Thursday, September 26, 2013

Enemies of Monarchy, Heroes of Modernity

I sometimes find it depressing how in so many countries, even non-Communist ones, men I despise are widely and even officially revered:

United States:
Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), and other "Founding Fathers"
France: the leaders of the French Revolution in general, though it's interesting that no individual is really singled out
Poland: Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817)
Hungary: Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894)
Mexico: Benito Juarez (1806-1872)
Italy: Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)
Czech Republic (whose very name is offensive):
Tomáš Masaryk (1850-1937), Edvard Beneš (1884-1948)
Greece:
Eleutherios Venizelos (1864-1936)
Ireland: Eamon de Valera (1882-1975)
Egypt: Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970)


Even in England, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) still has a much better reputation than he deserves, with that disgusting statue outside Parliament.

That's how it is when one is on what the world considers to be the "wrong side of history"...

1 comment:

The Moderate Jacobite said...

The statue of Cromwell has always bemused me. As a strong believer in the role of parliament in the English Constitution (a role properly fulfilled in a very different manner than currently happens), it is a painful irony for a man who dissolved the (admittedly, perfidious and revolutionary) parliament at force of arms and instituted the only military dictatorship which this country has ever known to be honoured in such a manner.