January 16, 2005
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:ROMMELMAO
Speaking of overreactions to stupidity, the reaction to Prince Harry's Rommel costume is a bit much, although surely he should have known better.
One supposes he would have been fine dressing as a devil, or Attila the Hun, or, as I Orrin Judd suggested, one of Stalin's commissars. A costume is rarely an endorsement. Quentin Letts has it about right:
Few voices of moderation were given airtime to suggest, for instance, that boozy pre-college boys at a costume party might be allowed to make the occasional blunder, or that fancy dress parties are, by their very nature, an act of satire. One might also note that the Sun's "Harry the Nazi" headline comes after a month of triumph on London's West End for the Mel Brooks musical "The Producers"--a show which makes great satirical capital out of Nazi uniforms and giant swastikas.
On the other hand, I'd put up with this nonsense if somebody made me the beneficiary of a several billion-dollar trust to spend my life celebrating in public as a symbol of my country.
UPDATE: Steyn:
The French sports minister suggested the "scandal" would undermine Britain's bid to host the Olympics. Londoners should be so lucky.Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at January 16, 2005 12:45 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksBut, if I understand the concern of the sporting world correctly, being a totalitarian state that's killed millions is no obstacle to hosting the Olympics, but going to a costume party wearing the uniform of a defunct totalitarian state that's no longer around to kill millions is completely unacceptable....
Alas, tyranny doesn't always come with a self-evidently hilarious dress code. And the soft, supple, creeping totalitarian inclinations of our present-day rulers are sometimes harder to resist. If I had to pick the single most revolting remark from this bogus Reichsfuror, it would be this: "I think it might be appropriate for him to tell us himself just how contrite he now is."
That's Michael Howard, the leader of the supposed Conservative Party. What's conservative about demanding people submit to public self-abasement? Wasn't it the Commies who used to insist you recant on TV and then disappear into re-education camp? A conservative party ought to be a refuge from the sanctimonious nannytollahs of the age. But, from his shabby Kerryesque opportunism on the war down, Mr Howard has no discernible coherent political philosophy - except for his all-pervasive authoritarianism, into which his repellent call for a display of princely contrition fits all too neatly.
And what a fine symbol for our country you'd make! As soon as I make my first billion, I promise the next billion is yours. I know you weren't asking for donations, but I'm feeling extra generous right now.
I always thought it was obvious that when we make fun of the Nazis we do it because we consider them evil.
As one wag noted, if Harry had been wearing a Bush mask, this incident would have passed without notice.
Would anyone be happy if his own son appeared in a nazi uniform? We can expect a better education in good families. Harry hasn't suffered any deprivation of any kind as a child, has he ? Who is to balme for the bad behaviour of children ? Why, their parents of course.
Seems neither father nor son are the right sruff of which Kings are made. Poor Liz.
It'd also be interesting to see if some of the folk condeming Harry, have made Bush = Hitler comparisons. Which, if you think about it are even more ludicrous and offensive.
Deprived childhood? Well, his parent’s marriage was famously, um, difficult and he lost his mother when he was 12.
Multi-billion dollar trust fund? Don’t think he gets a penny of the royal fortune. Crown Land income goes to the government in return for the Civil List (of which he’ll get something) and the tax payers get the very good end of that deal. Charles’ money is all in the Duchy of Cornwall which goes to William as of right. The Queen’s private fortune (what is really her money rather than the Monarch’s) is put at around 50 million.
He’ll inherit something, quite a lot actually, Diana’s estate plus something from Charles (20, 30 million all told?) but no, not a multi-billion trust fund.
BTW, yes, I would put up with a great deal of nonsense for a 20-30 million trust fund, almost as much as I would for a multi-billion one. I actually have an old Soviet Marshall’s uniform so I’m ready for the call.
What I really want to know is how the costume got past his world full of minders.
Why is this being referred to as a "Rommel" costume? General Rommel was an enemy, but an honorable one, and ultimately he tried to eliminate Hitler and was executed for it.
These are merely the logical end results of millenia of inbreeding.
Why is this being referred to as a "Rommel" costume? General Rommel was an enemy, but an honorable one, and ultimately he tried to eliminate Hitler and was executed for it.
My understanding (from what I’ve read) was that the costume was actually supposed to be of the Afrika Corps (where Rommel served). Calling it a “Nazi uniform” (as many of the headlines have been screaming) suggests something very different even though many German uniforms required wearing the swastika. I don’t know if Prince Harry was meant to be portraying Rommel himself.
As far as Rommel goes, my understanding is that while he was implicated in a plot to kill Hitler (some of the conspirators may have suggested replacing Hitler with Rommel but I believe he was opposed to assassination as it would have made Hitler a martyr and favored putting him on trial) it was unclear whether he was actually a participant or he was implicated in order for Hitler to get rid of rival. Also I believe he wasn’t actually executed, he was given the chance to commit suicide via poison in order to spare his family and he chose suicide.
Everything I’ve read about Rommel though (while I have seen nothing on his politics) suggests that he was an honorable man who was popular with his troops for both his personal bravery, his refusal to take certain liberties (or allow his officers to do so) as an officer, chivalry towards his enemies (one of the few German higher ranking officers not to be implicated in any war crimes), and performing manual labor along side the enlisted men. Pity that he was on the other side.
For anyone who is interested in reading more about the Desert Fox:
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen1.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERrommel.htm
The Forced Suicide of Field Marshall Rommel, 1944
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/rommel.htm
"beneficiary of a several billion-dollar trust"
Prince Andrew (equaivalent of Harry) gets 249,ooo pounds per annum so "several billion is overstating it a little.
Hmmm...does dressing up as an NOTLD zombie constitute an endorsement of necro-cannibalism?
I second Sebastian - who on earth let him go out like that??
I feel deeply sorry for the princes as young men - honest, I'm not being sarcastic - because living under their accustomed strictures would do me in in a heartbeat (and wasn't exactly that a big part of both Diana's and Sarah's difficulties with suddenly becoming royal?). But royal they are, highly visible and recognizable representatives of their country and symbols of their culture they are, and their not wearing swastikas EVER (because the paparazzi are EVERYwhere) seems reasonable to me under the circumstances. Dang it, Harry, you may chafe at your chains but you can't throw 'em off, kid.
As somebody said elsewhere, if I go as Vlad the Impaler, am I endorsing bloodsucking murderers? No, it's a private COSTUME PARTY, and the theme was BAD TASTE. Get over it.
Not that I think this deserves a minute more of media attention, but people should recognize that the reason Brits care about Harry dressing as a Nazi and not a Soviet commissar, Vlad the Impaler, Lex Luthor, or any other villain is that many people in Britain today still remember when planes bearing swastikas dropped bombs onto their homes and when men wearing the uniforms Harry had on were firing guns at them. What would the Queen Mother have thought?
Nazism isn't quite the abstraction of evil there that it has become in America. (Although certainly young Barbara Bush or Chelsea Clinton dressing up in a dirndl and Bund des Deutschen Mädchens armband as Eva Braun would probably have provoked the same reactions.)
I traveled unofficially through Western Europe in the retinue of a celebrity diplomat, and the bast vistas of boredom in those ceremonial appearances are unbelievable until you have gone to parties every night that you can't decide not to go to.
They have a hard, if well-paid, life.
Comments are Closed.