The unbearable ease of depoliticization

In her article "The unbearable ease of depoliticization", Sonja Leboš talks mainly about how companies exploit Yugoslavian monuments for profit, using pictures of monuments just for aesthetic purposes with no relation to their meaning and historical background. 

Throughout the text, Leboš focuses on Jan Kempanaers particularly, when talking about the exploitation, and his book called "Spomenik" where he listed pictures of of monuments from all six of former socialistic republics. He was even openly described as 'not interested in the scultural value and history of the monuments, but their aesthetic appearance'. 

However, once you find a golden goose you can't let go of the eggs. Two more books resulted from this: 'Spomeniks: The monuments of Former Yugoslavia: Introduction to the work of Jan Kempnaers' by Willem Jan Neutelings, and 'Spomenkis' by Jonathan Jimenez. Even though these three books are the same, they brought a lot of money, and that is the important part, nothing else really matters. Who cares that those monuments represent the unknown heroes and the people who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their country and our future? 

Like it isn't already bad enough, after the whole drain of money and exploitation, the home countries of these monuments don't even get to take the credit. In the case of Yugoslavia, it is simply said to be "non-existing". An online company called Yunicorns profits sells products as well as a story that "yunicorns are gigantic stone shapes made once upon a time in a non-existing land of Yugoslavia". Doesn't this sound familiar? Yes, it begins like any other fairytale. However, it is not a fairytale, and Yugoslavia is not a fairy land. But the history doesn't sell as much as the made-up story, so it's no good. 

Our world is running towards this capitalistic loop of never ending exploitation of the cultural and historical heritage, and no one is standing against it. If we aren't going to protect our heritage then who is? It is about time we pay a little respect to the things surrounding us and try taking an interest in something because of its own meaning and cultural value, and not just for profit.