Posted on 06/04/2020 9:21:22 AM PDT by spankalib
On Tuesday, December 3, 1940, Winston Churchill read a memorandum by the military strategist Basil Liddell Hart that advocated making peace with Nazi Germany. It argued, in a summary written by Churchill’s private secretary, Jock Colville, that otherwise Britain would soon see “Western Europe racked by warfare and economic hardship; the legacy of centuries, in art and culture, swept away; the health of the nation dangerously impaired by malnutrition, nervous strains and epidemics; Russia . . . profiting from our exhaustion.” Colville admitted it was “a terrible glimpse of the future,” but nonetheless courageously concluded that “we should be wrong to hesitate” in rejecting any negotiation with Adolf Hitler.
A truly excellent piece by Mr. Roberts - it was an education just reading it (which I’ve done @ 5 times!)
My granddaughter’s charter school REQUIRES two years of Western Civ.
Always.
National Review: Teach Western Civ., but don’t stand up for it, or support those that do.
Western Civ is what they hate: Christian, European, White, generally free market. Remember the 60s chants “Hi ho, western civ’s got to go.”
I stopped reading after this. Anyone of any real education knows that American history really begins with Jamestown and that Plymouth was of no real significance prior to the revision of history to claim that it was important. I needn't read about the problem with modern education from someone who exemplifies it.
False and false. The myth that the Pilgrims migrated to America to escape religious persecution in England just won't die. They left Holland FOR England to pick up a ship to anywhere else. They didn't really have anything to do with the national Thanksgiving holiday, either, and the idea that they did comes entirely from a hoax document widely understood to be fake.
To be added to this occasional ping list, freepmail Albion Wilde with your degree and field.
Unfortunatly we are way to late for that boat and many others.
Like taking over the academic establishment
and the school departments.
We lost.
Wonderful essay. Thank you for the ping.
Thank you so much for the ping, AW.
I just had a conversation with my brother about this tonight where we discussed at lengthy one of the most odious aspects of Leftism - not only just its open disdain for history, but for its Orwellian desire to eradicate history.
Leftists are interested in history only when it helps them achieve their political goals. Otherwise, it is to be ignored and discarded.
Conservatives appreciate history. Not because we do or don’t agree or like what happened in the past, but because the past has played a vital and integral part of who we are. It is why conservatives generally view with anger and distaste the destruction and elimination of Confederate monuments and statues. It isn’t because we agree with the Confederate cause in any way, including slavery.
We view it that way because the Civil War MADE us who we are as a country. General Lee is just as important to this country as General Grant. The slave owners are just as important to us as the abolitionists. Everything is intertwined and defines “American”. Both good and bad.
Because every single one of us, like our country, is a mix of the good and bad traits and experiences that shape us.
Leftist have an infantile view, and it does boil down the point that they don’t want the messy intrusions of history UNLESS it helps their cause. Such as the fact that Slavery was a Democrat institution, and Republicans were the party of emancipation.
For the Left, history gets in the way. It is an impediment UNLESS it advances their political agenda.
And it is because (like the Soviets) they want to mold every person into the citizen THEY want, in the way they want it. They want every citizen to be a lump of clay as fertile ground for their sculpturing. History gets in the way of that.
I find it maddening about them. And I view their different approach to history (as compared to ours) as a primary cleavage point between left and right. You put the chisel on that and give it a whack, and it generally splits cleanly, although they aren’t honest enough to admit it.
There has been a photoshopped picture going around of Hitler holding a Bible next to a picture of Trump holding the bible. Photoshopping is no big deal, everyone does it all the time for humor and to make a point. With this, it appeared to be an effort by someone to show a real picture. It was easily dismissed, but like the lie that goes around the world twice before the truth gets its pants on, there are sure to be people who will say in a dumb, bovine voice: “Well, Trump held up a Bible as a political prop the same way Hitler did.”
And that vignette is symbolic of the Leftist view of history. They are willing to bend, break, or totally eliminate history when it suits their needs, in order to build their utopian citizen.
It is of vital importance that students understand Western Civilization. Everyone should know Shakespeare, for example.
I'm sure that many of them patting themselves on the back for that "clever" comparison are actually old enough to remember how Clinton carried around a HUGE Bible as a prop to "prove" what a faithful Christian he was.
I hope the twittersphere was quick to post those pics of Clinton and his HUGE Bible.
It's a symptom of godlessness, or of heretical misunderstanding from apostate churches or clergy, such as the prissy RCC Archbishop of DC, a promoter of LGBT. Nothing matters but the self. Just as these empty people tear up families, churches and workplaces with their selfishness, manipulations, brazen defiance, whining and pride in victimhood, now they are tearing up the economy, from the looters in the streets to the virus shutdown hucksters.
The "anti-fascists" are actually the fascists, shutting down and silencing everything and everyone who doesn't give in to their demands.
The "progressives" are actually regressive, reducing everything to permanent adolescent petulance, tribalism and animal instinct.
There is no higher spirituality, no love, no forgiveness, no reconciliation, no room for development; because even words or attitudes one has discarded like an outgrown pair of pants can be dug up and held against one decades later, to strip you of your livelihood and reputation.
Come, Lord Jesus.
This is a civil war, and it is upon us.
Jamestown is not ignored, not at all, at least in my education spanning late 60s through 80s.
But Jamestown was lost. Its only historical value is as a marker that settlements were never gyaranteed.
Whereas Plymouth Rock was a success so it garners more historical value. Its history value is confirmed by the appearance of Tisquantum ‘Squanto’ who was taken back to England for a time where his language and cultural upbringing were well-documented.
The friendship between Squanto and the pilgrims certainly had influence on the formation and meaning of Thanksgiving.
Detecting your sour, cynical, hostilty to American historical accuracy, I can understand the drive to get it correct but I don’t agree that it’s not worth reading.
Thank you.
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