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Rule Britannia and Roll Heads

Our trip to London seemed to confirm that British (at least in London) were (are?) obsessed with two principal aspects of their past: 1) their colonial exploitations, and 2) individual and mass execution.

On the surface, at least, British commemorations seem less about regret or remembrance, as nostalgia. The exceptions are Britain's monuments to the two World Wards and the heroics of men, women and animals. Yes, animals. The monument reminds us: "They had no choice." These sculptures tend to commemorate the horrors and losses of war, rather than victories. One example (a new monument by sculptor Paul Day, that, surprisingly, looks more like War years social realism than anything very contemporary).

03 August 2006; 0 comments