He was a colossal world-historical figure. The lesson, I suppose, is not to compare oneself to Winston Churchill (or in my case, to compare myself to people who drink wine out of wine glasses).Ĭhurchill’s life is something awesome to behold. It is especially humbling when you are reading of his life while sitting on a couch that is covered with the detritus of your children, wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt (thus, very nearly a sweat-suit), and drinking Yellow Tail out of a pint glass. Reading about the life of Winston Churchill is an extremely humbling experience. William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 Like Adolf Hitler he would have to be a leader of intuitive genius, a born demagogue in the original sense of the word, a believer in the supremacy of his race and his national destiny, an artist who knew how to gather the blazing light of history into his prism and then distort it to his ends, an embodiment of inflexible resolution who could impose his will and his imagination on his people…Such a man, if he existed, would be England’s last chance…” An embodiment of fading Victorian standards was wanted: a tribune for honor, loyalty, duty, and the supreme virtue of action one who would never compromise with iniquity, who could create a sublime mood and thus give men heroic visions of what they were and might become. A believer in martial glory was required, one who saw splendor in the ancient parades of victorious legions through Persepolis and could rally the nation to brave the coming German fury. “England’s new leader…would have to be a passionate Manichaean who saw the world as a medieval struggle to the death between the powers of good and the powers of evil, who held that individuals are responsible for their actions and that the German dictator was therefore wicked.
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