Posted by Dan Ewert : 10/04/2002 12:44:00 AM (Archive Link)
An interesting observation came to me today while I was reading this CNN.com story about North Korea. It really doesn’t involve the article itself but the picture at the top. I was looking at that statue and realized that I had seen that pose before. The day before, there was a picture in the newspaper of a Baghdad park. At the center of this park was a statue of Saddam Hussein… in the exact same pose. Here’s a different statue of him getting in on the act. I also remembered seeing Lenin positioned the same way in bronze as you'll see here. It just occurred to me that repressive countries seem to like representing their important people this way… tall and proud, looking off into the distance with their benevolent right hand outstretched towards the future. Propaganda through metallurgy.