Hello, I’m Margaret MacMillan.
Exercising power can do strange things to people. You can become convinced that you’re
irreplaceable. You can become convinced that you’re always right.
And I think the danger is the longer you stay in power the more likely that is to happen.
Chapter four: Hubris, pitfalls of power.
There’s something intoxicating about being surrounded by people who say, you are so bright
and you’re so clever. And my goodness, you know, you’re really such an effective political
leader. And you begin to believe it.
You know, the ancient Romans, when they had a triumph of a great general who had done
something wonderful, had someone who sat behind him in the chariot who whispered in his ear
saying, remember you’re human, remember you’re human. And I think we all need that.
But if you’re surrounded by people who tell you that you really are a genius and you know,
what a wonderful thing you’ve done, the danger is you’ll come to believe it.
I think Margaret Thatcher is a very good example of what can happen if you’re in office and
you’ve had considerable success and how you can then become convinced that you’re
always going to be right.
>> MARGARET THATCHER: Enough is enough.
>> MACMILLAN: Margaret Thatcher had fought her way up. She was the most unlikely British
prime minister, especially Conservative prime minister. She came from the lower middle class
and most of them came from the upper classes. She hadn’t gone to a private school, she’d
gone to a state school. She did go to Oxford but she didn’t do politics or history or
classics; she did chemistry. So she was in many ways an outsider.
And probably the biggest strike against her in the old Conservative party was that she
was a woman. But she really fought her way into politics. She got the leadership against
great odds. And she became a very effective prime minister.
>> THATCHER: Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.
>> MACMILLAN: Her moment of I think greatest triumph came in 1982 when she insisted that
Britain would take back the Falkland islands off the coast of Argentina, a British possession
which had been much disputed with Argentina. And the Argentine junta, a collection of military
generals, had seized the islands thinking, as one of them said, that silly old cow
won’t do anything.
Well Margaret Thatcher did do something.
She mounted a military expedition and the
British took back the islands. And it was really I think her greatest moment and she
always saw it as her greatest moment.
But what that did to her was persuade her that she was going to be right when others
were wrong and that she wasn’t going to listen to those who said, no you shouldn’t
do this. She gets a much weaker cabinet. She dismisses or drives out people who disagree
with her. She calls them wets. And she didn’t like that. And she didn’t like anyone who
stood up to her. So what she ended up in fact was a cabinet of people who said, yes you’re
absolutely right. And one of them said later, we no longer had cabinet discussions.
What we had is Margaret Thatcher lecturing us.
And the nickname that began to go around circles in the Conservative party was Attila the Hen,
which is not fair and it’s probably sexist. But she was seen as someone who just wasn’t
listening. And she really brought about her own downfall because of this.
>> PROTESTOR: We are not going to pay the Poll Tax and what are you gonna do about it
Thatcher.
>> MACMILLAN: In 1989, she became convinced that the system of local taxation needed to
be overhauled, that each household should pay a flat rate, basically to cover local
services. So if you lived in a palace, you would pay exactly the same as someone who
lived in a very small cottage.
The public reaction was one of fury. It caused huge protest in the country. A lot of people
refused to pay the new tax which was nicknamed the poll tax. There were big public demonstrations
and she refused to back down.
>> THATCHER: The Lady’s not for turning.
>> MACMILLAN: She said I’ve been right before. Everyone else is just too cowardly. I’m
going to go ahead with it. And it was the end of her. Her party eventually decided that
they couldn’t pay the cost of having her as prime minister. And so there was a meeting
of the Conservative party and they basically told her that we no longer support you.
But I do think it’s a classic case of someone who had had a great success and that success
persuades them that they are always going to have similar success again and they’re
always going to be right. And it really brought about her downfall. That success contained
the seeds of Margaret Thatcher’s downfall.
Well, the question about Donald Trump – is he prepared to learn from anyone else?
DONALD TRUMP I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t
lose any voters, okay?
>> MACMILLAN: If he were prepared to learn from someone else, then maybe he should look
at Margaret Thatcher who thought she knew it all, but I don't think he listens to advice
and I'm not sure he's the sort of person who will learn from looking at other leaders.
I think he thinks he knows it all.
>> TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They’re bringing
drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists…
>> MACMILLAN: In the polls he is doing well. And he doesn't seem to pay any penalties for
saying dreadful things or making awful mistakes or contradicting himself. It just seems to
boost him again.
>> TRUMP: Ugh, I don’t know what I said, ugh, I don’t remember!
>> MACMILLAN: What he does seem to have is a bundle of prejudices which seem to appeal
to a lot of people.
>> TRUMP: Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering
the United States.
>> MACMILLAN: Donald Trump has built this story about himself that he's always right
and he's a highly successful businessman. In fact, if you look at his business career,
it's been as much marked by failure as success.
No one is always right. The only person, if you're a religious person who's always right is God.
And if you make the mistake of thinking
that you, like God, are always right, and that you, like God, always know everything,
then it seems to me you're riding for a fall.
Thanks for watching. To view the next video in The Art of Leading series, click here.
Go on, it's good stuff.
And Speer said to Hitler, but how will the German people survive if we do this?
And Hitler said, they don’t deserve to survive.