Why is there so much hatred for Thatcher, so much vitriol ? Why is the hatred of capitalism personalised in the figure of Thatcher ? She was only the Prime Minister who “presided over the operation of capitalism during the worst part of the slump phase of its economic cycle”.
What she did was to add a personal touch with her espousal of 'Victorian Values' to her administration of capitalism, her own “sneer of cold command”. In May 1979 there is the sheer deceit (with hindsight) of her opening words on entering no.10 Downing Street: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” She brought discord, disharmony, more despair, and no hope for the working class. She was paraphrasing St Francis of Assisi and there is a grim irony because St Francis and his Franciscan Order advocated total renunciation of wealth and giving all possessions to the poor as Jesus said in Matthew 19:21: “sell what you possess and give to the poor”.
Her 'Victorian Values' are found in the book Self Help by Samuel Smiles in 1859 which originated in a moralising speech called The Education of the Working Classes. Smiles argued that thrift, self help, frugality, prudence would lead to wealth and earthly rewards. One reviewer wrote "It's a brutal book; it ought to be burnt by the common hangman. Smiles was the arch-Philistine, and his book the apotheosis of respectability, and selfish grab". Keith Joseph wrote a foreword to and edition of the book in 1986. Socialist writer Robert Tressell in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists wrote it was “suitable for perusal by persons suffering from almost complete obliteration of the mental faculties”. Thatcher felt that poverty was essentially self-inflicted, a matter of a lack of character, and the 1980s saw the re-introduction of the Victorian concept of 'deserving poor' and 'undeserving poor' which we are living with today in Cameron's capitalist Britain.
To the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in January 1983 she stated: “I believe in the puritan work ethic”, and in the same month on TV she said she was trying to restore 'Victorian values'. A radio interview in April 1983 was very revealing: “I was brought up by a Victorian grandmother. You were taught to work jolly hard, you were taught to improve yourself, you were taught self-reliance, you were taught to live within your income, you were taught that cleanliness was next to godliness. You were taught self-respect, you were taught always to give a hand to your neighbour, you were taught tremendous pride in your country, you were taught to be a good member of your community. All of these things are Victorian values. They are also perennial values as well.”
Thatcher was from the social class of the petty bourgeois, the lower middle class who 'ape' the bourgeoisie. Petit-Bourgeoisie translates as “little city-folk” who espouse conventional values, conservative attitudes with an emphasis on 'keeping up appearances'. Jonathan Miller referred to Thatcher's “odious suburban gentility” while Mary Warnock identified the “patronising elocution voice, neat well groomed clothes and hair” while Angela Carter said “it is her voice that sums up the ambiguity of the entire construct. She coos like a dove, hisses like a serpent, bays like a hound in a contrived upper-class accent”.
Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party wrote that “The lower strata of the middle class; the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, all these sink gradually into the proletariat, they try to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are not revolutionary, but conservative, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history.”
There is a fear of and dislike of the working class, a fear of slipping into the working class. Thatcher represents the provincial lower middle class, she is “Alderman Roberts the Grocer's daughter”. Alderman Roberts “as owner of the means of production he is a capitalist; as a labourer he is his own wage- labourer". (Karl Marx: Theories of Surplus Value). Ultimately the petty bourgeois has interests in common with the bourgeoisie.
Thatcher said in the News of the World, September 1981: “my policies are based on things I and millions like me brought up with; an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police”. Her homely economics are evident when she said “Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country”.
Her famous statement on society to Woman's Own magazine in September 1987 summarises a lot of Thatcher's personal views: “They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations, because there is no such thing as an entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation"
Thatcher professed to be a Christian although compassion, helping the poor and those less fortunate were not in her brand of Christianity. In January 1980 she had stated: “No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well”. Her speech to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988 is notorious as Thatcher attempted theological justifications for laissez-faire capitalism: “Christianity is about spiritual redemption, not social reform", “We are told we must work and use our talents to create wealth. 'If a man will not work he shall not eat' (St Paul)”, “I always had difficulty with interpreting the Biblical precept to love our neighbours as ourselves”, “What is certain, however, is that any set of social and economic arrangements which is not founded on the acceptance of individual responsibility will do nothing but harm”, “intervention by the state must never become so great that it effectively removes personal responsibility”. Thatcher evidently disregards Jesus's words in Matthew 25:34: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”
The Shelley poem Ozymandias is an apt description of her legacy for Britain: “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains”. Jonathan Miller saw that Thatcher's Britain was “an ugly, racist, rancorous little place from which kindness had evaporated” and this is where we live today in capitalist society.
Steve Clayton
What she did was to add a personal touch with her espousal of 'Victorian Values' to her administration of capitalism, her own “sneer of cold command”. In May 1979 there is the sheer deceit (with hindsight) of her opening words on entering no.10 Downing Street: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” She brought discord, disharmony, more despair, and no hope for the working class. She was paraphrasing St Francis of Assisi and there is a grim irony because St Francis and his Franciscan Order advocated total renunciation of wealth and giving all possessions to the poor as Jesus said in Matthew 19:21: “sell what you possess and give to the poor”.
Her 'Victorian Values' are found in the book Self Help by Samuel Smiles in 1859 which originated in a moralising speech called The Education of the Working Classes. Smiles argued that thrift, self help, frugality, prudence would lead to wealth and earthly rewards. One reviewer wrote "It's a brutal book; it ought to be burnt by the common hangman. Smiles was the arch-Philistine, and his book the apotheosis of respectability, and selfish grab". Keith Joseph wrote a foreword to and edition of the book in 1986. Socialist writer Robert Tressell in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists wrote it was “suitable for perusal by persons suffering from almost complete obliteration of the mental faculties”. Thatcher felt that poverty was essentially self-inflicted, a matter of a lack of character, and the 1980s saw the re-introduction of the Victorian concept of 'deserving poor' and 'undeserving poor' which we are living with today in Cameron's capitalist Britain.
To the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in January 1983 she stated: “I believe in the puritan work ethic”, and in the same month on TV she said she was trying to restore 'Victorian values'. A radio interview in April 1983 was very revealing: “I was brought up by a Victorian grandmother. You were taught to work jolly hard, you were taught to improve yourself, you were taught self-reliance, you were taught to live within your income, you were taught that cleanliness was next to godliness. You were taught self-respect, you were taught always to give a hand to your neighbour, you were taught tremendous pride in your country, you were taught to be a good member of your community. All of these things are Victorian values. They are also perennial values as well.”
Thatcher was from the social class of the petty bourgeois, the lower middle class who 'ape' the bourgeoisie. Petit-Bourgeoisie translates as “little city-folk” who espouse conventional values, conservative attitudes with an emphasis on 'keeping up appearances'. Jonathan Miller referred to Thatcher's “odious suburban gentility” while Mary Warnock identified the “patronising elocution voice, neat well groomed clothes and hair” while Angela Carter said “it is her voice that sums up the ambiguity of the entire construct. She coos like a dove, hisses like a serpent, bays like a hound in a contrived upper-class accent”.
Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party wrote that “The lower strata of the middle class; the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, all these sink gradually into the proletariat, they try to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are not revolutionary, but conservative, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history.”
There is a fear of and dislike of the working class, a fear of slipping into the working class. Thatcher represents the provincial lower middle class, she is “Alderman Roberts the Grocer's daughter”. Alderman Roberts “as owner of the means of production he is a capitalist; as a labourer he is his own wage- labourer". (Karl Marx: Theories of Surplus Value). Ultimately the petty bourgeois has interests in common with the bourgeoisie.
Thatcher said in the News of the World, September 1981: “my policies are based on things I and millions like me brought up with; an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police”. Her homely economics are evident when she said “Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country”.
Her famous statement on society to Woman's Own magazine in September 1987 summarises a lot of Thatcher's personal views: “They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations, because there is no such thing as an entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation"
Thatcher professed to be a Christian although compassion, helping the poor and those less fortunate were not in her brand of Christianity. In January 1980 she had stated: “No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well”. Her speech to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988 is notorious as Thatcher attempted theological justifications for laissez-faire capitalism: “Christianity is about spiritual redemption, not social reform", “We are told we must work and use our talents to create wealth. 'If a man will not work he shall not eat' (St Paul)”, “I always had difficulty with interpreting the Biblical precept to love our neighbours as ourselves”, “What is certain, however, is that any set of social and economic arrangements which is not founded on the acceptance of individual responsibility will do nothing but harm”, “intervention by the state must never become so great that it effectively removes personal responsibility”. Thatcher evidently disregards Jesus's words in Matthew 25:34: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”
The Shelley poem Ozymandias is an apt description of her legacy for Britain: “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains”. Jonathan Miller saw that Thatcher's Britain was “an ugly, racist, rancorous little place from which kindness had evaporated” and this is where we live today in capitalist society.
Steve Clayton
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