Margaret Thatcher has shown that there is power and dignity to be won by defying the status quo and the majority rather than by adapting to them. If the British left, which she froze into immobility like Medusa, could bring itself to learn from this, then we might not have to look upon her like again.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of challenging the status quo to attain power and dignity, rather than conforming to the majority.
Christopher Hitchens reflects on Margaret Thatcher's leadership style, highlighting that her defiance against the prevailing norms and majority opinions led to a significant sense of power and dignity. He suggests that if the political left in Britain learned from her example, they could avoid becoming stagnant and instead foster progress, critiquing the left's tendency to remain immobile in response to formidable leadership like Thatcher's.
In practice
In a political speech about necessary reforms.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way — because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
They say not everyone can be MGR. I agree. MGR is a revolutionary. Not in a 1,000 years can there be another MGR. If anyone says he will be the next MGR, he is insane. But I have the confidence that I can give the government that MGR gave to the people of Tamil Nadu.
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.
When hiring somebody, I never ask to see a curriculum vitae. I feel that since I didn't have one myself, it would be a bit presumptuous to ask to see anyone else's.
Next generation leaders are those who would rather challenge what needs to change and pay the price than remain silent and die on the inside
The power of a person derives not from the office he occupies but from a clear sense of direction and aspiration and from a willingness to struggle for his ways and beliefs.
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