Monday, November 11, 2013

Churchill and Leaders



The White House has quelled the rumor that the bust of Churchill was sent back[1]. It was just moved so that no one could see it. At least that is what they claim.

As the White House states:

The version lent by Prime Minister Blair was displayed by President Bush until the end of his Presidency.  On January 20, 2009 -- Inauguration Day -- all of the art lent specifically for President Bush’s Oval Office was removed by the curator’s office, as is common practice at the end of every presidency. The original Churchill bust remained on display in the residence.

As Palmer stated[2]:

Lenin adopted Marx's governing ideas:

1.    that capitalism exploited the workers,

2.     that it necessarily produced  and  preceded  socialism ,

3.   that history was logically  predetermined,

4.    that class struggle was the law of society,

5.    that existing forms of religion, government, philosophy, and morals were weapons of the ruling class.

Marx's theory is the objective truth. Following the path of  this  theory,  we  will approach the  objective  truth  more  and  more  closely,  while  if  we  follow   any other path we cannot arrive a t anything except confusion and falsehood . From the philosophy of Marxism, cast of one piece of steel, it is impossible to expunge a single basic premise, a single essential part, without deviating from objective truth, without falling into the arms of bourgeois-reactionary falsehood.

Lenin was a convert. He discovered Marxism; he did not invent it. He found in it a theory of revolution which he accepted without reservation as scientific, and on which he was more outspokenly dogmatic even than Marx himself. His powers of mind, which were very great, were spent in demonstrating how the unfolding events of the twentieth century confirmed the analysis of the master.

Thus we should consider the comparison of the current president with Churchill along these lines.

Churchill was fundamentally a capitalist; he saw unions and socialism as a true threat to core British values. Churchill became an opponent of socialism; it took away the drive to produce and destroyed the core of British creativity.

Churchill despised Communism. He saw it for what it was and he saw Stalin as abject evil, despite the blinders that FDR had.

Churchill understood History; he was a writer of History, albeit often for his own purposes. History was highly uncertain for Churchill. There were times when he wondered as to the ultimate outcome, from Gallipoli and especially at the beginning of WW II. The current president sees his work as inevitable, the country will ultimately move to his was of seeing it. It is predestined and those who do not see it are obstructionists.

Churchill saw his Party as a vehicle for his ideas, ideas that were often in conflict with his peers. Churchill changed parties to ensure the integrity of his ideas. Churchill did not see the Party as a way to control the people. He saw that the people needed to be convinced through actions as well as words.

Just some thoughts.


[2] Palmer, R., A History of the Modern World, Knopf (New York) 3rd Ed 1965. Palmer was at Princeton when he wrote this first in the early 1950s and then in the mid-1960s. It is doubtful that anyone at Princeton would write this today, in fact one could readily assume they would likely agree with Marx!