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Humanity and humane values?

Margaret Thatcher: Born Margaret Roberts on 13 October 1925, died on 8 April 2013

 Her legacy is public division, private selfishness and a cult of greed that together shackle the human spirit.

When she arrived in Downing Street in 1979 she talked about replacing discord with harmony. She may briefly have meant it, but the harmony she sought in the long term was one whose terms were set overwhelmingly in the interests of the British business class as she perceived them. She disdained the public realm and presided over the growth of the cult of marketplace success as the foundation of a good society – a low-tax, home-owning, privatised, high-carbon, possessive, individualist, winner-takes-all financial model whose failure haunts the choices still facing this country today. Much was wrong with the Britain she inherited in 1979,  undemocratic union power among them, and many things, though not wrong in themselves, were unsustainable without radical change, including some nationalised utilities. Britain would have had to alter radically in the 1980s and 90s, and the process would have been hard and controversial. But, as Germany and other northern nations have shown, economic dynamism has been possible without the squandering of social cohesion that Mrs Thatcher promoted.

In the last analysis, though, her stock in trade was division. By instinct, inclination and effect she was a polariser. She glorified both individualism and the nation state, but lacked much feeling for the communities and bonds that knit them together. When she spoke, as she often did, about "our people", she did not mean the people of Britain; she meant people who thought like her and shared her prejudices. She abhorred disorder, decadence and bad behaviour but she was the empress ruler of a process of social and cultural atomism that has fostered all of them, and still does.

The governments that followed have struggled to put a kinder and more cohesive face on the forces she unleashed and to create stability and validity for the public realm that yet remains. New Labour offered a first response. The coalition is attempting a second draft in grimmer circumstances, and there will be others. There can certainly be no going back to the failed postwar past with which Margaret Thatcher had to wrestle. But there should be no going back to her own failed answer either. She was an exceptionally consequential leader, in many ways a very great woman. There should be no dancing on her grave but it is right there is no state funeral either. Her legacy is of public division, private selfishness and a cult of greed, which together shackle far more of the human spirit than they ever set free.”

Read more:

 Margaret Thatcher: the lady and the land she leaves behind

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-editorial

Margaret Thatcher left a dark legacy that has still not disappeared

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-hugo-young/print

The Consequences of her legacy:

Did she put the “Great” back into “Great Britain?” This is the question I asked myself a few years back:

On 3 June 2011 I wrote a blog under the title of “The Broken Model”:

“Do you remember that Margaret Thatcher, the so-called Iron Lady!! She told the Brits that she was going to put the “Great” back into the “Great” Britain. Do you remember? Then, she told us this can only happen if we accept and implement the “Washington Consensus”, the so-called dreaded neo-liberalism. She told us that there was no alternative. She told us we will all prosper and develop more fairly and equitably. She won election after elections. Everything was privatised, deregulated, self-regulated. Industry, manufacturing, (the real economy) was destroyed. Instead, the banks and the bankers were encouraged to rule the world. The economists with no principles and values were “bought” and the business schools, such as Harvard and Columbia were showered with money to act as “Cheer Leaders” for the dreaded neo-liberalism (see the Inside Job for evidence). Communities were dis-mantled and dis-organised. We were told that there is nothing as a society and community. We are all in it just for ourselves, we were told. Destructive competition at the expense of life-enhancing cooperation, collaboration and dialogue was greatly prompted. We were told to say no to love, kindness, generosity, sympathy and empathy and say yes to selfishness, individualism and narcissism, as these values will fire the engine of capitalism and wealth creation! In short, the hell with the common good, we were encouraged to believe.

We were brained-washed. Our other Prime Ministers repeated her nonsense and have carried on her footsteps. It is now over 30 years since the neo-liberalism experiment in Britain. Are we any “Greater” than we were in 1979? Are we any fairer or more equitable? The country is nearly bankrupt, with public and private debt at unprecedented levels, with greatest levels of poverty and wealth disparity ever. The house of neo-liberal capitalism is now at its nadir of decadence.”

You see, all those interested in life’s bigger picture, have been saying the same, over and over. The neo-liberals are not in touch with humanity. They will prostitute all in the interest of profit maximization, cost minimization, highest return to the shareholders, and the biggest and juiciest bonuses for the CEOs and their lackeys.

Margaret Thatcher: humanity and humane values?

http://www.gcgi.info/blog/347-margaret-thatcher-humanity-and-humane-values

On Thatcher’s Capitalism:

The Inconvenient Truth: Capitalism with No Moral Compass

http://www.gcgi.info/blog/346-the-inconvenient-truth-capitalism-with-no-moral-compass

On Thatcher’s favourite economists:

The World brought down to its knees: The Fallacy of Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and their disciples

http://www.gcgi.info/blog/336-the-world-brought-down-to-its-knees-the-fallacy-of-friedrich-hayek-milton-friedman-and-their-disciples-

The Destruction of our World and the lies of Milton Friedman

http://www.gcgi.info/blog/144-the-destruction-of-our-world-and-the-lies-of-milton-friedman

On Privatisation and Deregulation

The shaming of privatisation and deregulation, the so-called neo-liberalism

http://www.gcgi.info/blog/238-the-shaming-of-privatisation-and-deregulation-the-so-called-neo-liberalism

Whatever Happened to the Moral Compass? Britain engulfed in corruption

http://www.gcgi.info/blog/210-whatever-happened-to-moral-compass-britain-engulfed-in-corruption-

On Thatcher’s followers in Europe!

In Search of Virtue in Europe: The Tragic Consequences of the Value-free, Nonvirtous Leadership

Across Europe, political leaders have lost the trust of their people: The retreat of virtue has become a plague of our times. Greed is legitimate

http://www.gcgi.info/blog/377-in-search-of-virtue-in-europe-the-tragic-consequences-of-the-value-free-nonvirtous-leadership