Posted on 05/28/2010 9:49:18 AM PDT by ancientart
When center is right, what's left?
At the heart of much academic work is the attempt to discover paradigms, models that put together and explain lots of information in a coherent way.
Good paradigms make both teaching and research a lot easier, and nothing contributes more to the advancement of learning than the discovery/invention of a particularly useful paradigm - unless, perhaps, it is the refutation of a faulty paradigm or the abandonment of a paradigm that's no longer useful.
Of all the academic paradigms, perhaps the most overdue for revision is the widely held view of the left/right political spectrum.
During the period between the two world wars, it made good sense to think of the political spectrum as extending between two totalitarian extremes, with totalitarian Communism on the left and totalitarian fascism and national socialism on the right. The Spanish Civil War and the street battles between Communists and Nazis in Weimar Germany did in fact take place in societies where many (if not most) were drifting toward one totalitarian pole or another.
But trying to apply this model to American politics today is extraordinarily misleading.
It's still fair enough, I suppose, to identify the extreme left in this country with Communism. The leftist fringe still calls for the old Marxist platform, things like an end to most private property, redistribution of wealth and government ownership of banks and utilities. Many on the left (particularly in the academic world) quite openly express their allegiance to the Marxist agenda.
But who occupies the opposite pole in American politics? What kind of philosophy dominates (say) the Tea Partiers? Fascism or national socialism?
Not at all.
Fascists and national socialists both insist on strong government. They want the government to fix their problems for them: to make the trains run on time.
What we generally call the “right” in American politics today wants nothing of the sort. The Tea Parties in particular have a strong libertarian flavor, taking to heart George Washington's admonition, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
So are there no fascists in American society? Well, there are - plenty of them. And here's where the old left-right model fails us badly. In the last couple of years, the government has expanded into completely unprecedented areas.
The government now owns 80 percent of AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, 27 percent of Citigroup and 60 percent of GM (despite phony claims that GM has “paid taxpayers back”). And the government in turn is owned by - well who exactly does hold the paper on our $12,868,099,196,678.66 national debt?
As Wall Street and Congress negotiate their nonaggression pact, the alarm bells should be ringing: We're getting awfully close to a big-business-friendly totalitarianism of the fascist/Nazi type.
But we have been slow to catch on because, somehow, the politicians (Democrat and Republican) who created this unholy marriage of big business and big government have convinced us that their policies are somehow “moderate” or “centrist.” And who would ever look for totalitarian extremism in the center? But that's just where we have to put it ... until someone comes up with a better paradigm.
Here was my take on it from back in January of 09’. After I wrote this it wasn’t long before Glen Beck was stating something similar on his show.
All Scales Measure Something So What Should a Political Scale Measure? -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2161922/posts
The left/right fallacy was created by the commies and their usefull idiots at the NY Times after Hitler attacked the Russians - they needed to explain away their former alliance between the Nazis and Commies.
Naziism, fascism, communism, marxism and socialism are all various points on the left end of the spectrum.
One of the most pervasive, perpetual and damaging lies of my lifetime is that the Nazis were right-wing.
. . . identify the extreme left in this country with Communism. The leftist fringe still calls for the old Marxist platform, things like an end to most private property, redistribution of wealth and government ownership of banks and utilities. Many on the left (particularly in the academic world) quite openly express their allegiance to the Marxist agenda.
Obama and Pelosi want to ignore contract law for mortgages facing foreclosure, nationalize the banks and auto manufacturing along with other large businesses, and redistribute the wealth because that's "good for everyone". Is there any difference at all between our Dear Leader and a communist on the extreme . . . leftist fringe?
That’s the spectrum I see. It’s freedom v. totalitarianism, and Obama is not on the side that protects individual freedom.
The writer fundamentally goes off the tracks by identifying Communism on one end of the spectrum and national socialism (Nazi) on the other. They are both socialist ideologies.
Exactly right. Nazis and Fascists sprang from the political left, not the right. The traditional “conservative right” in Europe is aristocratic/Christian/monarchist, not Nazi or Fascist.
The only reason that modern society thinks of Nazis and Fascists as “right wing” is that during WW II the Communists said they were right-wing. Examine the policies and you will discover that they both wanted the same things and used many of the same tactics and slogans to get what they wanted. A wise author once said that Nazism was national communism, and communism is international Nazism. In this context, the Nazi/Soviet war was less a clash of ideologies than a left-wing civil war.
- Ronald Reagan: A TIME FOR CHOOSING (October 27, 1964)
The constitutional model. No exceptions or it’s treason.
Very helpful! Thanks, TBI
During the period between the two world wars, it made good sense to think of the political spectrum as extending between two totalitarian extremes, with totalitarian Communism on the left and totalitarian fascism and national socialism on the right. The Spanish Civil War and the street battles between Communists and Nazis in Weimar Germany did in fact take place in societies where many (if not most) were drifting toward one totalitarian pole or another.No it didn't. F Hayek noted that in Weimar Germany, Nazis and Communists may have fought, but it was a turf war, because they we competing for that same thing, followers of the collectivist mind set. Followers of one could become followers of the other.
Their basic enemy was the supporter of individual liberty - Western Liberal Democracy as it was then - who could noyt be a collectivist.
True, take Trotsky versus Stalin for excample. In a 2D model they will be standing next to each other. The difference in a 3D model will be obvious since the latter is far more isolationistic than the former. The same counts for Paleo- versus Neo conservatism.
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