Today's young Britons are apparently so ignorant as to their own once-great nation's history that they think that Winston Churchill was a mythical character made up for books and movies, according to this article from the London Daily Mail.
A quarter of the population think that Winston Churchill never actually existed, a survey suggests.
While a poll recently named him the greatest Briton of all time, the wartime prime minister is seen by many as a mythical figure along with the likes of Florence Nightingale and Sir Walter Raleigh.
According to the survey of 3,000 respondents, many believe the inspirational Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, Cleopatra and the Duke of Wellington are also characters dreamed up for films and books.
Some think Charles Dickens was himself a character in fiction rather than the creator of David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Martin Chuzzlewit.
In a damning indictment of the nation's historical knowledge, many of those surveyed said they believe Sherlock Holmes was a real person, along with the pilot Biggles and even the Three Musketeers.
As a recent comment contributor here opined, what we're seeing today is not the Britain that once helped us beat Hitler and chase the Japanese from the Pacific.
And the stout British spirit that once swept the field at Roarke's Drift and colonized much of the third world has been replaced by the likes of Tasha Maltby in the story a few articles below. Sadly, the nation is dumbing down to a collection of idlers and giving itself over to the muslim immigrants that are pouring into the British isles in massive numbers and making their political presence felt.
It's the way of history that all great powers eventually fall. Rome fell. So did the Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and Swiss, all once world powers. The twentieth century saw the decline and collapse of the Austria-Hungarian empire, the Soviet Union, South Africa, Rhodesia and France, although the French still haven't figured it out. Now Britain and Germany are going down under socialism and an influx of illegal immigration that's surpassed their abilities to control it.
And lest anyone think that it can't happen here, just look to the balkanization of our culture thanks to large hordes of mostly illegal aliens who refuse to assimilate and demand that we replace our culture with theirs. The writing's on the wall here too and all it'll take is one good bout of socialism such as we might well see with the election of Hillary or Obama (or McCain) and a continued Dem congress and we might yet live to see a day when our kids and grandkids think that Ronald Reagan never really existed. And unless we check the uncontrolled illegal immigration across our southern border in particular, they might also respond positively to a survey that asks if Speedy Gonzalez was a real historical figure.
And the Archbishop of Freaking Canterbury is now saying that maybe it wouldn't be all that bad a thing if they let the Muslims in the U.K. follow sharia instead of British law.
ReplyDeleteAnd while the large chunk of me that's Irish-American is not exactly in tears over the prospect of England heading down the toilet, the part of me that treasures western civilization surely is.