There's something distinctively creepy - in a Roman sort of way - about this mandated ritual that our political leaders must be heralded and consecrated as saints upon death. This is accomplished by this baseless moral precept that it is gauche or worse to balance the gushing praise for them upon death with valid criticisms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with loathing Margaret Thatcher or any other person with political influence and power based upon perceived bad acts, and that doesn't change simply because they die. If anything, it becomes more compelling to commemorate those bad acts upon death as the only antidote against a society erecting a false and jingoistically self-serving history.UPDATE
This comment below is really great:
Thatcher privatized the UK's energy utilities...
They are now owned by the French government! Wow, isn't the free-market amazing!
Instead of it being owned by the UK government, its owned by foreign governments, ironic given conservatives' flag-waving.
The Tories privatized rail...some of which is now owned by the German government; the private rail network, which is subsidized by the taxpayer, costs taxpayers four times more than British Rail did. Isn't privatization wonderful? Now people in the UK not only get to pay higher fares, have more of their tax money spent on a poor service, they get to subsidize other country's cheaper fares. Well done, Maggie!
Thatcher's "right to buy" (selling off council houses at a loss to the taxpayer) has led to insane inflation of house prices due to lack of social housing.
Also, there's the small matter of her making the UK economy heavily dependent on The City.
I'll leave you with the words of Victor Lewis-Smith:
"WHAT an enigmatic Prime Minister this woman was. Dry-eyed, she pitilessly consigned millions to the dole, yet wept profusely in 1990 over the loss of a single job (her own). She espoused freedom of the individual, yet in 1984 she banned tens of thousands of miners from travelling more than a mile from their homes."
4 comments:
I think that's something you find mostly on the conservative side of things. Liberals have no problem acknowledging the failures and flaws of those on "our" side. Conservative heroes, however, must be perfect.
Thus it is that the Mighty Reagan only cut taxes, never ran a deficit, never signed any environmental legislation, and so on.
The alternative for conservatives is for the flawed politicians to simply "disappear" from view. George W. who? Richard Milhous who? George H.W. who?
Thatcher privatized the UK's energy utilities...
They are now owned by the French government! Wow, isn't the free-market amazing! Instead of it being owned by the UK government, its owned by foreign governments, ironic given conservatives' flag-waving.
The Tories privatized rail...some of which is now owned by the German government; the private rail network, which is subsidized by the taxpayer, costs taxpayers four times more than British Rail did. Isn't privatization wonderful? Now people in the UK not only get to pay higher fares, have more of their tax money spent on a poor service, they get to subsidize other country's cheaper fares. Well done, Maggie!
Thatcher's "right to buy" (selling off council houses at a loss to the taxpayer) has led to insane inflation of house prices due to lack of social housing.
Also, there's the small matter of her making the UK economy heavily dependent on The City.
I'll leave you with the words of Victor Lewis-Smith:
"WHAT an enigmatic Prime Minister this woman was. Dry-eyed, she pitilessly consigned millions to the dole, yet wept profusely in 1990 over the loss of a single job (her own). She espoused freedom of the individual, yet in 1984 she banned tens of thousands of miners from travelling more than a mile from their homes."
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