Statues and all that

[KEND]

triumphalism
noun [ U ] uk ​ /traɪˈʌm.fəl.ɪ.zəm/ us ​ /traɪˈʌm.fəl.ɪ.zəm/ disapproving
an unpleasant show of pleasure and satisfaction because you have won or done better than someone:
The present emotion charged debate over whose statue should stay and whose should go misses the point. Statues to me are a form of triumphalism and should be removed and shown in a museum where they belong. Military/political edifices will always cause controversy depending on whether you were the winner or loser. Statues, with palaces, streets named after local or international figures should also be consigned to the dustbin. How about naming squares, streets etc after creative artistic people, Twain street, Carlin drive. Shakespeare already has a statue but how about Cole Porter, Gershwin.

[Steve James]

Ken, that is much too civilized for this day and age. We still need statues and arches of triumph to show that we kicked their butts. That's why the Swastika at the Reichstag was blown up: why Stalin statues were removed; why Saddam's statue was torn down (btw, my son was there).

We do it, though. There's the Washington monument, the Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorials. The thing is, even if they were no more racist than any southerners, they were winners. That's why they get to sit in front of the courts, state houses and public colleges.

Hitler was history too. That don't mean he gets a statue in front of the Bundestag. Exactly the opposite. So, if 45 wants to do comparisons of Washington and Stonewall Jackson, he should explain why he told John McCain that "I like winners."