Alexei on Thatcher . . . and Personality Disorders

Damn you, Alexei Sayle! You beat me to it! - the observation that Thatcher was a classic case of  Borderline Personality Disorder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofmFNggh8lk

This is what Alexei actually said to Jon Snow on Channel 4 News on the day that Thatcher died:

"I think of her as the first modern Personality Disorder politician. I think that's why Blair is so cut up [distressed]. They've both got similar narcissistic Borderline Personality Disorders. She was just . . . bonkers. She seemed completely nuts . . .  This woman was crazy. This woman was completely false. She had a completely messianic sense of her own rightness. She came out with strings of cliches and prejudices. It didn't mean she wasn't an effective politician . . . She just came out with prejudices strung together as policy."

Thank you Alexei!

I think he's wrong, however, about Blair, who is clearly a psychopath. Too strong? Take a look at the Wikipedia (etc) lists of criteria for diagnosis of psychopathy, and then tell me he isn't.

Women, for some reason, don't tend to be diagnosed as psychopaths. Instead, many women can be clearly seen to have Borderline Personality Disorder [Also called Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder.] It may be a wide spectrum, but here's the list of criteria for diagnosis:


* characterized by unusual variability and depth of moods. These moods may secondarily affect cognition and interpersonal relationships.

* impulsive behaviour

* intense and unstable interpersonal relationships

* unstable self-image

* feelings of abandonment and an unstable sense of self.

* often engage in idealization and devaluation of themselves and of others, alternating between high positive regard and heavy disappointment or dislike.

* feel emotions more easily, more deeply, and for longer than others do.

* people with BPD are often exceptionally idealistic, joyful, and loving. However, they can feel overwhelmed by negative emotions, experiencing intense grief instead of sadness, shame and humiliation instead of mild embarrassment, rage instead of annoyance, and panic instead of nervousness.

* especially sensitive to feelings of rejection, isolation, and perceived failure.

* often aware of the intensity of their negative emotional reactions and, since they cannot regulate them, shut them down entirely. (This can be harmful to people with BPD, as negative emotions alert people to the presence of a problematic situation and move them to address it.)

* impulsive behaviours are common, including: substance or alcohol abuse, eating disorders,  and reckless driving.

* experience chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

* experience transient, stress-related paranoid ideation

* marked tendency to act unexpectedly and without consideration of the consequences

* marked tendency to engage in quarrelsome behaviour and to have conflicts with others, especially when impulsive acts are thwarted or criticized

* liability to outbursts of anger or violence, with inability to control the resulting behavioural explosions

* difficulty in maintaining any course of action that offers no immediate reward; unstable and capricious (impulsive, whimsical) mood


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder


If you wanted to be flippant about it you might say that women like Thatcher behave as though they're having an ongoing triple-strength bout of PMT. The condition certainly seems related to levels of oestrogen.

People who knew Thatcher tend to speak about her intensity, her rage, her inappropriate anger, her temper, her love of combat, her deliberate picking of quarrels and fights, her desire to dominate and her inability to consider or to tolerate views that were different to or in opposition to hers.

She would, however, balance out such behaviour with a pretence of solicitousness and caring, which many in her circle took to be genuine. She was a decent enough actress, and knew how to manipulate others, as well as bully them. She abused both her personal and her political power. She was charismatic, but not in a good way.

If she saw herself as some sort of national or international supermum, then that wasn't in a good way either. She was massively over-opinionated, quite possibly because she was at heart very insecure, and therefore willing or needing to latch on to some sort of faith or ideology, such as the neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism she learnt from the likes of Hayek and Keith Joseph. Having become a disciple of these political and economic beliefs, she ran with them like a true believer. Her mission was indeed to convert the world to this ridiculous, materialistic, fanatical, 'free market' doctrine, the results of which we're all living with now.

It's possible that the dementia which set in during her time as prime minister arose from stress, from lack of sleep, from physical and emotional exhaustion, and from her BPD.

Whatever. I suppose it's a pity that nobody in her family or in her immediate circle of advisors was able to see that there was something seriously wrong with her, and therefore help her to seek professional help with her condition. Not that she'd have listened to them, or been willing to entertain the thought that she had some serious issues. That's the problem with BPD - it's a vicious cycle.

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Whilst on YouTube for Alexei, take a look at these other clips -

Margaret Thatcher Death Celebrated By Critics   -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHlHxiZeUK0


Margaret Thatcher's death celebrated in Brixton    -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrxy93fY3vI


MARGARET THATCHER DEAD!! Brixton Celebrates Party - Ghost Town   -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikhRGrJReJ8


'The Witch is Dead' - Street Party - Brixton - 8th April 2013: Part II    -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgaYos7q24o


The Late Night Street Party "Celebrations" in #Brixton following news of Margaret Thatcher's Death  -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQE7le-ZfMs


'The Witch is Dead' - Street Party - Brixton - 8th April 2013: Part III    -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv-MRwLp_b8


Glasgow George sq . THATCHER IS DEAD 8/4/13    -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzXY9Lld-38


THATCHER IS DEAD!!!! IT'S TIME TO PARTY!!!!    -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j5Jpmu67t8


Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead   -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMFjFoq6T9M


Margaret Thatcher - DING DONG THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD   -   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEpzzsdZT6E

Layer 333 . . . Radio 4, Reasons to be Cheerful, and a Big Lunch

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I heard on the radio recently someone saying, with absolute authority, "We can never get rid of aggression and jealousy in human beings . . . "

Really? The good news is that we have techniques for controlling these destructive emotions - techniques which centre on learning to be emotionally, socially and spiritually intelligent. We're just waiting, some of us, for our school system to enable our children to develop these intelligences in any thorough and significant way - and to do it day after day, throughout each day. Thank goodness it's already happening in more enlightened countries.

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Possibly the best antidotes to destructive emotions are laughter and music. People like the Dalai Lama and the Zen masters laugh a lot.

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is back to its very best - Mondays at 6.30 on R4. Jack Dee is turning out to be a very good choice for the successor to Humph. Maybe the humour in this programme isn't for everyone, but if you think it might be hilarious to hear two people playing "Sisters" as a duet for swanee whistle and kazoo - tune in now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnwb

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Sorry_I_Haven%27t_a_Clue

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Desert Island Discs was superb this week - Tim Robbins is a very interesting guy, and has brilliant taste in music. Springsteen, Joni, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye and more.

During the programme he recalled his dad's band, The Highwaymen, and their version of Donovan's 'Universal Soldier':

http://www.lyricsdomain.com/4/donovan/universal_soldier.html

Repeated on Friday, but also on the website.

The BBC website for DID gets better and better:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t0ztc#synopsis

Unfortunately Tim's track of Ry Cooder with V.M. Bhatt isn't available on Spotify, but I noticed other Ry Cooder classics are there - especially Theme from Southern Comfort, Get Rhythm and The Very Thing That Makes You Rich. So are The Bourgeois Blues, Across The Borderline, and The Way We Make A Broken Heart.

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Big Society, Big Lunch

This year's Big Lunch Day was Sunday 18th July. This is only its second year, but it could grow into a national phenomenon. So what is it? I hear you ask.

http://www.thebiglunch.com/index.php

The Big what?

It’s a one-day get together with your neighbours on Sunday 18th July 2010. It can be anything from a simple lunch to a full-blown street party with DJs and a home cooked feast.

Why be involved?

You’ll enjoy it. Food, music and laughter tastes, sounds and feels better with others.

The Big Lunch began life as a wild seed at The Eden Project. We believe the world can get better by working together, with nature, optimism and common sense.

We know that when people get together, we become more positive and start to sort out some serious stuff. By simply having some fun on one day in July, we can build new friendships that we can enjoy for the rest of the year.

The Big Lunch is a chance for different generations and backgrounds to hear each other out and share stories, skills and interests. It's the start of a journey into rebuilding our communities. We call this phenomenon ‘human warming’.

Make isolation history

For most of us, doing The Big Lunch is simply about having fun and sending a message to the establishment that we're not all going to hell in a handcart. But there are many of us who lead lonely lives or at least more isolated or anonymous lives than we’d like. The stats don’t make easy reading but if we want to turn them around, we need to hear them:

    * Two million more single person households by 2019.
    * More rich, poor and ethnic ghettos than ever before.
    * 7% annual drop in trust between neighbours from 2003-05.
    * Social trust in the UK halved and now among the lowest in Europe.

So, you might think a street party is the last thing you’d do to tackle crime, domestic violence, homelessness or children in poverty. But as a catalyst facing up to tough issues, it works, as anyone who took part last year knows. When doors open up, people open up and neighbourhoods open up, from sleepy hamlets to hyper estates.

Why the Eden Project kick-started The Big Lunch

We believe the world can get better by working together, with nature, optimism and common sense. We took a former china clay pit and turned it into a landscape capable of sustaining plants from all over the world to prove the point.

Ten years on, we’re developing more wild ideas to help us face up to the challenges of the toughest century on record. Global warming needs human warming. The odd light bulb here and there won’t work. Ideas like The Big Lunch just might if we join up our efforts. Change the way we live, do the things we know we should, and we’ll leave the planet in a ripe state for our children, their children, and so on.

Eden is all about projects, we believe in experiments that live, eat, breathe and with luck, thrive. Eden is a celebration of life. People say it puts champagne in your veins, which sounds a lot more fun than chlorophyll. Although Eden kick-started The Big Lunch (and are working hard to help it grow year on year), we’re resisting the temptation to own or control the day. We want to keep it organic, create a mood, a rumour.

As we said, it’s your party.

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As far as I can see, pretty much anything that Tim Smit gets involved in turns out to be pretty special - The Lost Gardens of Heligan, The Eden Project, and now The Big Lunch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Smit


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/06/food-big-lunch-production

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tim-smit-breaking-bread-together-will-break-down-community-barriers-1658946.html

http://howtomakeadifference.net/2010/06/tim-smit/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6719642.ece

So does the event live up to its billing? The 'lunch' I was invited to certainly did.

Seeing a typical London street completely empty of vehicles is an experience in itself. As someone said - they're surprisingly W I D E.

In the centre of the street, within a simple frame of wooden planks, a ton of sand created a brilliant beach for the kids to play on, right next to two large blow-up paddling pools. They had even covered them with a huge colourful sunshade, strung between four houses. What could be more brilliant for kids than to come out of their houses in bare feet and swimming cossies, carrying buckets and spades, and get busy on their very own beach?

Someone had set up a DJ station in front of his house, using the street's own community wi-fi to play a Spotify feed through laptops and big speakers - an amazing variety of brilliant music - all day long, and into the evening, at which point there was literally dancing in the street - some of it very tipsy.

Everyone contributed food - either in dishes and casseroles, or to be cooked on the barbeques. Feed the world!

Someone had organised a bunch of people - adults and children - to play a variety of instruments and lead everyone in singing some favourite songs. Who knew so many neighbours had such musical talent? There were guitars, cellos, recorders, drums and various percussion.

The sun shone, and people actually mingled and talked to one another. All the generations together, from four months to well over eighty. I met a young guy who has a recording studio set up at home, and an older guy who's really into the local live music scene, who readily offered to pick out some places to introduce me to. Someone else reminded me that it's really worth keeping in touch with the Vortex.

As darkness descended, sitting on the front steps of the houses, even my cynical son agreed that it was a brilliant day, and people ought to live like this every week - not just on a single day of the year. By then his own son was soundly asleep upstairs, having spent the whole day toddling from beach to pool and from person to person. His dog was also sleeping contentedly, having had endless fussing and food from practically everyone there. A very happy Staffie.

People got to know one another, and got to know one another's children, and dogs. It was a day full of sunshine, music, laughter, amusement, entertainment, conversation, good food, good beer and good wine.

Exactly as it says on the Big Lunch label.

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Big Society

David Cameron reveals 'big society' vision – and denies it is just cost cutting


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/19/david-cameron-big-society-launch

Cameron also outlined three strands of the big society agenda. These included social action for which the government had to foster a culture of voluntarism and philanthropy. There was also public service reform – getting rid of centralised bureaucracy "that wastes money and undermines morale" – and community empowerment, "creating communities with oomph", the neighbourhoods being "in charge of their own destiny".

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