So, I finally got to visit Mount Rushmore. I've kind of avoided it in the past because I thought it was only the place where fat midwestern family types took their MickeyD's swilling fat kids to instill patriotism and an understanding of the Pledge of Alligience. Okay, so it is kinda that. It's also really cool. It is one helluva sculpture. From the turnout about a half a mile away from the parking area, it looks small. From the viewing areas, it really isn't. In real life, one can see the veins of granite which run through the sculpture and give it an animation I can't adequately describe. This effort is impressive, to say the least. And it was built by the father of modern communism.
There it is. A bust of the Mount Rushmore builder. That's Vladimir Lenin. Look at it. Don't believe me?
How 'bout this? That's obviously Vladimir Lenin, the father of modern communism. There are two busts celebrating his will to engage the effort of the people in a strife to create the worker's story. Rushmore was built with the people's money in celebration of the people's nation. Of course that's Lenin.
Okay, maybe not. But let's get real here. Monuments like Mount Rushmore were built as a communal celebration of our national will, with national money and immigrant labor. It is truly an icon of our will to be socialist when it fills us with pride to be so. It's beautiful, and that I would never deny. It did fill me with patriotic spirit. It is a testament, a monument, to what people can achieve when they work together to build something grand.
I fear that we've lost our way, on that score.
Yes, union miners carved the thing. The tribes call it "The Shrine of Hypocrisy" and the sculptor was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Posted by: larry kurtz | June 26, 2011 at 03:47 PM
Larry, I think you just described the first half of the 20th century.
As regards Borglum, why do you think I had so much fun comparing him to Vladimir Lenin?
Posted by: Wulfgar | June 27, 2011 at 03:04 PM
Well, I could've sworn he looked like my Uncle Larry! He's balding and has that prominent mustache. Someday, if time and fate will it, I would become a famous person and have a monument erected in my honor. ROTFL!
Posted by: Robbie Marinero | December 19, 2011 at 08:24 AM