On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 10:06 PM, David B. Shemano <[email protected]> wrote: >>> Hitler considered himself as representing the exact opposite of >>> everything communism stood for and was very consistent about it. The >>> opposite of the extreme left is the extreme right. QED. > > Hitler was opposed to Soviet Bolshevism. However, he had no problem labeling > himself a socialist. One could say that George Meany and Harry Truman > opposed communism, but that would not put them on the right side of the > spectrum in your view, would it? I think the analysis requires you to > abstractly identify the necessary elements of the class of concepts that make > up the "Left," without thinking about Hitler, and then seeing where Hitler > fits (and also self-proclaimed leftists). >
I believe, the defining feature of the left is egalitarianism and inclusiveness. Hitler really was the extreme opposite of that. > The opposite of the extreme list is the extreme right only if you imagine > political ideology as a linear spectrum. If you imagine political ideology > as a circle, then there is little real difference between the extremes. > That is an interesting idea. But these geometrical pictures can be misleading if we take them too seriously. Bolshevism and Fascism can be seen as similar in their authoritarianism, but that would require you to ignore essentially everything else about the two. Bolshevists were after a (arguably utopian) vision of egalitarianism, Fascists were social Darwinists who did not even pretend to care about the little guy (the non-master races, I mean). -raghu. -- "Really ?? What a coincidence, I'm shallow too!!" _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
