It's at times like this that we all need to step back for a second before hitting the 'send' button and firing off our thoughts into the bloodbath of venting that is Facebook, Twitter etc. My 15 year old daughter has become quite engaged with the notion that the media is owned by such partisan individuals as to render it untrustworthy. This is good; a piece of learning coming out of an attempt to re-write history, and a young person hungry for knowledge forming their own mind. As Richard Gerver cites in his excellent blog this month, the trust rating of politicians and journalists is over four times lower than that of doctors and teachers for a reason.
Okay, I have been guilty of making a comment or two, and only then it dawned on me that Thatcher, even in her grave, is still a corrosive force, turning friendships into polarised battles that no doubt in some cases will be damaged beyond repair. The affection or hatred towards Thatcher seems to run so deep that it renders all else irrelevant. It's as if we become so untwined in her representation and policies that we can no longer see a person in front of us as we scroll through our Facebook comments page. All we see is good and bad opinion. Friends and enemies.
And there it is:
'friends and enemies'
The very same language of Thatcher's reign (incidentally now re-emerging with some of Michael Gove's desperately arrogant remarks towards the community of academics)
There were two extra words that flavoured the former with a sense of chill and exclusion that need adding here:
'Special' and 'Within'
Special friends are of course special for secret reasons that only a few know or are party to. Special friends and special relationships tend to happen outside of normal rules and protocols, and as such tend to lack transparency and openness. Like the conversations Thatcher had at Hillsborough which only time will reveal. And special relationships with special friends tend to involve deals done behind closed doors (e.g. Westland?)
Where Thatcher's 'friends' include dictators such as Pinochet, a bribed police force and experimental economists, and her enemies included tens of thousands of normal working people and their families it all gets a bit paranoid, and we start to doubt who we can trust. In such a climate it becomes tempting to take sides and literally go to war against the enemy. Why? Well this is preferable to becoming someone else's enemy within; particularly when you have absolutely no idea as to what constitutes an enemy within. It's playground stuff, fuelled by fear and deep anxieties about alienation.
So as we enter the week of planning before the state-funded full military funeral of Thatcher my hope is that it is marked not by people turning against others, but in a celebration of community and diversity. Let's help the infamous remark, "There is no such thing as society' be seen for the shallow, selfness, divisive, manipulative and dated soundbite that it was.
And breath.
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