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.
Hereafter, if you should observe an occasion to give your officers and friends a little more praise than is their due, and confess more fault than you can justly be charged with, you will only become the sooner for it, a great captain.
The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.
It's important to take criticism seriously - not personally.
It would be wonderful to have a president who talked about bringing America together and exhibited that, who was involved in doing a social project... that would show humility.
We need a new model: If you can't explain it, you can't sell it.
If you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if they believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.
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