Since the previous post on “monsters” (The Ten Worst Monsters of American History) proved diversionary for some, I thought a similar treatment of our cousins across the Atlantic would be of interest.
Since England’s history is longer than America’s, it stands to reason that it has begotten more villains. Consequently, it has been a more difficult chore to whittle the list down to ten. I have used the same criteria as the previous post, but do not have the confidence to order them as I did there. There is, though, something of a descent into greater turpitude (in terms of general influence) as the list progresses.
Archbishop William Laud (1573 – 1645). Absolute monarchist and persecutor of Puritans and Presbyterians. Not one to allow conscience or the law to get in his way, he performed a marriage for his patron and his patron’s divorcé lover. Small in stature, small is spirit, the jester of Charles I’s court punned, “give great praise to the Lord, and little laud to the devil.” And the devil finally had him; he is one of the few monsters to get what he deserved in the end.
John Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946). Sodomite, founder of the pseudoscience macroeconomics, main figure of the Bloomsbury Group. Keynes was the leading intellectual of the worst generation in modern history. Keynes did accomplish one positive thing: he was instrumental in bringing Wittgenstein back to Cambridge in 1929.
Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1475 – 1530). Hypocritical “reformer” who practiced pluralism, absenteeism, and simony. Absolutist and consummate politician, believed in centralizing authority, especially when it empowered himself. Brought back the Star Chamber and Court of Chancery which he, in turn, dominated. Gave his own epitaph: “If I had served my God as diligently as I did my king, He would not have given me over in my grey hairs.”
Mary Tudor (1516 – 1558). No Protestant could leave Bloody Mary off of his monster’s list.
King George III (1738 – 1820). No American could leave Mad King George off of his monster’s list.
H. G. Wells (1866 – 1946). Fabian, eugenicist, promoter of world government ruled by the elite. Wells revealed much of the cryptocracy’s play book in his The Open Conspiracy. Said of Stalin, “I have never met a man more fair, candid, and honest.” Fornicated with Margaret Sanger, proving he was bereft of both morality and taste. Even the homosexual Keynes showed more discrimination.
Cecil Rhodes (1853 – 1902). Malthusian, diamond tycoon (De Beers), founder of the Rhodes Scholarship, conspirator for English colonialism, lackey of the Rothschilds.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965). A complete revisionist treatment of Sir Winston is necessary. This will have to wait for a later post.
Dr. John Dee (1527 – 1609). The Queen’s conjuror. Cabalist, astrologer (he cast the horoscope for QEI’s coronation date), intellectual founder of the English empire, spy (the original 007), necromancer. Along with Spenser, Dee was the creator of the neoplatonic and hermetic Faerie Queene mythos. Dee was probably the inspiration for Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.
Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603). “Good Queen Bess” was anything but. I will save the details for a future post.
Honorable Mention — Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970). Russell did valuable work in logic, but everything he wrote on “social issues” (and his writings on these topics are legion) is rot. Wittgenstein had the right idea: “Russell’s books should be bound in two colors, those dealing with mathematical logic in red — and all students of philosophy should read them; those dealing with ethics and politics in blue — and no one should be allowed to read them.” Wittgenstein’s comment on Russell’s Marriage and Morals is the best single-sentence book review ever written. “If a person tells me he has been to the worst places I have no right to judge him, but if he tells me it was his superior wisdom that enabled him to go there, then I know he is a fraud.”
A longer monsters list would include Sir Francis Bacon, John Stuart Mill, Sir Francis Galton, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Westcott and Hort, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur C. Clarke, Viscount Alfred Milner, Arthur Balfour, and every Stuart king and just about every post-Stuart monarch.
Since Winston’s mother was American, and judging by her notorious promiscuity, Winston quite possibly could have been a bastard — if so, would he even count as British?
Since I know very little about him, why Arthur C. Clarke as a potential for a longer list? Didn’t C.S.Lewis like his book Childhood’s End?
Tim-
Yes, Sir Winnie’s mother, Jennie Churchill (née Jerome), was American. And, yes, because she was a slut, we cannot be sure who his father was. It is probable, though, that Lord Randolph was indeed the culprit. The reason is that Randolph and Jennie were wed in the British Embassy in Paris three days after they met on April 15, 1874. British nobility do not tend to get married in the fashion so it was most likely a shotgun wedding. That Little Winnie arrived just 7 1/2 months later on November 30 gives even further evidence.
I don’t have G. Martin’s eight volume whitewash/hagiography of Sir Winnie, but I am curious to know what kind of yarn he spins out of this.
Eliza-
Your question is difficult to answer here. I plan to write a post on Clarke someday.
Quickly though, my reason for putting him on the list is that I have a theory about Clarke and his science fiction. I believe his books advance occultism along with his scientism. This may sound strange since Clarke is thought to be the pure scientific science fiction writer. But as Lewis made clear in That Hideous Strength, scientism and occultism are two sides of the same coin.
Clarke’s books are filled with occult themes. Take Childhood’s End. What is the event that makes humanity grow up? The rule of demons on earth.
“There was no mistake. The leathery wings, the little horns, the barbed tail — all were there. The most terrible of all legends had come to life, out of the unknown past. Yet now it stood smiling, in ebon majesty, with the sunlight gleaming upon its tremendous body, and with a human child resting trustfully on either arm.”
In his 2010: Odyssey Two, his sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (2001 was co-written with Stanly Kubrick), the last section is title “Lucifer Rising” and is about how Jupiter had been turned into a star and became the only sun that later humanity would ever know.
Clarke is pushing the same religion as the cryptocracy: A world-unifying religion based on science and the occult. I don’t think this is a pure coincidence. In many ways I believe Clarke is the prophet (or at least a prophet) of this religion.
Another tidbit about Clarke. His most famous work is 2001. That is the year that mankind moves the next rung up the evolutionary ladder. There was an event that signaled the new millennium (millennium in both a literal and eschatological sense) and that, of course, was the discovery of the monolith on the moon.
In another novel, Rendezvous with Rama, Clarke begins his story with another world-transforming event: An asteroid slams into southern Europe. The day it slams down is September 11, 2077. Clarke says of the aftermath:
“After the initial shock, mankind reacted with a determination and a unity that no earlier age could have shown.”
So in Clarke’s fantasy world we have cataclysms and monoliths and we have 2001 and September 11 as dates of human transformation. In the real world we had on September 11, 2001 the cataclysmic destruction of two monoliths. We can safely assume that Clarke is not a prophet. The question, then, is are these dates and events coincidental or is somebody making an inside joke?
I might take issue with Kipling. Some of his writing may have been misunderstood (some of it may have been sarcastic), and when his son was killed in WWI he penned some very pertinent lines about being lied to by the govt.
Cromwell ought to be on this list! Drogheda! And as Daryl Hart notes in the current Ordained Servant, C was not even good to Presbyterians in Northern Ireland. The man was a scoundrel.
Perhaps the Rothschilds should get an honorable mention?
TJH-
Monsters indeed, but not English. At least not most. Of course, the Red Shields are not really German either.
One day I will do a post on the 10 greatest Jewish monsters in history. It is going to be a Herculean task to whittle the choices down to so few.
John Dee, the original 007, a necromancer, and astrologist, was the first English spy. But he was not the last astrologist-spook on the British payroll. Louis de Wohl was hired by British intelligence to write horoscopes for Hitler to help them predict his next move during WWII.
Lest anyone think that we are beyond this chicanery now, remember that Reagan’s wife had a witch in the White House and Tony Blair and his wife underwent a pagan “rebirthing” ceremony in Mexico while he was was the Prime Minister.
MRB, Tim,
A challenge for you: write a post with the 10 biggest hoaxes in human history (and/or American history if you prefer).
I have a few suggestions for your consideration: darwinism, big bang theory, Anne Frank’s diary (arguably the 2nd most read book in history), Germans being the bad guys in the two world wars (they weren’t angels either), 6 million jewish deaths in concentration camps (the question here is the number not the event), Pearl Harbor (?), the sinking of the Lusitania (?), 9-11 (ouch!), atheism, you name it; the list is huge.
Along with your other lists, this one could be the first pill to make people aware of the “Matrix”.
I’m very curious to see your thoughts on this.
Roger