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View Full Version : Winston Churchill didn't exist

BlueFire
02-03-2008, 11:45 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080204/od_afp/britainpeoplehistoryoffbeat
Professor S
02-04-2008, 08:53 AM
Wow, thats.... wow... thats a shame. I suppose this might be chalked up to the ever increasing cynicism of society. I suppose a portion of the population would believe that any truly great man either never existed or was never truly great.

Winston Chruchill held Britain together long after it should have fallen apart in WW2. He should never be dissolved as a myth.
Perfect Stu
02-04-2008, 03:15 PM
Is this just a matter of being uninformed, or a belief in conspiracy?
Dyne
02-04-2008, 04:17 PM
Was it 1948's release of 1984 that brought in the idea of a Big Brother?
Bond
02-04-2008, 04:20 PM
I'm not quite sure what Dyne was getting at, but on a related note Animal Farm and 1984 are awesome.
Dyne
02-04-2008, 04:39 PM
I'm not quite sure what Dyne was getting at, but on a related note Animal Farm and 1984 are awesome.

Seriously, 1984 was released after WW2 was done and finished. Maybe they assumed Churchill was more of a team than one person.
Bube
02-04-2008, 05:48 PM
I'm not quite sure what Dyne was getting at, but on a related note Animal Farm and 1984 are awesome.
Steering the topic towards books, and having read (and loved) both of those, I'd say Brave New World is better than both of them.

And about the topic - I have to say I'm not surprised. I don't think these people are trying to say that the history we read about in books was made up, these people are so ignorant that they think these are movie characters. We had something like this a few years ago here in Turkey - people couldn't name the president of Turkey. These people exist, unfortunately.
Bond
02-04-2008, 09:45 PM
Seriously, 1984 was released after WW2 was done and finished. Maybe they assumed Churchill was more of a team than one person.
Wait... are you saying you think Orwell wrote 1984 about Churchill?

I'm so confused... :(
Dyne
02-04-2008, 10:07 PM
Wait... are you saying you think Orwell wrote 1984 about Churchill?

I'm so confused... :(

No, I'm saying the GENERAL BRITISH PUBLIC read 1984 after WWII (because it was released in 1948) and maybe thought Churchill wasn't real for some silly reason.
Professor S
02-04-2008, 10:10 PM
The truth abouty Churchill was that he was the exact opposite of a team or group of people. He was a man on an island. At a time when appeasement was the rule of the court when dealing with Nazi Germany, he was one of the few vocally against trading and working with Hitler. Hell, the German Airforce ran half its planes on Rolls Royce engines because of Chamberlain and other "ignore them and they'll go away" politicians. But honestly, it was his inspriational speeches that kept the nation together. He was one of the greatest orators of all time.

He was a man of principle, who did care about his legacy as an aging statesman, but he wanted his legacy to be great for the right reasons.

And for the record, Orwell wrote 1984 and Animal farm as responses to communism. Brave New World is the epitome of the nanny state that so many wish upon themselves today.
Professor S
02-04-2008, 10:11 PM
No, I'm saying the GENERAL BRITISH PUBLIC read 1984 after WWII (because it was released in 1948) and maybe thought Churchill wasn't real for some silly reason.

That actually makes a good amount of sense. It might not have anything to do with Chirchil, per se, he just happened to be a famous leader around the time of the book's release. Interesting.
Bube
02-05-2008, 09:26 AM
And for the record, Orwell wrote 1984 and Animal farm as responses to communism. Brave New World is the epitome of the nanny state that so many wish upon themselves today.

You just had to shoot me down, didn't you? Finally I find something I'm happy with, and you burst my bubble. :)

I didn't mention BNW because of the political views though, I mentioned it because all 3 books are considered to be the same genre.

I wasn't going towards a political discussion, I was trying to start a discussion about books. :p
Professor S
02-05-2008, 10:11 AM
You just had to shoot me down, didn't you? Finally I find something I'm happy with, and you burst my bubble. :)

I didn't mention BNW because of the political views though, I mentioned it because all 3 books are considered to be the same genre.

I wasn't going towards a political discussion, I was trying to start a discussion about books. :p

Well to be fair the communism that Orwell wrote about had more in common with Stalin's fascist regime than Marx's pure idealistic communism. I've always found that communism in practice is fascism with better public relations.

They are all excellent books, and I agree BNW is the best of the three.