The Winston Syndrome

“Never, never, never, never give up,” Winston Churchill told a graduating class towards the end of his life. He never did. And we never should. He also said, “Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” He never demonstrated that truth more than during the 1930s, his years “In the Wilderness” when he was warning the British people (and this is not an exact quote): “Look, you stupid heads, don’t you see what Adolph Hitler is up to? Haven’t you read his book? Don’t you know that he wants to conquer the world? Haven’t you figured out that he wants to murder all the Jews and snuff out all freedom? What’s wrong with you fools?” Churchill was mocked and condescended to by the press and the political elites, almost until the moment that military disaster in France gave him the leadership of the nation against Hitler and his thugs. He held out against the dark night of fascism until first Russia, then America, joined the struggle. Because of Churchill we have a West. We are now battling a different tyrant and his thugs, and the mockers and elites often refuse to admit that there is a threat. Things are not exactly the same, although there are similarities. But once again the fate of the West is in the balance. Those warning today are not as few and alone as Churchill was, but they probably feel as isolated. They are warning (and this is not an exact quote): “You dummies! Don’t you understand that the agenda of the radical Islamofascists is to take over every secular society on earth? Haven’t you read Osama’s words? Haven’t you heard about people they have murdered because they dared to criticize Islam? Don’t you understand that there will be no freedom if these people win? And please don’t give me your nonsense about how ‘fundamentalist Christians’ are just as much of a threat. Christian societies tolerate, even encourage the practice of Islam. Islamic societies do not tolerate the open practice of any other religion? Don’t you know that they hate freedom of speech, equality of women and democracy?” But how many are still listening? Imagine, if you will, shortly after Pearl Harbor, a pundit, politician, philosopher or maybe even an ex-president (take your pick), being interviewed and you hear something like this: “We have no real quarrel with the Japanese people. Just with certain militaristic elements of that island nation. We partially have ourselves to blame because we have not been more sensitive to their genuine aspirations.” Or regarding the Germans: “You can’t judge a society by the few radical racists. If we didn’t keep trying to oppress the Germans, we wouldn’t have to fight them all over the world. We should withdraw our military from all of its foreign adventures and the Germans would stop fighting us.” Sound familiar?

He never demonstrated that truth more than during the 1930s, his years “In the Wilderness” when he was warning the British people (and this is not an exact quote): “Look, you stupid heads, don’t you see what Adolph Hitler is up to? Haven’t you read his book? Don’t you know that he wants to conquer the world? Haven’t you figured out that he wants to murder all the Jews and snuff out all freedom? What’s wrong with you fools?”

Churchill was mocked and condescended to by the press and the political elites, almost until the moment that military disaster in France gave him the leadership of the nation against Hitler and his thugs. He held out against the dark night of fascism until first Russia, then America, joined the struggle.

Because of Churchill we have a West. We are now battling a different tyrant and his thugs, and the mockers and elites often refuse to admit that there is a threat. Things are not exactly the same, although there are similarities.

But once again the fate of the West is in the balance. Those warning today are not as few and alone as Churchill was, but they probably feel as isolated. They are warning (and this is not an exact quote): “You dummies! Don’t you understand that the agenda of the radical Islamofascists is to take over every secular society on earth? Haven’t you read Osama’s words? Haven’t you heard about people they have murdered because they dared to criticize Islam? Don’t you understand that there will be no freedom if these people win?

And please don’t give me your nonsense about how ‘fundamentalist Christians’ are just as much of a threat. Christian societies tolerate, even encourage the practice of Islam. Islamic societies do not tolerate the open practice of any other religion? Don’t you know that they hate freedom of speech, equality of women and democracy?” But how many are still listening?

Imagine, if you will, shortly after Pearl Harbor, a pundit, politician, philosopher or maybe even an ex-president (take your pick), being interviewed and you hear something like this: “We have no real quarrel with the Japanese people. Just with certain militaristic elements of that island nation. We partially have ourselves to blame because we have not been more sensitive to their genuine aspirations.” Or regarding the Germans: “You can’t judge a society by the few radical racists. If we didn’t keep trying to oppress the Germans, we wouldn’t have to fight them all over the world. We should withdraw our military from all of its foreign adventures and the Germans would stop fighting us.” Sound familiar?

" Churchill was mocked and condescended to by the press and the political elites, almost until the moment that military disaster in France gave him the leadership of the nation against Hitler and his thugs. He held out against the dark night of fascism until first Russia, then America, joined the struggle. Because of Churchill we have a West..."

I've often thought of Churchill's lone voice for years prior to world War 2 and the current drift into full scale war with Islamofascists.

As Szasz said "To think clearly you have to be brave rather than intelligent". Oh for clarity in these days... May God bless Bush and raise up others for the day when the long night comes.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have Churchill as our president now? His rhetoric would tear the Democrats a new one.

Actually it was Churchill's rhetoric style that helped to elect John Kennedy and also Ronald Reagan. When I was taking a public speaking course in college - while I was also in the US Army - I gave my final exam speech on the similarities of Churchill's and Kennedy's speeches, i.e.:

JFK:”....Pay any price, bear any burden”.
WSC:”…We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be..”

Both JFK and RR were great studies of Churchill.
The opposite of Churchill would be Jimmy Carter.

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