{Censure and Self-Sacrifice in Society [continued]}[5th January 1989]

[Redbook6:88-89)][19890105:1931b]{Censure and Self-Sacrifice in Society [continued]}[5th January 1989]

.1931

[continued]

The point about this* is that every society (and if Mrs Thatcher really said ‘There is no such thing as Society’ and was not quoted out of context, she must be wilfully blind to the point of obsession or madness) survives collectively, in order to benefit its individual members, by a degree of self-denial and self-sacrifice on the part of each of its members. That self-denial can to a limited extent be imposed by authority – which of course each individual may choose to accept or reject – but ultimately, rests upon the willing self-discipline of each individual member, encouraged by informal collective censure.

It is the evident lack of concern for that last factor which is so startling in this* instance. Any society which loses, in its members, the individual desire to deny self to the necessary extent for the common good, and the collective will or ability to apply informal pressure effectively for the common good (much though I personally dislike the way that pressure is often exercised) – is going to end up by turning Mrs Thatcher’s strange statement into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

*[See last previous entry]

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