The study of history tells us where we came from, what mistakes we've made, what successes we've had, inspires us with our triumphs and humbles us with our failures.
It is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and of course we're not talking about repeating those past triumphs, but the stupid mistakes that we should have learned from. This axiom doesn't bode well for modern Britons.
From the UK Daily Mail, 25% of those surveyed said World War II British prime minister Winston Churchill was a mythical figure who never existed. Consider that Churchill was probably the greatest British prime minister of the 20th Century (well, maybe he and Margaret Thatcher might have to arm wrestle for the title), and he lived as recently as 1965.
In this day and age where appeasement of evil is encouraged by many in the West, it seems there is a connection between this moral confusion and ignorance of history. After all, would an informed, intelligent people support appeasing Saddam Hussein, Iran, North Korea and other belligerent regimes around the world if they truly understood the lesson that Winston Churchill himself taught us?
Prior to World War II, Winston Churchill tried to warn his fellow British people that Adolf Hitler was dangerous, and that appeasing him was the wrong move. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and other European leaders failed to listen, and millions died. Winston Churchill was made prime minister at the onset of World War II in order to rescue the British people from the mess made by the appeasers.
Alas, that lesson seems lost to many in Britain today, and also in America.
In fact, I'd hate to see what kind of results we'd get from such a survey here in the States. With some of the profoundly ignorant comments we get at Dakota Voice on subjects like the war on terrorism, the welfare state, class envy, church and state issues, and America's Christian heritage, historical ignorance grows in abundance here, too.
Smart people learn from the mistakes of others. Dumb people think they can do the same stupid things others have done and paid for, and somehow get away with it this time. But in the end, they never do.
We need a renewal of historical education in America--and throughout the Western world--before ignorance and revisionists seal our doom.
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Monday, February 04, 2008
Winston Churchill Was a Myth?
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