I'm not much of a lover of statues. Not the sculptures themselves but the people who they choose to make statues of. Wherever you go, whichever country to choose, the majority of their statues are of some old, long dead military personnel.
We were over in Cherbourg this week and as you get off the ferry you are greeted by a huge statue of Napoleon sitting on his horse. I may be wrong but wasn't Napoleon just an earlier version of Hitler invading much of Europe and hacking his way around the globe? So what is there for the French to be proud of there?
The Americans put a statue of Ronald Reagan outside the American Embassy a few weeks ago but they paid for it and it is their embassy so they can put anyone they want there, to me Ronald Reagan just makes me think of spitting image and 'the President's brain is missing' sketches. His crime sheet is anything but spotless and nor will his head and shoulders be when the pigeons have their say on what they think.
The problem with having statues of war people is that the country involved is celebrating the slaughter of another people because you can't have a war without another participant and by it's very nature, the victor is the one who inflicts the most damage on the other.
That's why i am glad to hear that we have unveiled a statue of Yuri Gagarin because if we are going to celebrate anyone, it should be people who are genuine heroes who helped mankind, not killed as many as possible of them.
Gagarin, Darwin, Armstrong, Newton, Watt, Fleming, Aristotle, Edison, Shakespeare, Nightingale, Bell and Einstein where all people who made who made enduring contributions to our existence and they should be celebrated front and centre on 40ft high columns, not some Admiral who mowed down Johnny Foreigner a few centuries ago.
And if we have to have some American stood in bronze in our capital, why not someone who did some good like Martin Luther King? Ronald Reagan just makes me think of the 80s and especially that Frankie Goes to Hollywood Two Tribes video.
4 comments:
- aristotle was a capitalist
- edison enabled capitalism
- armstrong and gagarin enabled military satellites
- einstein enabled nuclear war
- bell enabled rupert murdoch
- nightengale enabled combat medicine
q
Chances are, if you've had any sort of significant impact on the world, then your achievements can be linked in linear fashion to unfortunate consequences, as well as positive ones. I'm not sure any of the above should have their sacks ripped over this unfortunate fact...
As for the statue issue, I think we should have at least waited until the deleterious effects of Reaganomics had worn off around the world (should be any century now) before erecting a hagiographic tribute to him in bronze.
Mr Kipling made cakes that were eaten by the infantry in WW2. No statue for that bastard and the Chinese invented paper which Hitler drew his plans upon for the invasion of Poland so none for them either.
It says a lot about American voters that they elected Ronald Reagan in the first place. Twice.
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