To subjugate a people, you must destroy their courage, and the enduring symbols of that courage. That’s why the victorious powers of the past, and the mobs of today, target certain statues and symbols. Courage is the one trait that never goes out of style. We admire it even in our worst enemies.
To humiliate or force another into trembling servitude, art, books, sculpture, or symbols of courage must be destroyed or denigrated. The goal is to destroy the backbone – the steel – in a society; one that the destroyers feel no part of, and seek to remake in a foreign image. In servitude, cowardice and passivity are the desired virtues. The statues and symbols torn down were a testament to the virtue of courage, even more than the person themselves.
The names we hold in honor are those who were brave and fearless. People who ate last; faced danger first; who endured extreme hardship, and sacrificed all for those who depended on them. When a man or woman is forced by circumstance, or conscience, to choose a side – take a stand for A or B – they do not have the hindsight of history to know which will be judged right or wrong; which will win after years of back and forth struggle.
In modern Germany men are not strong, and women are often anxious. This is unnatural. When Germans are themselves they are extremely courageous; men and women both.
The occupiers and the mob have succeeded in tearing down symbols; they have not succeeded in eliminating the virtue of courage.
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