Crazy Andy posted a sad piece about Margaret Thatcher struggling with dementia. The heart-wrenching part was that she has to be told over and over again that her husband is dead. It's a blow to her every time, which I find so tragic.
I admired her tremendously as a kid, and listening to George H. W. Bush, Miterand, Thatcher and Mulroney all speak at Reagan's funeral reminded me of a time when at least our leaders were grown-ups.
3 comments:
Never had much knowledge of Thatcher, other than that she seemed to be a British analog of Reagan, but less cuddly. Regardless, her condition sounds tragic, and it's a shame for it to befall anyone.
Coincidentally, my English friend, also named James, has a grandfather whose mind and memories are slipping away -- doesn't recognize family, has elaborate fantastical memories of his WWII service, etc. Fortunately in his case it seems that he mostly is unaware of how unaware he is. What's the joke? Getting old sucks, but it beats the alternative?
1. Yes, I read that story, and it was terribly sad. But then, dementia is very sad is so many ways.
2. It's funny, we are so different. I guess political ideology really is formed at such an early age. I remember very much disliking Thatcher and all she was doing. This was at an age where I had little access to information regarding the details of her policies, so I don't remember the source of my opinion. I never knew much about british politics in specific, and my parents were center-left but generally apolitical. But I knew she was pro-rich and bad, somehow.
Actually, to this day I still would be hard pressed to say much with specificity about her term as PM.
I think you definitely form your political value systems far before you have any concrete information to hang them on. My earliest political opinions might have come from liking '60s music and thus thinking that civil rights and antiwar movements were cool. And probably my earliest concept of what Thatcher was about or like was that The Clash and Elvis Costello and folks like that thought she was terrible.
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