surprisingly, also an ardent conservationist…he might perhaps be seen as an early ‘eco-fascist’) and not screwing things up the next time around, if humanity survives any future apocalyptic event. On the flip-side, the Guidestones did contain some hints of his more awful views – the instruction ‘Guide reproduction wisely, improving fitness and diversity’ sits rather uncomfortably once one is aware of his alleged eugenicist leanings.
No doubt too, the fact that the Georgia Guidestones incorporated archaeoastronomical principles and appears to have been inspired by Masonic myths (see my article ‘Beyond the Apocalypse: The true message of the Georgia Guidestones‘ for a full explanation) made the Guidestones a fascinating creation for me personally. It was in many ways a modern work of art, inspired by ancient principles and myths.
It was also a work that took skilled craftmanship by those commissioned to create, from its construction through to the sandblasted engravings upon them – a source of much pride to a number of families in the area who had been involved in its creation, who will no doubt be devastated to see this act of vandalism destroying that legacy.
From what I have seen on social media though, there is widespread celebrating about the Guidestones’ demolition by braindead conspiracy theorists and Fundamentalist Christians who wrongly believe the monument to be ‘Satanic’ (there’s some serious irony in the fact that it was apparently created by a racist Republican). Others with more tempered views might still see the demolition of the stones as overall perhaps the best thing that could have happened, in light of the archaic racist views of the man behind them.
Either way, the Georgia Guidestones are gone.
