Steyn on Monuments
This article by Mark Steyn is too good to pass without comment. He hooks together three monuments:
- Trafalgar Square is one of the best-known places in Britain. It has fountains, a tower, and three statues of great leaders in British history: two generals and a king. There’s a fourth plinth, or pedestal for a statue, but it has been empty since 1841—until just over a year ago, when London’s Mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone unveiled a new statue on it. Alongside the generals and other symbols of Britain’s glorious history, they now have a statue of an armless naked pregnant woman of no particular distinction (beyond her disability) named Alison Lapper. Says Ms. Lapper on her rarely updated web site: “It makes a powerful statement about where we are trying to go in the 21st century – a future with truly equal opportunities for all.” Sadly for Britain, she’s probably right, at least until they get Sharia. She probably does represent Britain’s future.
- In Arizona the state has built an official 9/11 memorial in which are inscribed various statements, many of which are pacifistic or anti-American.
- And in Paris the French government has commemorated the event that sparked the ferocious riots just over a year ago: Two boys running from police decided to hide in an electrical sub-station and were electrocuted. Now they have a monument, too.
You should read the whole thing, but if you absolutely don’t have time, here’s the close:
America, Britain and France are not peripheral members of the developed world but its heart. They’re the west’s three permanent representatives on the Security Council, the three nuclear powers. But if these monuments truly represent the spirit of each nation as those monuments to Nelson and Napier did in their day then you would have to be an unusually optimistic sort to bet on the long-term prospects of all three countries. The poseur diversity of Trafalgar Square slips easily into the self-loathing of Arizona, and from there it’s but a short step to the open appeasement in Clichy-sous-Bois. If you seek our monument, look around: We cannot state who we are, what we believe, why we fight.