UK: Half of young people do not recognise Winston Churchill... & will be 'forgotten' in 80 yrs

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | May 13, 2010

[Stoat]

(edit)

As part of the survey, carried out to mark this week's 70th anniversary of Churchill taking over as prime minister, more than 1,136 people were asked to identify three prominent 20th century PMs including Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

One in five (19 per cent) adults failed to name Churchill, with the figure rising to 32 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds and 44 per cent of those aged 16 to 24.

Following the pattern, researchers projected the rough date when the leaders would no longer be recognised, with Churchill's demise predicted in 80 years' time.

They said the vast majority of those questioned could identify both Mr Blair (97 per cent) and Baroness Thatcher (98 per cent).

But recognition dropped significantly in the 16 to 24-year-old range - 16 per cent failed to identify Baroness Thatcher and more than a quarter (27 per cent) were unable to recognise Mr Blair.

(edit)

Kevin Clancy, head of Historical Services at the Royal Mint, added: 'It's shocking that one of our greatest statesmen runs the risk of potentially being forgotten.

'Churchill remains an historical colossus and is arguably one of the nation's greatest Britons.

'It's fundamentally important that we commemorate our heritage for future generations to celebrate, and to mark the 70 years that have passed since he was Prime Minister we're immensely proud to have designed a new £5 coin featuring an iconic Churchillian image, to help his memory live on.'

 

[sport]

In 10 years it won’t. We [The United States], unless we turn things around by no later than 2012, do not even have 80 years.

[Stoat]

My children will know!

 

More and more I am reminded that Conservatives are serving the role of "The Book People" of Fahrenheit 451, who spent their lives memorizing every word of a single book and then teaching the book, verbatim, to their children before they died, thereby retaining the book, all of which were banned, for all time.

Amazon.com- Fahrenheit 451 (9780345342966)- Ray Bradbury- Books

 

 

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

As the giant Red Wheel of the Left rolls onward, crushing everything in its path, so also we must continually fill in the blanks and correct the intentional distortions of the Left as they attempt to rewrite history to suit their agenda.

[investigateworld]

A bump for a most bumpworthy post.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

I am not so optimistic as you! If we don’t turn things around in 2010, we won’t have ten years, unfortunately. If we can’t come up with either a veto-proof Congress or a House with the stones to defund the government, I’m not sure we make it even to 2012.

[Stoat]

A bump for a most bumpworthy post.

Thank you so much for your exceptionally gracious and complimentary words :-)

Although there have been many who have questioned PM Cameron's Conservatism as not being pure enough,   his election at least indicates that all is not well for the Left in the UK, which is cause enough for some hope and optimism for the future.

I would suggest, however, that here in the USA the spectacle we will witness in November will be an epic bloodbath that will once again cause our dear British Friends to be a bit taken aback by the raucous and unrestrained activities of their Yank cousins. 

Never in my lifetime have I seen so many people so palpably ANGRY with our sitting Administration and the Left in general.  People don't like to be forced into a position of having to draft a law that says public schools can't teach the overthrow of the Country and can't teach hatred of white people or anyone else for that matter under the guise of 'ethnic studies', and they don't like being called 'racists' merely because they have policy disagreements with a President who happens to be half-black or simply because they want their country's national borders to have some real meaning. 

I'm expecting November to be quite glorious ;-)

 

[Stoat]

In 80 years most of those 16 year olds will no longer be recognized by anyone but their special care nurses ~ bringing them new drool cups (if they last that long).

Hopefully enough of those 16 year olds will wake up and understand what has been done to them by the Left and will rebel, before it's too late.

If they don't, then we'll be acting out an entirely different movie than what most of us would like to see come to pass as reality.

Idiocracy (2006)

 

[q_an_a]

I bet that the same percentage of young people could not tell you what president was military commander of the War In Europe. It is not that history is not taught but that people always forget many important people. How many could tell you who invented the micro chip or the internet? (not the goracle.)

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Some older Free Republic threads which may be of interest:

Here's another. See reply #27 for a link to an audio of Churchill speaking to Parliament for the first time after becoming PM.

WWII + 70 years, 5/13/40 thread

[kabar]

I bet that the same percentage of young people could not tell you what president was military commander of the War In Europe.

The proper analogy would be who was the President during WWII. Perhaps given the poor state of our education system, half of young Americans would not know the answer.

Read this study and you will be amazed about how little Americans know about their history and civic institutions. This is a threat to our democracy. Take a look at Major Finding 3

Major Finding 3:

Civic Knowledge Increases a Person’s Regard for America’s Ideals and Free Institutions

Gaining civic knowledge—as opposed to merely graduating from college—increases a person’s belief in American ideals and free institutions. If two people otherwise share the same basic characteristics, the one with greater civic knowledge will be more likely to support:

•America’s ideals: He or she will be less likely to agree that America corrupts otherwise good people.

•America’s Founding documents: He or she will be less likely to agree that the Founding documents are obsolete.

•American free enterprise: He or she will be more likely to agree that prosperity depends on entrepreneurs and free markets, and less likely to agree that global capitalism produces few winners and many losers.

•The Ten Commandments: He or she will be less likely to agree that the Ten Commandments are irrelevant today.