Declinism

So we'll get to Thatcher, but I think you're really helping to define some terms for us.

Declinism is sometimes talked about in opposition to revivalism, but actually you're saying these two things really kind of go together because the idea that the nation is in decline and has to be revived gets wrong... that it thinks the problem is the sort of weakness of the British state or the British capitalist class and in fact the problem we have to deal with is the enduring strength and power of the British capitalist class rather than its weakness.

Is that fair? Well,

yes, but also we need to understand that the world has changed and that there are other capitalist classes in the rest of the world that are kind of bound to be more successful once they get going.

Right.

Declinism is the trick of the mind that convinces us society is in a state of terminal decline.

It is an emotional strategy.

You snuggle up to an idealized past specifically because the present feels chaotic and the future feels bleak.