Rebecca Jane Rigby 12JPO
Sociology - Essay
Write a rejoinder to Margaret Thatcher’s claim that ‘there is no such thing as society’
Everyone has their own definition of what they feel is society. The common characterization being that it is a community of people living in a particular region and having shared customs, laws, and organizations. There are a wide range of societies within our country which collectively form our British society. We are a formation of various races, religions and classes and it has been this way for as long as we can remember. Having dissimilarity in our country is what defines us as a group as well as individuals.
To say that there is no such thing as society is demonstrably false. Humans are born in groups, raised in groups, work in groups, play in groups, defend their interests in groups, and die in groups. These groups are organized, specialized, interdependent, and greater than the sum of their parts. In fact, individuals owe their very existence to group behaviour.
Human beings almost never live outside groups, and if they do, it is usually only briefly. True hermitism is extremely rare. Even such recluse authors and rugged individualists as Ralph Waldo Emerson (who wrote "nothing can bring you peace but yourself" in his essay ‘Self-Reliance’) depended on the publishing house and national sales to make him world famous and shore up his lifestyle.
As a society, which has grown up with the development of technology, we are judgemental; not only as a group but also as individuals. With access to such facilities as Photoshop, we are able to digitally enhance our appearance in photos to make us look more ‘attractive’ to our community- this is mainly used for publishing or on the internet. Then there are some who choose to take it a step further and physically change the way they look through plastic surgery; with this type of surgery developing by the minute, there is not much that doctors cannot do these days. The media also plays a part in this trend. Media such as magazines, films, television shows and many others seem to create an idealistic look for both men and women. In teen years, we are at the stage where we are searching to find ourselves. With the media portraying the ‘perfect face and figure’ on women, teenage girls feel pressured to impress others by following in, for example, a model or film star’s footsteps. In this day and age, women are told that to be skinny is to be beautiful (I personally find this idiotic and only prevalent in Western societies); that our feminine bodies need to be in perfect proportion; that our faces need to be symmetrical and flawless. One example would be Megan Fox. She is known to be one of the most sexy and attractive celebrities of our time and was recently voted FHM's “hottest” woman of the year. On the one hand, it gives women inspiration - an idealistic example bordering on idolatry. However, on the other hand, it can drive women to be depressed because they feel that they are not good enough to be a part of our society. In this way society can sometimes make us (men as well as women) feel worthless.
In our country, as with others in the developed world, there is such a thing known as ‘the ladder of hierarchy’ which is simply an ordered list of class in our society; first (upper)class, second (middle)class, third (lower) class etc. This disparity is even more marked in lesser developed countries such as India or China. Due to the costs of our everyday needs like food, water and shelter increasing through the years, the common public are finding it harder and harder to make a living. People in what is termed “upper” class, having grown up with little or no financial difficulties, can sometimes not understand how stressing and challenging it is for those not as privileged to have a decent standard of living these days. However as much as we despise society being categorised into classes of the ladder of hierarchy, we need it in order to keep the balance in our day to day lives. Our class does not label our intelligence.
A prime example of this is the way we still have first and second class travel on trains and aeroplanes, segregated by hugely different price levels and standard of comfort. We have still not moved away from the times of the Titanic in 1912 where lower classes, relegated to the steerage compartments in the bowels of the ship, were the largest proportion of those who lost their lives as a result. Even now at football matches, there are the terraces (which used to be standing room only) and the boxes; in theatres there are the stalls and the balconies and boxes.
In conclusion, my personal view on this topic is that Margaret Thatcher’s claim is wrong. Margaret Thatcher's statement would only be true if the land were reduced to complete anarchy, where individuals fought solely for their own survival in a land of kill-or-be-killed.
I believe her statement to be politically motivated and has in fact been misquoted.
Nothing exemplifies the antipathy towards Margaret Thatcher quite like the often misquoted line: “there is no such thing as society”. For my conclusion to be set into context, this line deserves some contextualisation.
The full context of her remark was as follows:
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.
That is a scathing criticism of a culture of entitlement and reliance on the Big State that was created in Britain during the years of the post-war consensus. During this time consecutive Labour governments, expanded the state to a huge extent.
As prime minister she felt obliged to deal with this as a matter of priority for the new Conservative Government. Note that she uses the alliteration and repetition used by politicians to draw attention to their words – thus ending her second paragraph with the same phrase “there’s no such thing as......”
I therefore believe the phrase has been taken out of context and must be viewed as part of the whole statement in order for it to be understood.