Modern-Day Triumphs of Arrogance and Megalomania (My Top Picks)

Chinggis Khan aka Genghis

That I find these to be the most hideous monuments of our time is not entirely due to aesthetic considerations. Not just beauty, but ugliness, too, can have variable depths. These aren’t just sheet-metal deep, sometimes the most abject delusions are packaged into them from their moment of conception. I’ve only seen two of these up close and in person, and hope I never need to see the other two.

Mao as a Young Man. Changsha, Hunan (2009)

You may not see what it is in reality, but it sees exactly who you are, identifying you by your facial features and then placing them in connection with your disharmonious thoughts,, and possibly also with your DNA. I couldn't bring myself to follow my plan to put up a photo of the giant new prayer wheel of harmony among the nationalities erected by Xi in Shangri-la. Unable to stomach it I put the above atrocity up instead. When humanity is done for, what sense would it make to be a humanist?

Origin or Organ? was the question on everyone’s minds

Oh, and rest assured, if you are sufficiently rich, brash and megalomaniacal — unable to admit the least shortcoming let alone failing — the modern-day Christianity advocates will mail in their donations and vote as a block for you. Their deity knows best how to make use of the useful idiots, you know. Their view of Jesus renders him completely unrecognizable, in both physical appearance and in ways of thinking. Search in vain for a hint of kindness and generosity of spirit.

What we get fed on tends to be what comes out of our mouths. I’ve for long been fed up with those popular diets, and nausea can after all lead to a kind of relief. So if you could, find it in yourself to forgive me for this dismally uninspiring blog that hardly deserves the light of day.

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Please read something else

If you have the stomach to read more, the Daily Mail had this story about the Genghis Khan monstrosity. 

Fortunately for us, his tomb can never be found.

“Mao Zedong Memorialized in 2,000 Statues.”  BBC News blog.

• Peter Schwieger, “Dynamic of Shangri-La or Turning the Prayer Wheel for the Protection of the Multiethnic Society,” contained in: Jean-Luc Achard, ed., Études tibétaines en l'honneur d'Anne Chayet, Librairie Droz (Geneva 2010), pp. 269-278.