Posted on 12/04/2005 4:34:51 PM PST by ChessExpert
Several years ago (1996-97), I was thinking about the term “religious right.” It seemed that there should be some contrasting term, but none came immediately to mind. So I had to make some up: agnostic right, atheist right, atheist left, etc. I had the benefit of a university’s library services at the time, so I asked for a count of the term “religious right” in American periodicals. The annual count was in the hundreds per year. Contrasting terms had a combined count of under twenty. I’d only heard the term religious right as an attack term back then. This seemed to suggest that American periodicals, considered as an entity, didn’t like the religious right, but had little problem with, for example, the atheist left.
Rather than view politics as being a one dimensional left-right continuum, I’ve come to think in terms of a two-dimensional quadrant: religious right, atheist right, religious left, atheist left. I think that religious right and atheist left are dominant in terms of population, influence, and perhaps, intellectual consistency. Below are a few items that I associate with the terms left and right, and each of the four quadrants. I hope you see some merit in this post. This way of thinking about things works for me.
Left:
Socialist by any name:
Socialist, National Socialist (Nazi), Communist, Progressive, Liberal, etc.
Right:
Small Government
Limited by Law - Constitution
Limited by structure - checks & balances
Low taxes, low spending, little regulation
Religious right
“Classical” liberalism, modern conservatism
United States from founding to ?
Founding Fathers, Adam Smith
Self rule by a morale people
Recognized (attacked) by American periodicals about 500 times per year
Personal (free) charity, often through church
Faith in God
Atheist right
Libertarian
Ayn Rand, Some Freepers
Small population worldwide
Confuses Liberty with Libertine
Recognized (attacked) by American periodicals less than 10 times per year
Personal (free) charity
Faith in the individual
Atheist left
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), other communist nations.
Engels, Marx
Admires the French Revolution
Belief in “benevolent” dictatorship
Promises forced economic equality
Recognized (attacked) by American periodicals less than 10 times per year
Faith in Government
Religious left
Churches that Hilary would attend
Church and State joined, theocracy
France before the Revolution, Taliban, Islam
Belief in “benevolent” dictatorship
Recognized (attacked) by American periodicals less than 10 times per year
Government mandated charity
Faith in Government
Nah, but I'm also kcar on the ICC. Play me sometime if you see me there.
the left also believes that:
the ends justifies the means
and
morals are relative
I truly enjoy thinking about political definitions and what they mean, so I was immediately attracted to your post.
I will say that monarchy, the historical right wing, has at least one notable difference with socialism. Both are totalitarian and authoritarian, but a monarchy is not mandated to meddle with every tiny detail of its citizens personal lives as its only purpose is to generate wealth and power for the royalty. Or at their direction. It may meddle with trivial aspects of people's lives if the monarch wishes it, but a monarchy's purpose does not require it.
A socialist state, OTOH, is mandated by definition to produce equality among its citizens and is thus obligated to interfere in nearly every aspect of their lives, no matter how insignificant, in the course of its mission to produce that equality.
You guys make me wonder how many USCF chessplayers are on FR.
The bastard part I'm used to. But hardly lucky. I played Reshevsky too with the same results. Sammy was gracious (also a lot older), Bobby thumped the table and glared "Why doesn't this idiot just resign and quit wasting my time" was what he seemed to be saying.
I'll never forget it, but it isn't a fond memory. I was about 16 at the time.
Try thinking three-dimensionally. It allows individual characteristics to be more fluid.
There was a thread about a year ago when Iceland offered Bobby an escape from Japan. There were quite a few chess nuts that showed up for the discussion.
In summary, I drew Korchnoi and beat Larry Christiansen.
Was I there? I sometimes have a problem with my memory.
I never played Fischer but I have played a number of GM's and IM's and the lesser gods masters, including some reigning US champions.
Don't remember if you were there. The discussion was mainly around if Fisher would help Iceland's chess program. Most seemed to think he'd just hole up in an igloo and continue his hermit act.
Arg. I did get to see Bisguier sell his games and rating points several times - a very disconcerting display, to say the least.<p
Fritz is a different category altogether. It's godlessness unleashed without Left or Right designations. It doan care it just squishes all before it like a bug. "Game Over".
Well, we could let the thread dry up. Loosen up, the more posts the more it's likely to attract some new blood, even if most of the discussion is concerning chess.
I spent some time last year letting Fritz play Chessmaster on roughly equal machines. When Chessmaster didn't freeze up which is a lot, the score 75-15 for Fritz, and all of Chessmaster's points were from draws.
Quadrant. White to the right, right?
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