TINA

The political slogan “there is no alternative”, also called the “TINA-Principle” or just “TINA”, is widely attributed to Margaret Thatcher. Some think it was coined by Herbert Spencer.1This might be true, but it does not matter. The slogan belongs to Thatcher. There is even one, mostly admiring (and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Krisis (Amsterdam, Netherland : 2000) Netherland : 2000), 2018-01 (2)
Main Author: Neuhäuser, Christian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capitalism
Globalization
History of ideas
Luxemburg, Rosa (1871-1919)
Marx, Karl (1818-1883)
Neoliberalism
Philosophy
Political philosophy
Slogans
Social structure
Spencer, Herbert (1820-1903)
System theory
Thatcher, Margaret H
Wallerstein, Immanuel (1930-2019)
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Summary:The political slogan “there is no alternative”, also called the “TINA-Principle” or just “TINA”, is widely attributed to Margaret Thatcher. Some think it was coined by Herbert Spencer.1This might be true, but it does not matter. The slogan belongs to Thatcher. There is even one, mostly admiring (and quite boring), biography that goes by this slogan as a title (Berlinski 2008). Of course, there were uncountable thinkers in the history of political thought who subscribed to this idea long before Margaret was born. A student of this particular intellectual history could start with Parmenides’ idea that change is impossible and follow the probably rather boring story from there. However, there is one twist in this tale that amounts to a quite nice example of the irony of (intellectual) history. One prominent figure in the camp of advocates of TINA is none other than Karl Marx. Like Margaret Thatcher, Karl Marx seemed to believe that there is no alternative to certain political developments and outcomes that simply will take place – no doubt of it. Of course, Thatcher and Marx had rather different ideas about what it is that is without alternative and they also had different ideas about why it is that this is inevitable.
ISSN:1875-7103