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Since writing so soon after news of Margaret Thatcher’s death had saturated every media outlet available to me, more specific (though hardly concrete) ideas have been swimming around in my head. Please forgive me the following meanderings.
The first thing is the concept of ‘opting out’, of not ‘picking a side’ or ‘taking a stand’, and how that is often construed as cowardly, non-committal, lacking in moral fibre; that – perversely in the postmodern age, with the death of overarching ideologies, where membership of Political Parties has fallen dramatically – there still appears to be something ‘wrong’ in not taking a firm line on what are essentially complex political, economic and social issues. Although fewer young people than ever subscribe to the concept of Parliamentary Democracy, there has been a rise in both single issue and ‘generic injustice’ movements (Occupy, 99 Percent, etc). So, despite the fact that it’s highly unlikely any single Party or even movement will reflect any one person’s beliefs on every single issue, there still appears to be a very human need to see others either as onside, or off. Ironically, this was one of Thatcher’s (arguable) strengths: you were either ‘one of us’, or you were out. People who are sure and determined are generally viewed favourably in Western society. Being clear cut and certain of mind usually go hand in hand with being a go-getter, a doer not a ditherer. We value those traits. Perhaps they are intrinsically attractive, and not just in men, with whom they’ve historically been associated (part of Thatcher’s appeal was that self-assurance, that lack of doubt, that Iron). Leave the reflection and the soul-searching to Prince Hamlet, this is the Real World. Here, you take stands.

I used to take stands: marches, demos, meetings. Things were simpler then. Camaraderie and concord were comforting. Is it part of that clichéd arc the conventional father condescendingly spiels to his revolutionary offspring: “Yes, it all seems so clear to you now: down with the Government, equality for all, blah blah blah. But you just wait – when you get older, things won’t seem so black and white”? I’m not so sure. I still have core political values. I still have a compass – an alarm ringing when things don’t sit right. A sense of (uh oh, here comes that word) justice. I’m not sure those values have changed overmuch. But there has emerged in me a recognition of lack of agency, of the sheer unfeasible complexity of almost every single major human undertaking. Yes, ‘bad men’ still do ‘bad things’, but - perhaps just as much - bad things happen despite good intentions. Experts claim to be able to predict the machinations of the market, of financial systems, international commerce. Time and again, they are blindsided or proved wrong. And that chaotic element in Economics is just as prevalent in the dynamics of political and social organisations. In fact, in the dynamics of basic human interaction. The grey; the nuance; the unexpected consequence. In this miasma, it’s so much easier to blame the Bad Guys (or Girls), to see The Dark Side at work. And sometimes the Bad Guys really are to blame. Just not enough for my comfort. And so, I find myself identifying more and more with the brooding Dane.

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Postscript: At the risk of patronising (like the middle-aged dad to his ardent teenage kids), I have been wondering whether there’s something in those people expressing hatred for Thatcher and joy in her death, which is hungry for those days when they fought The Wicked Witch. Those simpler, clearer, younger days. A nostalgia akin to the Top of the Pops 19such-and-such or ‘100 Top Things of the Decade’ programmes. A perverse pleasure to be got from rehashing those divisive times, unearthing those primal feelings. Maybe a sense of feeling truly alive once again in expressing such pure emotion.

And for the record, I was - and still am – vehemently opposed to most of the tenets of Thatcherism. That really shouldn’t have any bearing on these musings, and my saying it at all possibly speaks more of my own human need to be seen to ‘stand’ somewhere.