June 3, 2015

Finest Hour 101, Winter 1998-99

Page 11

By RON CYNEWULF ROBBINS


The ancient philosophers owed their greatness to an iron-clad conviction that we must never retreat from reality. Churchill’s words and deeds in perilous times provide incontrovertible evidence that his genius had a philosophical foundation. The folly of his recent detractors is painfully apparent when they choose to ignore the metaphysical virtues empowering his leadership. They prefer to work from the arid assumption that they understand him better than the people who joined his crusade to preserve civilization.

Although Hitler was the instinctive exploiter of Teutonic mass psychology, his philosophy soon caused him to lose touch with reality, and humanity suffered one of the bloodiest periods in history. Churchill held on tightly to reality, while coping daily with the flux of his ideas and a visionary gift central to his effective guardianship of freedom. Some critics refuse to recognize the strength of his philosophy and its overwhelming appeal to those who cherish freedom.

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024
More

The opinion of Isocrates the Athenian (436-338 B.C., pupil of Socrates) is supremely relevant: “I hold that man wise who can usually think out the best course to take and that man a philosopher who seeks to gain that insight.” Churchill eminently conforms to Isocrates’s description of a genuine philosopher. He was dedicated to uniting the Greeks against Asia—Greece resembling a David confronting a despotic Goliath. Boasting that he clung to reality, Isocrates was castigated (mark well!) for over-elegance of style.

Churchill was ever sensitive to the unending antagonism between good and evil—another parallel with the Athenian truth seekers. He reacted to threatened or actual evil by leaping instantly into battle. The intransigence of his latter-day traducers often has roots in wilful misinterpretation and shameful cupidity; there is in their analyses rarely a leavening of humour, a charge it would be impossible to bring against Churchill. But if one makes the mistake of resorting to malice, there is indeed no room left for laughter. According to classical tradition tragedy and farce should have a foot in each other’s camp. Unfortunately writers trying to topple Churchill’s reputation are generally so swamped by theatricality that they offer nothing beyond the tragedy of their own dreary limitations. Inaccuracy has always been paltry apparel for scribes clamouring for recognition. Too many of the so-called new school of historians delude themselves if they believe obfuscation of facts and lamentable lapses into fiction will prove them right, and Churchill wrong. Gross sensationalism and shock tactics cannot guarantee that today’s public, or posterity itself, will bestow credibility on unethical practitioners.

One of the most inane notions put forward is that Churchill would have handled things better had he come to peace (or at least not prosecuted the war) with Hitler after the fall of France in 1940. “Fight on!” was his policy. Had he thought otherwise, the British would have thrown him out of office. Anyone alive in Britain during those crucial days can confirm that Churchill, and the vast majority of his compatriots, were adamant in their refusal to turn traitor to freedom. They strove on valiantly together.

In his customary forthright fashion Churchill explained what a wartime leader is compelled to face in a democracy: “Power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing….The loyalties which centre upon number one are enormous….If he is no good, he must be pole-axed.”

By contrast it is easy to summon up condemnatory quotes from the oratory of Adolf Hitler. A comparatively mild example: “For the good of the German people, we must wish for a war every fifteen or twenty years.” Hitler said that in 1941, the year he repeated the colossal error of Sweden’s Charles XII and France’s Napoleon by invading Russia.

Churchill’s abiding concern for the fate of Greece during and after the war demonstrates how firmly loyalty and honour were embedded in his philosophy. The plight of Britain’s old ally following her invasion by Italy, and later Germany, demanded swift action and he provided it. Postwar criticism of the sacrifices Churchill’s policy entailed frequently clouds fundamental issues.

There have been suggestions that he was motivated chiefly by glowing romanticism. It is true that he takes second place to no one in his admiration for Greece. He praised the Greeks and Jews with equal fervour by pointing out that their “endless struggle for life stretches back to the fountain springs of human thought. No other two races set such a mark upon the world.” He lauded the inheritance of “…genius and wisdom” they have left us: “No two cities have counted more with mankind than Athens and Jerusalem. Their messages in religion, philosophy, and art have been the main guiding lights of modern faith and culture.”

It is abundantly clear, however, that he was entirely realistic in dealing with the Italian-German attack on Greece. It must be borne in mind that the country immediately invoked the guarantee Neville Chamberlain had given before Churchill succeeded him in the premiership. Pledging all possible assistance to the beleaguered Greeks, Churchill sent them a heartening message: “We will fight a common foe and we will share a united victory.”

Britain’s army, fleet and air force were spread dangerously thin over huge distances when Italy struck in October 1940. What Churchill called “The Torment of Greece” was long and savage until his promise of eventual triumph was fulfilled. The complications in the Mediterranean arena soared to horrendous heights. Undeterred, Churchill stayed the course, telling Eden how important it was for the government to show that their word was their bond “lest the whole Turkey position is lost through proof that Britain never tries to keep her guarantees.” Axis conquest forced the Greek government to take refuge in London, and on appropriate occasions Churchill displayed his well-known fondness for American poetry by citing the words “the glory that was Greece” from Poe’s To Helen.

Fifty and sixty years on, we alive today are the inheritors and beneficiaries of Churchill’s achievement. The existence and success of The Churchill Center and Societies, Churchill College, Cambridge, The Memorial at Fulton, the Churchill Societies of Canada and the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust all bear testimony to our gratitude, and are vital to the safeguarding of a priceless inheritance.


Commencing in Finest Hour 97, “Personality of the Century” is an ongoing series of op-ed pieces designed to qualify Churchill for Time magazine’s designation by the end of the century. Selected articles will be targeted to op-ed sections of major newspapers and compiled for presentation to the editors of Time. Ron Cynewulf Robbins, a journalist who covered Churchill in the House of Commons, is a FH senior editor living in Victoria, B. C.

A tribute, join us

#thinkchurchill

Subscribe

WANT MORE?

Get the Churchill Bulletin delivered to your inbox once a month.