Quote Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat View Post
Much of the changes in British society that are lamented in this thread, resonate elsewhere too. This would suggest the blame can not be put on Thatcher, or on any specific British policy.
The fault lies in the ramping up of liberalism-capitalism, or the self as overwhelmingly more important than wider society. In Britain, this was done by Thatcher. She assessed, probably correctly, that encouraging the seeking of self-interest would help shatter the stagnation that Britain had suffered for a decade. In addition to policies that gave free rein to exploitative capitalism, she also encouraged the view that society was nothing. She was undeniably a great politician, the most influential since Attlee's government, having completely reshaped the political norm. What IA and others fail to recognise though is that the bad things they complain about are the natural flipside of the good things they credit Thatcher with.