A note Margret Thatcher wrote in 1979:

margaret-thatcher.jpg

“Morality is personal. There is no such thing as a collective conscience, collective kindness, collective gentleness, collective freedom.”

There is only personal conscience, personal kindness, personal gentleness, and personal freedom.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

37 replies on “There Is No Such Thing As Society”

  3. We are a social species. We act differently in groups than we do alone. The idea that the collective is nothing more than a set of completely independent agents is absurd.

    Aaaaawwwwwwhhh mmmmm yeah. Mental masterbation session complete.

  4. P.S. Someone notify Dan that the SLOG comment spell checker (which is otherwise totally awesome) doesn’t seem to be familiar with the term “masterbation”.

  5. @4, that’s because you’re spelling it wrong. Hint: u, not e.

    Maggie, whatever her other virtues were or weren’t, was utterly unfamiliar with consciousness, kindness, gentleness or freedom of whatever sort.

  8. The word “collective” was common in socialist/communist jargon. I imagine that, besides the Randian self-centered nature of Thatcherism, she purposely chose that word to discredit the left in Britain.

  9. @ 4, you’re a doctor, right? How can you get through medical school without learning the proper spelling of masturbation? (My dad’s a doctor and I know he’d be appalled that a colleague was making such an elementary mistake.)

  19. Society is a hole
    It makes me lie to my friends
    It’s running down my street
    With white powers sneakers
    On the beautiful beat of black feet
    Society is a hole
    It beats my friends big heads
    My friends have big heads,
    I can understand it
    But I don’t recommend it
    You got big big hair
    And everybody is scared
    Society is a hole
    It makes me lie to my friends
    The assault of holy music
    There’s a slap in my face
    My friends are girls wrapped in boys
    We’re living in pieces
    I want to live in peace
    Society is a hole

  21. Blacks committed over half the murders in Seattle in 2008 and at least 75% of the murders in Seattle in 2009. Blacks make up only about 8% of Seattle’s population.

  22. Does that also mean there is no such thing as collective guilt? There’s a couple of generation of Germans that would have been happy tp hear that.

  26. That explains why Thatcher was so comfortable in disassembling the British safety net and ending their full employment society. Because she hates other people.

  27. @ 21, et al.

    Ah, yes, the cry of the Intellectual Bigot. Much different from the Emotional Bigot, who is easily spotted by their self-pity, poor grooming & obvious lack of clues, the IB is more camouflaged, blending in, and found in many places: offices, pubs, dances. They know a few things, but only enough to support their bigotry, after which their intellect shuts off.

    And just to be clear, those statistics are repeated world-wide, when one looks at economic disparity. The underclass of any society, no matter their cultural or racial background, will always evidence a disproportionate percentage of criminal activity. However, I do not feel that poverty is the biggest enemy of mankind. The true enemy is represented by folks like 21, and that is Ignorance.

  28. “The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS” reaps what she sows:

    Now in her declining years, she began complaining about her “lost” family [son in South Africa, daughter in Switzerland], but her daughter was less than sympathetic: “A mother cannot reasonably expect her grown-up children to boomerang back, gushing cosiness and make up for lost time. Absentee Mum, then Gran in overdrive is not an equation that balances.”

    So, no “personal conscience, personal kindness, personal gentleness” either. Only “personal freedom.”

    What a gaping, flapping twat. But that’s just my PERSONAL opinion.

  29. @5 and @9 – Doh!

    I’m a PhD, not a doctor, although I reckon I have as much “hands on” experience with this subject as anyone.

    And in my defense, before I commented I Googled “masterbation” to check the spelling and didn’t get “did you mean masturbation?” thingy it sometimes does, so…um…yeah.

  31. @30, I lean toward the argument that PhDs are the “real” doctors. While I admire medical doctors who are good diagnosticians as well as mensches, and the path to the MD degree is long and arduous, it is mainly one of rote memorization and maintaining keen attention while sleep-deprived. The route to the PhD requires much more in the way of independent intellectual pathbreaking and synthesis combined with mind-numbing conscripted labor: teaching undergrads, along with writing and reviewing manuscripts and grant proposals for which others often get the major credit. And while MDs can begin climbing out of their financial hole during internships and residencies, the period of starvation wages for PhDs (unless slotting directly into industry, an option not always available) continues well into junior professorship–and they still don’t get a 40-hour work week. I could never stomach either option.

  33. I can grant that Maggie’s right on this and Rand is wrong in her overreach regarding individuality. I can grant that Maggie’s right on this and that communities are still vital, important things. What communities are not are living, breathing, free-willed individuals who can think, feel and act.

  34. That is ridiculous. Morality is socially constructed and socially defined. By default, we believe to be wrong the things everyone else thinks are wrong.

  37. Wasn’t Thatcher’s point that collective rights (the welfare state, civil liberties) and responsibilities (paying taxes) needed to be reigned in? The bloodsucking, baby-eating old bat and I disagree on these points.

Comments are closed.