Notes on The Iron Lady

I wrote this from Twitter to Tumblr, then from Tumblr to Blogger.

I only watched the film yesterday and typed this from memory today. It ran long before I noticed. Some of the English may be off — don’t worry about it too much.

Education

• We will stand on principle, or we will not stand at all.
• It used to be about trying to do something. Now it’s about trying to be someone.
• If parents always demand that their children walk the same path, how can they ask those children to be outstanding?

Education is about developing according to aptitude, not following in someone else’s footsteps.

Politics

• Politics used to be about how to get things done. Now it is about how to become famous.
• We want a society where people are free to choose, free to make mistakes, and able to hold tolerance and compassion. That is what we mean by a moral society — not a society where the state takes every responsibility and no one is responsible to the state.
• There is no point pretending we are all equal. We are not the same. We never have been, and we never will be.
• People have stopped thinking. They go entirely by feeling. One moment it’s “I don’t feel right about this,” the next it’s “sorry, our organization feels such and such.” One of the biggest problems of our time is that we are governed by people like that.

A leader cannot rely on “feelings” alone. Every step of the strategy has to be thought through.

• Those people are either incompetent or cowardly.

She says this while teaching her daughter to drive. It is really a jab at the politicians of the time.

• Someone has to face the problem and say the unpleasant truth. (To the politicians:) you people are too timid.
• In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.

Life

• Life is a matter of free choice.
• Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become.
• Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
• If you want to change the party, lead it. If you want to change the country, lead it.

Hold your ground and make your own style. I remember someone well known online saying on Facebook: if you don’t like your (company) environment, don’t complain — change it. And I liked that.

One last line that sounds simple and is not:

One’s life must mean more than that.

A good line for anyone grinding toward their own reason, or their own dream.

Keep going.