I am referring to the story that goes as follows, and here I’ll quote an op-ed piece from TheHill.com, dated February 19, 2017:
At the height of WWII, Winston Churchill was challenged to defend a budget that called for an increase in arts funding.
“How can you propose this at a time of extreme national crisis?” asked one member of Parliament.
Churchill replied, “I do it, sir, to remind us what we are fighting for.”
6 comments:
Unfortunately the concept of “truth” has been muddied for much longer than most of us realized. Even before the political snow-ball fight people on both sides of every argument were sometimes supplying their own “alternative facts” or failing to actually fact-check their sources. We tend to think of the communities we belong to and the opinions we hold as infallible and the “right” thing to think or feel, but logically that cannot be the case. The world is this beautiful mesh of grey issues with individuals choosing a perceived side based off of the unique circumstances of their birth. The only way we stop seeing our own perceived truth is to break out and talk to those who have experienced lives far outside the realm of our own. That’s why looking into all sides of an argument or asking other’s about their opinions and actually listening for once is so important (especially in today’s climate).
I enjoyed this article because it highlights from inside the community one of the inaccuracies in arguments that we, as a predominately liberal artists, make. It is important to analyze your own beliefs and what you have based them off of before you stand up for them or try to persuade another to understand your truth.
I actually don't remember ever hearing this quote from Churchill. I like it, and I think their is a lot of truth in it, that art is one of the basis for a common identity. But, reading that their is no solid evidence that the words were actually said, does not surprise me at all. To be honest, I would not be surprised if most quotes from historical figures are inaccurate or just completely made up. Their are a lot of quotes that I think about really look to them for inspiration, like from Einstein and Lincoln. They probably were never really said word for word as they are remembered today, but thats part of the poetry in it. I want to think that most quotes come from a true beginning and that Churchill did actually believe in the arts, but word for word is not practical given the records of history. I think that the timing of this article says a lot, with our current president thinking about cutting national funding for the arts. I want to know if recent articles have been using the Churchill "quote" in response to Trump's ideas, and that is why the author was motivated to publish this article, or if he is bringing up the topic himself.
On Monday in PTM Molly used this quote to justify her survival in the Zombie Apocalypse scenario we did to work on communication and teamwork. Well, I'm sorry to say that now Molly won't survive the zombie apocalypse. It's a shame that this quote which is important to a lot of artists and (hopefully) politicians is bogus, but I'm so glad the article provided other cases and examples with the same sentiment as the beloved Churchill story. A part of me does think that a lot of heavily referenced stories or quotes out there are "bogus", or they get hyped up and retold to be miles from the truth. Considering the tempestuous climate of the arts and politics currently, it could be hazardous to feel the need to rely on the past or simply quotes for justification of the preservation of the arts. I wish we didn't even need to debate the importance of the arts, but it might be safer to use contemporary evidence.
What a bummer. This debunking of Churchill’s quote doesn’t make me like him any less, but the quote was just so clean. It fits so nicely into discussions about de funding the arts. His real quote defending arts: “The arts are essen¬tial to any com¬plete national life. The State owes it to itself to sus¬tain and encour¬age them…Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the rev¬er¬ence and delight which are their due.” is still powerful. But it does not have the same kind of oomf that the previous false quote does. I’m glad that this article wasn’t a debunking of Churchill’s support of the arts. That would have been quite a blow to learn that one of the greatest men in history didn’t like the arts as much as history has claimed that he does. I’d like to do some research to find exactly where the false Churchill quote came from.
Interestingly enough, I had never before herd this Churchill quote (I even went to a high school named after Churchill and I had never been told this). I can easily agree with the author that using fake news like this to support the arts can be very detrimental to the fight fir the arts and its legitimacy. When people choose to use fake news as a source, I agree that it automatically destroys their argument not matter how valid it is. I like how the author brought up the fact that it is very interesting how we choose to quote Churchill all of the time when we have other leaders who have said equally meaningful things about the arts. I think that maybe this one supposed quote by Churchill is just so straight the the point that that's why it is used so much. That being said, it being so straight to the point is also a reason for reflection on the legitimacy on this quote. In the end, there are other quotes to use in oreder to support the arts theatre actually real.
This author questions why Americans would choose Winston Churchill as their go-to inspiration for a defense of the arts, rather than the closer to home John F. Kennedy, but it makes sense to me because Churchill is such a charismatic historical figure. He is already larger than life and this story, whether it is true or not, fits perfectly with his “Churchill-ness”, the stubborn, defiant bulldog of a man that has been preserved by our collective memory. This semester I am taking a class that examines the ways in which politics and culture shape our understanding and interpretation of history, which in the long run reshapes history itself. This is a perfect example of how history is a collection of narratives rather than a collection of facts. While I think creating history through stories is not necessarily a bad thing, at this moment in history we are locked in a battle to preserve the value of truth and facts so perhaps it is not the time for using unverified quotes to support our arguments. However Churchill did believe in the importance of the arts and was an artist himself, so we can certainly still call on his powerful historical presence to back our arguments as we continue to fight to preserve the place of the arts in American culture and “we shall never surrender.”
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