Winston Churchill never minded crying in public.
Even as prime minister—in an age that admired the stiff upper lip.
He was a man of such powerful emotions, with a profoundly romantic imagination and capacity for empathy.
He possessed such aristocratic disregard of what others thought of him.
If he felt like crying, he just did.
The concept of the British stiff upper lip was invented by the Victorians, and was especially prevalent in the upper classes, where it was considered infra dig to show one’s emotions openly.
It was widely believed that the British Empire itself depended on the capacity of officers and gentlemen to rise “above their natural human emotions” and stay calm and collected, regardless of whatever appalling thing was happening.
Churchill had the moral courage necessary to cry when all around him, his contemporaries were keeping stiff upper lips.
He was a slave to his emotions, and these emotions were fine and honourable ones.
The decision to fight on against the Germans in 1940 was primarily an emotional rather than a rational one, so we can all be thankful that Winston Churchill wore his heart on his sleeve in the truly extraordinary way that he did.
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This is what Andrew Roberts writes in Churchill’s biography.
I agree with everything except for the word “slave”.
Or you know what? I like it! Being a slave to your emotions is the key!
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Loving you, Angelos