Lessons from Winston Churchill for our Response to COVID-19

The world is in the midst of a pandemic. As I write, there have been three million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and over a quarter of a million deaths attributable to it, but those numbers are likely undercounts. We do not know how many of us will contract this thing, how many of us will die from it, if there will be a second wave this fall, when there will be a vaccine.?

This is bad enough, but, like ripples from a pebble tossed into a pond, we witness the virus' other results. Lockdowns. Power grabs from dictators. Deepened state control in countries committed to suppressing free speech. The pollution of social media forums with misinformation. Potential impacts on food and medical supply chains. The economic downturn, of course, and also restrictions on education and normal human interactions.?

We scan the headlines for signs that a cure is just around the corner and that all will soon return to normal. But we are not likely to see those headlines, not for many weeks, possibly months, possibly years. On Thursday, April 23, addressing the lower house of the German Parliament, German Chancellor Angelica Merkel stated that "No one likes to hear this, but we are living at the beginning of the pandemic.”?

The work ahead, particularly by those in medical and government sectors, is almost mind-numbing in its complexity and in the plain, unglamorous labor to be invested. When the virus is defeated, and when the world returns to some version of normal, it will be in part because of unsung heroes who quietly put in the time and figured out solutions.?

Many of us during the past few weeks have, at moments, likely experienced a desire to respond to COVID-19 developments out of some extreme emotional state, such as fury or despair, or with an obsessive focus on trying to assign blame to someone—anyone—for the uncertainties we now face. In 1948, classics scholar Edith Hamilton wrote, “When the world we are living in is storm-driven and the bad that happens and the worse that threatens press urgently upon us, there is a strong tendency to emphasize men’s baseness and their impotent insignificance.” Indeed. We have seen this on social media, in conversations about and with our politicians, and in speculation about the ineffectiveness of organizations like WHO. At the same time, we know that such extreme reactions are not solutions. They make things worse, not better; they obscure the path rather than illuminate it. So what will we do?

We will adapt. We will adapt to this moment and we will adapt to the fact that we are in this for the long haul and to the fact that the solutions we reach will be reached through hard work, under the duress of human error and ignorance, and under tough and possibly increasingly complicated circumstances. We will adapt because we must and because the sooner we adapt and get on with focusing on solutions the more likely we are to find solutions. Given our commitment to doing so, where might we turn for inspiration in our resolve??

I suggest we begin with Winston Churchill’s June 4, 1940 speech to the House of Commons, given after the evacuation of Allied soldiers at Dunkirk. The full text of the speech is here. Churchill’s remarks are grounded in a sober analysis of the gravity of the situation and a refusal to sugarcoat the truth, no matter how incredible the rescue.

You don’t need to know every detail of the rescue to appreciate the import of the speech. The Churchillian spirit of determination, clear-headedness about the obstacles ahead, and about the cost involved in overcoming them is everywhere apparent in it. Churchill steeled the British for what lay ahead by:?

• Telling the unvarnished truth. It was bad, and the solutions at hand were not easy ones. “Our thankfulness,” he said, “at the escape of our Army and so many men, whose loved ones have passed through an agonizing week, must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France and Belgium is a colossal military disaster.” Churchill obscured nothing and offered no miracles.?
• Committing to the long-haul and inspiring the British to work together toward a common goal. Victory would require long-term, exhausting dedication, but the victory was possible if his countrymen worked together. “I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.”?
• Fighting the enemy until victory was had, “no matter what the cost.” The latter part of the speech especially retains its power to move hearts and minds: “Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

Churchill spoke at a moment in history very different from ours. Nevertheless, there are parallels. Then, as now, as Edith Hamilton phrased it, we confront the challenges of “the bad that happens and the worse that threatens.” Then, as now, humanity is given a test: what will we bring to this moment, with all its complexity and all its uncertainty? Will we respond with rationality, resolve, discipline, and the need for long-term thinking, or will we shirk? Will we let this thing overwhelm us, or will we, finally, in doing our best together, overwhelm it??

The choice is ours. The moment requires our best. It requires our individual best, our national best, and the international community’s best. Churchill would urge us to fight on, and his words from almost a hundred years ago can fortify us for what is needed today.

Michael Walter?writes about nonprofit leadership. He is Director of Special Initiatives at Encore Community Services in New York City. ?