Those Who Honor Evil


Those Who Honor Evil Ignore History

Jonah Goldberg reports that the lovable, sentimental German volk are considering the erection of a brand-new statue of Vladimir Lenin to replace the one toppled when the Wall fell. Goldberg follows with a culturally insensitive reminder that there are probably "still a few old Hitler statues lying around somewhere in Germany."

Last time there was a serious movement to put up a Hitler statue, it was in Uganda under Idi Amin. The Russians threatened to cut off his foreign aid if he followed through with the plan, so it never happened. (Amin is now living happily ever after in -- guess where? -- Saudi Arabia!)

Times change?

Certainly, there is nothing new about defacing the statues and monuments to disgraced tyrants, especially when the tyrants are safely out of the way. We just saw an example in Iraq.

In fact, the defacing of monuments to tyranny has a long and glorious pagan history. Rome had more than its share of bad guy emperors: Nero, Caligula, Commodus, and various lesser-known wannabes. Caligula was so hated, so far off the deep end, that they did more than destroy his statues; they melted down or defaced as many coins as they could find, which makes a decent Caligula coin exceptionally valuable to modern collectors.

As Lord Acton observed "power corrupts," and those who held power in ancient times were no exception. They left valuable warning lessons in the excesses of power, which have been ignored and ignored, century after century.

Commodus, another nutcase emperor, imagined himself to be Hercules, and somehow, a few statues survived as a testament to his monstrous ego (as well as a permanent embarrassment to Rome.)

Behold Commodus in all his vainglorious beauty! All Heil! Note: Before anyone leaps to the usual conclusions, let us not forget the historically discomforting irony that unlike his father, the great Marcus Aurelius, Commodus was a real softie where it came to Christians. That, however, does not automatically render him "good."

Sorry as the Caligula or Commodus chapters in their history were, the Romans never would have considered reviving the cults of their mentally ill emperors. What's with these Germans, anyway? (Maybe we shouldn't be surprised after the horror story uncovered by Glenn Reynolds recently.) Then, there's this.

Haven't they heard the expression, "Fool me once..."? For that matter, haven't we heard it? I mean, here I am, getting all pissed off at the Germans just for being good Germans. Sure, they looked the other way while their fellow citizens died under Hitler, then Stalin, and then after twice being delivered from evil, they still want to kill Jews, and still want to put up statues to bloodthirsty tyrants.

But look at what "good Americans" do to their fellow Americans. I used quotation marks because I still cling to the fiction that here in the United States we have a justice system that works. Why? So I can sleep at night, I guess.

Thank the gods that at least the bloggers are not silent about such atrocities. What would we say to the founding fathers?

posted by Eric on 05.27.03 at 12:09 AM





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