Tuesday, April 9, 2013

A Room of My Own: A Haiku about the Iron Lady

who claimed that "... there is no such thing as society ... There are individual men and women, and there are families"


Iron Lady Dead!
raindrops in a homeless man's
paper coffee cup

1 comment:

  1. An except from the Wikipedia entry, Margaret Thatcher:

    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"

    -- an excerpt from the Interview held on 23 September 1987, as quoted in by Douglas Keay, Woman's Own, 31 October 1987, pp. 8–10.

    A transcript of the interview at the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website "differs in several particulars, but not in substance." The magazine transposed the statement in bold, often quoted out of context, from a later portion of Thatcher's remarks:

    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.

    ReplyDelete