There is truly nothing sacred in the modern world.
In the well-known original image, Churchill makes a "V" shaped symbol with his fingers – while gripping a cigar in the corner of his mouth.
But in a reproduction of the picture, hanging over the main entrance to a London museum celebrating the wartime leader, he has been made into a non-smoker through the use of image-altering techniques.
It is unclear who is responsible for doctoring the photograph, with the museum – The Winston Churchill's Britain at War Experience – claiming not to have noticed the cigar was missing.
Drawn and quartered gentlemen. What is truly galling about this bit of sophomore Stalinism is how casually it was done. Did they think that modern England is so ignorant a place that no one would notice? Or so craven that no one would care? Sadly, it was probably a sound assumption. Luckily there are still those who recall Churchill in all his cigar chomping glory.
Churchill without his cigar is like a monarchy without its crown. Is this just more political correctness gone mad or is it more craven than that? Hitler without his mustache, anyone?
ReplyDeleteWe live in a digitally removed age, Kips. Looks like someone has pulled a Mackenzie King.
ReplyDeleteIt just so happens that today 70 yrs ago, two of the greatest speeches of the 20th century were made
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty lousy photoshop job too. The Jacobins are always at work.
ReplyDeleteChurchill always regarded himself as a great man, but throughout his entire life he was an idiot (Gallippoli) and a failure, as well as an excellent prose writer. He only became a great man for a single moment, when Britain all
ReplyDeletealone faced off Germany. Because he thought of himself as a great man, he was able to rise to the occasion. Afterwards, when the Americans came into the war, Churchill really didn't rise to the occasion. His Greek adventure was ridiculous, and the Brits, while they did their duty, really didn't fight heroically as Americans and others often did, nor they fight brutally as Russians frequently did. After the war, Churchill was a rather out-of-touch PM. But to this day, Churchill is rightfully thought of as a great man for that one glorious moment that outweighs all the other nonsense that made up Churchill's life.
Greatness is a lot like being beautiful. It is in the eye of the beholder, and great men seek to be in the eye of the beholder.
KP
Anonymous, Churchill was not great because of the opinions he held of himself; he was great because of the opinion he held of the United Kingdom. Also, you give the Yanks entirely too much credit.
ReplyDelete