what did margaret thatcher mean when she said there was no such thing as society?

Answer 1

Everyone looks out for themselves

Answer 2

It is important to put her comment in context. What she actually said was:
"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' 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. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."

I think what she was trying to say was that people had to take individual responsibility for their problems and shouldn't expect someone else to sort it all out for them all the time. Pretty good sense really, though quoted out of context it did sound appalling.

Answer 3

What she meant was that people should not look to the state to help them if times were bad. It means that she did not give a toss who suffered, it was their fault for getting homeless and/or poor and starving. She hated all who could not help themselves, such as the disabled, the homeless, all those on any sort of benefits and the old. The devil take the hindmost was her philosophy, if they can't keep up with monetarist social policies then they will be left to rot.
I am waiting for the hag to die so I can use her grave as a urinal. I do not care if it is in a church either. In all fairness, we should do to her corpse what we did to Oliver Cromwells, dig it up and hang it from the highest lampost, when it falls to bits, stick her head on a pike for a few years with the crows to pick her eyes out.

Answer 4

I don't agree with Thatcher or her statement but she was citing, what was in my opinion, a misinterpretation of the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes where true freedom can only be found in the interstices of society. Read his book The Leviathan but keep in mind the historical period in which it was written.

Hobbes is perhaps most famous for his political philosophy. Men in a state of nature, that is a state without civil government, are in a war of all against all in which life is hardly worth living. The way out of this desperate state is to make a social contract and establish the state to keep peace and order. Because of his view of how nasty life is without the state, Hobbes subscribes to a very authoritarian version of the social contract.

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/hobbes.html

Answer 5

The Thatcher poison nonetheless pervades the equipment. Society became pretty a lot destroyed by skill of Thatcher Greed machines, successive Governments have smoothed over the cracks, in spite of the indisputable fact that the undesirable harm continues to be there. The ''Jung Thatcheritz'' are waiting contained in the Tory wings, and the Thatcher apologists are in New Socialism. The social gathering that could want to maintain us are nonetheless wringing their fingers and dreaming of teeth fairy contained in the Liberal wings. we want a cleanser in potential now and for ten years.

Answer 6

I read it as a 'slur' on the majority of the UK , having to work all hours that 'him upstairs' sends, to feed their families. Her society was entirely alien to the rest of us. Multi-millionaires receiving back-handers to sell-off public amenities which the good old British taxpayer paid for from their hard earned 'cabbage'. The present Tory Leader is just the same , only the well-to-do or well-heeled make it in their ranks. Be frightened , be very frightened indeed. My rant is over now!! . Of course Society exists

Answer 7

She believed every man/woman should endeavour to enrich themselves without regard to the wider society. Her theory was that as the rich got richer there would be a trickle down effect and logically the poor would be better off. Unfortunately history will show that the greedy just got greedier and the poor suffered immensely.

Answer 8

In full, it was "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families."

I think, perhaps to some extent, she was implying that we are all individual people, rather than one huge group and should be treated as such, and that we do look out for ourselves..

Answer 9

Alot of people didnt realise this, but that statement was actually an anagram, and if oyu take some letters out, put some letters in and mix them all about you got the phrase :
"Im a battleaxe and i want to take over the world, bow before me puny earth people, for i am GOD !!!!"
Its just as well people didnt take it so seriously and igonored her anyhow as she was crap !!

Answer 10

She meant that it is not an obligation for government to solve every individual's problems; people shouldn't expect society (aka government) support as an entitlement

Answer 11

It meant that the government could do as it wanted without our intervention.

Gosh we have all had the wool pulled over our eyes in the last 20 odd years haven`t we ?