Listening to one of the many podcasts throughout my week, a fascinating term was mentioned - the Churchillian Drift. This is a short article on the matter.
No doubt you've heard of Sir Winston Churchill right - the bloke that led Britain through World War II, ending in victory. Aside from this accolade he is also known to be an inspirational Prime Minister. You've probably heard a few of his quotes before on social media or perhaps even framed in someones house, here are a few to get you familiar with his work:
"If you are going through hell, keep going"
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give"
"I never worry about action, but about inaction"
If we are looking for inspiration and fortitude, Churchills our guy! But I am not here to talk about ol' Winston per se, I'm here to inform you about the Churchillian Drift.
As a statesman Churchill gave many speeches, was out in the public eye and passed on some wisdom in little spurts here and there. So much so that when a person stumbles upon or remembers a quote, they will often attribute its origin to Churchill. Although they aren't entirely sure nor have they or will they do any research in finding the truth, it just sounds like something Churchill would have said - much like those quotes I mentioned above...
Those quotes are actually from Churchill don't worry. Well that is if Parade did their research is not lying to us.
The Drift isn't just limited to Churchill though, anyones name can actually be used. If you have found a quote you want to use but its by some nobody, Jack Jafumbi, then maybe people will take more notice to it if you mentioned Einstein said it.
Here are some alleged famous quotes by Churchill
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give"
Hah! You didn't think the first one on the list would be from those above hey!?
Gotcha!
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
“I am going to make a long speech today; I haven’t had time to prepare a short one.”
This last one was actually originally from Blaise Pascal in 1656 who was a French Mathematician. Just fyi.
⌛ This Ends Another Article My Friends 🏁
This was an interesting phenomena to hear about because the idea is something so obvious and it actually has a name - I get all giddy when finding randomly obvious happenings have a name for them. I am sure we are all guilty of falling prey to The Drift at one point in our lives. And you know what - we will probably be doing it again in the future.
I hope you enjoyed this little tid-bit. I had been wanting to share this for some time but I found that it didn't quite make a full article post. I have a few more short and interesting things coming your way soon. Little things that I have jotted down during my day to day happenings.
Thanks for reading, cheers 🤙🏼