ETHICS: Are Thatcher Death Parties OK?
About an hour ago I heard that Thatcher had died and about 5 minutes ago I imposed a facebook/twitter ban upon myself. What will inevitably arise are a whole load of debates and discussions which when reduced to characters on a screen can only lead to the breakup of friendships and needless anger. The Thatcher debate will effectively be in two halves: firstly, was she a great prime minister or a force for evil? Secondly, is the joy that is being poured out really called for or should we be more gracious in our reaction? The second question interests me for the purposes of this blog. Already street parties are being arranged around the country, websites and blogs are singing “ding dong”, and twitter is rammed full of jokes at her expense. The question is: is that OK?
Let’s look at both sides completely objectively and with minimal input from my own personal feelings on the matter. Firstly, Thatcher is no longer Thatcher in the sense of the beast we saw in the 1980s. She was a weak, ill, fragile old woman with a terrifying degenerative disease of the brain. It’s hard to laugh at that stuff. Secondly, it was the death of a human being which is never a nice thing for the family involved. Thirdly, what many people hate is Thatcherism, which is alive and well beyond her death- so there’s nothing to cheer about.
On the other side, Thatcher did (regardless of what revisionism we’re suckered into) destroy lives. She did. It’s a fact. For whatever other reasons there may be for seeing her as a pioneer, she actually made people homeless, ill, jobless and even dead. Not just the Argies or those damned Eurocrats, but your neighbours in Britain. She actually did that in real life to real people and without remorse. So let’s not forget that.
So here’s the balance: is it OK to celebrate the death of a fragile old woman with a family if that old woman had previously destroyed lives and been the enemy of a great number of people?
Let’s not beat around the bush: the anger directed towards Thatcher is real and not because of some mythological demon that the press created. The figures, the testimonies, the eye-witness accounts and often our own experiences tell us what she did. The big reason it’s hard for many people to believe she was great was because they didn’t see the benefits. It’s that old story: the country got richer, but the people didn’t. This is why so many people hate her, and we can’t distance ourselves from that if we are to answer this question. That isn’t to condone or support the vitriol against her at this point in time, but to paint an accurate picture of our starting point. This is why people are happy she’s dead.
Now let’s put it alongside two other figures. Let’s have someone like a dictator from some Eastern European former Soviet state. When they die the people take to the streets and cheer and we adopt a particularly distanced attitude. We say “Well, they did hate him- and they had good reason to”. This isn’t to compare her to any genocidal maniac we may think of (notice I avoided Hitler?) but it is to say that we’re able to distance ourselves and simultaneously put ourselves in the other’s shoes when we say “I guess if I were them I’d feel that way”. In this sense, street parties may be tasteless but they’re understandable.
Now let’s flip it and rewind to the day Myra Hindley died. Or imagine Philpotts dies this week too. I’d expect similar reactions from the public. People are already asking for public hangings, so why wouldn’t they wish to celebrate the deaths of such evil people? In these cases those who wouldn’t personally take part in the party see the celebrations as a little different. They’re tasteless and also cheap: they reduce us to the level of animals hooting and barking over a carcass with blood in our jaws. While no one has to care about the family or infirmity of the dead in these cases, we still wouldn’t really be happy having a Hindley Death Party.
My mind is open on this one. The first thing I dismiss is a question of taste. Yes, it’s tasteless but I’ve never seen that as a reason for banning anything or judging it as immoral per se. So let’s forget that. The second thing is the possible problem of culture in my examples: one is close to home and the other is distant. Therefore we may say (perhaps with a little xenophobia/cultural racism) that it’s just “what they do” over there, whereas we’re more civilised. But I think a third point is needed here; the difference is ultimately an ethical vs political one. The death of the dictator unites people because of a perceived victory (maybe mistakenly) over the tyrant, just as people celebrate in the streets when a despot is overthrown. This is understandable because of the symbolic victory it represents. While individuals may only be cheering for the death of someone who wronged them, others see it as a symbolic victory over oppression (etc). In the case of Hindley/Philpotts, we are not oppressed by them, we don’t know them, they don’t stand for anything other than a symbol of evil itself. We don’t feel a battle has been won, just a sense of joy that someone has died. It’s pure revenge.
This isn’t to say that the celebrations of Thatcher’s death are about some higher principle. I don’t believe that it will always be the case, but if we look at what she did then we can start to understand why people see her in the way that they do and why they would celebrate. Tasteless, of course. Understandable, from a distance, yes.
I say this from my own perspective. Ideologically I hate her. For her actions I hate her. As someone who watched a relative go through similar medical problems, I can’t make jokes or take delight in anything like that. I feel no joy that she’s dead, nor any pain. I hate those who revise her legacy for their own gain and forget the harm she’s done. But when I look at what she did to me there was little that really massively impacted upon me. But then I know I was the lucky one. I’m certainly feeling the ripples of her time in power now, as much as that of Blair. The fact is I have to stand back and say that I understand why people are this upset, but that if people disagree then that has to be respected. The parties will come and go. Thatcherism will remain. The good thing is that this is forcing us to ask why people hated Thatcher and educate a new generation of the dangers of the present.
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