THE FATE OF EGOMANIACS

We have by now been treated to many different manifestations of Barack Obama's egomania. There were the faux Greek columns and similar displays, there are claims such as "we are the ones we've been waiting for," there are grandiose world tours on which meaningless high-flying phrases are spouted and blood-stained hands eagerly shook. There is the apparently unshakeable conviction that certain extremely special individuals (namely He Himself) can talk reason to dictators and dominate them, there is the unquenchable hunger to take over, take over, and take over some more. And foolish people are already naming buildings and geographic landmarks for Obama, with nary a peep from the "House of Noncolor" that, perhaps, this is somewhat inappropriate with the honoree still alive and kicking. Soon, someone will start building a large statue, I am sure.

Speaking of statues of egomaniacs, here is a couple of images of a particularly cool one. I remember walking in the adjoining park in the late 1950s, staring upward at those huger-than-life Soviets, my prepubescent mind filled with wonderment.




















This monstrosity, 30 meters high with its 15-meter pedestal and 22 meters long, was unveiled in Prague, Czechoslovakia at a point overlooking the Vltava River on May Day, 1955. It consumed millions of skilled man-hours and 17 million tons of the best-quality stone. It could be seen from just about anywhere, which was the idea. The gratitude the Czechoslovak citizens were to show to Stalin for his genius and his beneficent leadership must be unbounded.

Until 1961, when the Czechoslovak Party was ordered to take the damn thing down due to de-Stalinization. Given that bureaucrats tend to follow excess with still more excess, the statue was surrounded by the secret police (no pictures, please!) and rapidly demolished. Rumor has it that the Party had ordered for the rubble reduced to such small size that no one could tell it had come from the statue, but that I cannot substantiate.

In any case, this is just a reminder that power and glory are fleeting and, despite relentless intrusion into the lives and minds of citizens and a hunger to control their thoughts, the truth can never be expunged and monuments (and those they represent) get pulled down.

I submit that there is no memory hole large enough to accommodate what Obama has already wrought, and anyone thinking of building monuments to him should bear that in mind.