This egregious sentiment from Big Hair.

And collectivism?? Ever since the blessed Lady Thatcher, I’ve seen nothing to persuade me that it’s not just “all about me”.

Harrumph….

We had our 25,000th visitor to this blog last week, nearly 2500 people connect with me on linked in – add to that 1200 odd who are connected on twitter , the Pension Play Pen, not to mention the on-line community at mallowstreet and you get a picture of a group of people the size of my home town , Shaftesbury in Dorset. Or the size of the number of patients my Dad had on his books as a country doctor for Ashmore, Iwerne Minster and Fontmell Magna.

My Dad , at the peak of his practice was making upwards of 30 house visits a day, many of his patients were chronically afflicted with diseases of old age brought on as much by loneliness as the wearing out of their bodies. His visits were regular and anticipated by his geriatrics (as he called them) as a highlight of the month.

Robert Gardner told me the other day that the fastest growing age group joining Facebook were the over 65s. Their spur to going cyber? – the opportunity to see pictures of their grandchildren.  Skype has observed the same trend.

The collectivism that Thatcher destroyed has been romantacised through films like “Brassed off” and “The Full Monty” which evoke a nostalgia for a world of working men’s clubs and dignified labour in heavy industry.

Kevin’s collectivism is that of Defined Benefit Schemes sponsored by benevolent employers of the Leverhulme or Cadbury variety. Port Sunlight and Bournville for all.

Both visions grow rosier the further we travel from the realities of what working in Britain in the sixties and seventies must have been like.

I discovered this morning via a tweet from someone called Lynnit in Herefordshire something called Zopa. A very simple little cyberbury which allows you to deposit money which is lent to people who want to borrow money. Seems sensible to me.

Collectivsm doesn’t die, it just changes. Maybe it seemed to go underground for a bit and certainly if you looked for it to emerge from its bunker once Thatcher and her horsemen had ridden over the horizon, you’d be waiting a long time.

The new collectivism of Cyberbury may not suit the old collectivists  (note how slow the unions have been to embrace social media). It may not suit Big Hair who is  looking for collectivism in the wrong place if he thinks it’s going to re-emerge in the old pensions model.

Collectivism will drive change – I am sure of that – look no further than the outing of Giggs as a warning. The warning for Big Hair and for those who have control of the reins of power is that they ignore these new collectives at their peril.

Whether you run a business or a pension scheme or a football club or a country, it’s little communities like our Cyberbury that you should be watching
 

Related articles

• CDC pensions could happen – if we put our minds to it. (henrytapper.com)
• Janet Brown (RIP) impersonating Lady Thatcher (politics.ie)
• Collectivism (ascendofasheville.com)
• How did Stalin and his minions characterize collectivization and the purges vs the reality of those events (wiki.answers.com)
• Greased palm psychology: Collectivism and bribery (physorg.com)
• Diminished Individualism Watch (krugman.blogs.nytimes.com)
• London Riots Illustrate the Decline and Fall of Britain (moonbattery.com)
• Putting up a Steel Curtain on Social Media (jeffesposito.com)