<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<h2 style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight:
300; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; font-size: 2em;
line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; word-spacing: 1px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: auto; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The Deaths of Margaret Thatcher:
Between Spectre and Event</h2>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Given
that a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>revenant</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is always called upon to
come and to come back, the thinking of the specter, contrary to
what good sense leads us to believe, signals toward the future.
It is a thinking of the past, a legacy that can come only from
that which has not yet arrived—from the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="margin-bottom: 0px;">arrivant<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>itself.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Jacques
Derrida,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Specters of Marx</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(p.245, note 39).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span
style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><span
style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> <img
alt="image" src="cid:part1.04070100.06000902@gmail.com"
style="vertical-align: bottom; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px;
padding: 0px; border: 0px;" width="300" height="200"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><br
style="margin-bottom: 0px;">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Derrida
works with a few concepts in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Specters
of Marx</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>which
will become important here, in an article which will attempt to
fathom the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>deaths</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>– to borrow the term
(again from Derrida) – of Margaret Thatcher.<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Conjuration</em>,<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Event</em>, and<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Spectre</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(and Derrida
distinguishes<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>spectre</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>from<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>spirit</em>, a
concept which might be highlighted by the invocation of a<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>certain spirit</em>,
such as the obitural spirit of<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/308699/"
style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-transition: color
0.3s linear; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-bottom: 0px;">Hunter
S. Thompson</a>, for example…).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">First,<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>conjuration</em>;
conjuring, to conjure. There are the senses in this word of<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>conjuring away</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>conjuring up</em>,
and they are necessarily linked; inextricable, even. One cannot
proceed without the other, not in this political climate at
least; to try to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>conjure
away</em>Thatcherism – and that’s what right-minded,
left-thinking critics have been trying to do since Stuart Hall
gave us the word – is, now,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>necessarily</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>also to<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>conjure it up</em>.
To conjure up its spectre that is haunting all subsequent
governmental policy; that haunts<em>in,</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>through</em>, and<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>by</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Thatcher’s children,
bearing the signs of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>inheritance<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>in the deepest
sense (‘being-with specters[:] a<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>politics<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>of memory, of
inheritance and of generations’ – ibid. p.xviii). In this way,
the deaths of Thatcher – from her exeunt from office to passing
from life – are, and have always been, spectral. As we know, a
spectre haunts – a spectre is haunting the UK –<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>and that spectre is
Thatcherism</em>. It’s not a<em>legacy</em>, it’s the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>demonic</em>: a<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="margin-bottom: 0px;">spectrality</em>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">Second,
the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>event<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>of Thatcher was<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>change<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>in the political
scene, but change in the most<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>conservative<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>sense, so we
won’t evoke Alain Badiou, but Derrida’s thesis on the ghostly
again. This is the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>event<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>as the ‘question
of the ghost […] the event itself, a first time is a last time.
Altogether other. Staging for the end of history. Let us call it
a<em>hauntology</em>’ (p.10). Derrida is here citing Francis
Fukuyama who uses Hegel’s phrase, ‘the end of history’, to
beckon in the capitalist-liberalist utopia in the early 1990s;
the best of all possible worlds. But of course it wasn’t, and
Fukuyama has even reneged somewhat since. But Thatcher didn’t,
hasn’t, would never; she claimed her greatest achievement was
Tony Blair and New Labour, that is, to have (re)made the
opposition in her own image, to have<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>changed<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>their minds so as
to have<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>conserved<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>her mind-set. The<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>event</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of Thatcher<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>is</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the question of the
ghost – the real<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>enemy
within</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>– the
question of what she created, and what has been retained; a true<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="margin-bottom: 0px;">hauntology</em>: Thatcherism; its
definition.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">And
last, the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>spectre</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>itself: it comes and
comes back. When Thatcher ‘<em>personified</em>’ the country –
calling its workers, its people, the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>enemy within</em>,
and getting their blood on her hands, as well as the crew of the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>Belgrano</em>’s; in
nailing the coffin of industry shut; in teaing with Augusto
Pinochet and denouncing Nelson Mandela; and in looking on as
reaction to stringent sus laws (stop and search) and the
homophobic attitude that led to Section 28 boiled over into
riotous eruptions – it was as a<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>spectre</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that she did. She<em>did
not</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>personify
the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>spirit</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of the country, of its
people, of its<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>society</em>;
she did not even believe there was such a thing, and the ghost
of that disbelief is its bloated simulacrum, the ‘<em
style="margin-bottom: 0px;">big Society</em>’: inflation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px;">These
are the spectres that live on after Thatcher is buried, and they
are the hatchet that won’t be buried with her. Official Britain
might not find the jubilation at Thatcher’s passing tasteful,
but that indicates little more than differences between home and
foreign policy. The deaths of Margaret Thatcher are the haunting
melodies that have been with us for years: from the music of
Crass, Elvis Costello and Billy Bragg to that of Morrissey,
Mogwai and NOFX, amongst countless others; in the
wish-fulfilment of a<em>strike</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>over a<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>stroke</em>. This
death is only the stark reminder of for whom the bell really
tolls, and that toll<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>will</em><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>celebrate its dead, its
casualties, and its survivors. <span>The Tories may have waited
for the veil of death to have explicitly heaped their praises
from under, but they are being assured now that such a veil is
not a bulletproof vest. Further,</span> in terms of taste, the
idea that a leopard changes or loses its spots because of old
age or infirmity beckons rather a profound reflection on
amnesia, or aphasia (work to be done another time) than one on
the past which haunts our future, and from which we can only
hope for the arrival of a true<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="margin-bottom: 0px;">legacy</em>; an exorcism. <br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.6em 0px 0px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant:
normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height:
normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<a href="http://everydayanalysis.tumblr.com/day/2013/04/10/">http://everydayanalysis.tumblr.com/day/2013/04/10/</a></p>
</body>
</html>