If coronavirus is going to prove anything it is how wrong she was:
Actually, we all live in utterly interdependent societies.
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Perhaps worth reminding ourselves what she actually said, rather than recalling what we think she said: https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106689
“There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business… There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.”
“Society” is an abstract concept based on relationships between people. I’ve never met “society”, and I’m not going to catch coronavirus from “society”.
But society *is* how we join together to organise collaborative efforts to tackle and resolve collective problems.
“There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.”
She couldn’t even get this right! Any study of bacterial colonies shows the individuals making up these colonies do not put themselves first! Thatcher was a pompous and self-centred individual full of shallow platitudes. She said what she said to justify the greed of the rich elite she’d married into. Most sane individuals balance the needs of themselves and their families with that of others!
Bacteria in a colony are effectively clones of each other. It’s as though you lived in a country populated by your identical twins. Your behaviour would naturally be different, wouldn’t it?
But humans don’t live in a country made up exclusively of copies of ourselves. We’re a bit more distant than that.
But we are remarkably alike
Loathe the woman, but agree. Distortions and cheap talking points and just that no matter where they come from.
Why did you miss out where she said “There is no such thing [as society]”? It’s clearly there in your link, twice, with an elucidation in the editorial comments about it’s position in the transcript.
There ARE individual men and women and there ARE families. Where they live is in society.
Genes may have ‘selfish’ intent and ambition, but they survive only in concert, in communities.
The truly selfish behaviour of genes is illustrated by the destructive effect of the virus. The virus cares little for its host beyond its utility as a springboard to its next victim.
Hmmmm…. neoliberalism is a viral infection. Discuss (?)
Perhaps she should have not accepted, or returned, her FRS – fellow of the Royal Society, as many suggested at the time.
I always thought that George W Bush would be the historical marker defining the beginning of the downfall of the USA. Beginning to think Margaret Thatcher will be that marker for the UK.
M W Matthias says:
” Beginning to think Margaret Thatcher will be that [downfall] marker for the UK…..”
Beginning to think….? I wouldn’t credit her with single-handedly reshaping our country, but she was the facilitator, the figure head and ’tiller girl’ of a massive change of direction that brought us to where we are now. I think she would be contemptuous of what passes for a Tory government today.
George Bush you say?
America’s decline started with Ronald Reagan, Maggie’s best mate.
This is a woman who cosied up to and praised one of history’s most evil dictators. Imagine how her comments would have been received had she done the same with Hitler. She and Pinochet should be remembered for their despicable actions not their contemptible pretence of wisdom.
“What passes for a Tory Government today”
https://www.favershameye.co.uk/post/future-health-secretary-helen-whately-and-the-firm-that-hijacked-the-nhs