On Mar 27, 2012, at 9:56 PM, Mike Ballard wrote:
> Carrol said:
> You are still confusing moral categories with ontological categories.
> Individualism as a theory of society is quite consistent with
> opposition to
> individualism as an ethical canon.
> In other words it would have been quite consistent for Thatcher to
> condemn
> individualist behavior even while asserting individualism as a
> social theory
> (society does not exist, only individuals and families).
The contradiction--and it is a humungous one--is between Thatcher's statement that "society does not exist" and her vicious upholding of laws condemning victimless crimes (crimes incapable of giving rise to a tort action in civil law) such as incest, pornography, drug use, prostitution, blasphemy, and so on as "crimes against society." Such laws are all expressions of the totalitarian view of "society" (identified with the political institutions of the ruling class) as a super-individual endowed with absolute sovereign power over its "members." Thatcher was disingenuously portraying that notion of "society" as being held by the "Left" whereas in practice she was among its most eager proponents.
Shane Mage
"L'après-vie, c'est une auberge espagnole. L'on n'y trouve que ce qu'on a apporté."
Bardo Thodol