So, today Margaret Thatcher died.
Needless to say, there were many who trumpeted and brayed about the fact and claimed they would be celebrating her death. Predictable enough; a quick Google search of 'Maggie's Dead' shows a large number of websites that had been counting down to her demise and were crowing about it loudly. Comparisons with Hitler have been trotted out (Godwin's Law, anyone?) along with cries of 'Ding dong, the witch is dead'.
You might admire her. You might hate her. But to celebrate her death is...well, unseemly.
You see, many of those who have been cheering her passing are the same people who preach tolerance and respect to all. Yet now they show themselves as being deeply intolerant and disrespectful - and yet will still claim to possess and indeed exemplify those virtues that they so openly flout.
And that's what galls me the most; the assumption that morality is something to be forced on others but disregarded on an individual basis. That the person doing the speaking may judge others, but wishes never to be judged themselves. Yet how can anyone cite, let alone lay claim to, a morality that they themselves choose to ignore when it suits them?
I shall explore the topic further in another post. Suffice it to say for now that the time to celebrate Margaret Thatcher's passing was in 1990, when she was removed from office. Not today.
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