Where there was
discord, Thatcher brought harmony as this photo illustrates.
Thatcher did not invent
selfishness and greed. However, sane people have always shunned
selfishness and greed as anti-social. Human solidarity predates
Socialism by centuries. Our ancestors found out that they could
achieve far more working together than they could by selfishness.
If, as Thatcher
believed fervently, there was “no such thing as society” then it
made no sense to talk about anything being “anti-social”. For the
first time selfishness and greed were lauded as positive virtues. The
virtues indeed of the hard working strivers.
Thatcher believed in
hard work. She herself worked very hard. However the strivers who
benefited most from Thatcherism were the spivs and speculators. They
worked hard at making money. A pickpocket also works hard and an old
fashioned Socialist might regard the pickpocket's activities as
anti-social.
Indeed one simpering
sycophant on the BBC gushed about how restricted the banks were
before the blessed Margaret set them free from old-fashioned
regulation. Then the commentator clearly realised what she had just
said and started backtracking, “maybe that wasn't such a good
thing!”
The other aspect of
Thatcherism was described as “rolling back the state” as a means
of setting free the hard-working strivers. Instead of subsidising
the infrastructure for the public good, state money and assets found
their way into private pockets. Far from demonstrating the power of
capitalism, privatisation merely verified its rapacious nature. The
resources of the public were plundered for the benefit of profiteers.
The state, in the form
of Maggie's blue cavalry, rolled over the mining communities and the
lives of thousands of people were devastated. For some strange reason
a police truncheon on the head did not make them love Thatcher. How
ungrateful.
So the first response
to Thatcher's death was to push “Ding dong the witch is dead.” to
the top of the Amazon charts and there were street celebrations.
This is not enough. We
need a lasting memorial to Thatcher. For decades parents who saw
selfish behaviour in their children would mutter “I blame
Thatcher.”
Every time you do
something Thatcher would hate; every time you help a neighbour,
every time you express solidarity; every action you take which
asserts that there is such a thing as society is a nail in the
coffin of Thatcherism.
And the time is coming
when it will be buried forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment