No such thing as society?

As a student in the mid 80s, at what was then one of Britain's most left wing colleges (Coventry Polytechnic), I naturally despised the Iron Lady, and all her Tory party stood for (a point of view that hasn't changed that much even tho that nice David Cameron is now in charge).

One of Thatcher's utterance that has always stuck with me was her claim that there is no such thing as society, something I have always vehemently disagreed with. This was, though, a quote I had only ever experienced second hand - I had never heard, or seen written down, what she actually said.

So, it was really enlightening to see the reality over at Serendipity Book this morning...

"I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first".

"There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate."

What's interesting, and similarly to Lee, is that I actually find myself agreeing with the old bat (maybe I'm just getting reactionary in my old age!): that there IS no such thing as a theoretical construct called 'society' (would agree with that), there's only the 'living tapestry' (nice phrase) of people working and interacting together (all very web 2.0!) - i.e. a real, living society.

Just goes to show.

I won't be admitting a conversion to Thatcherism though.

And I still hate everything she stood for. Power to the people and all that. ;-)