Dave S: I am still trying to understand the classification system that determines "A" in on the left and "B" is on the right. Right and left of what? Right and left had meaning vis-a-vis the ancien regime, but the ancien regime is long gone, at least in West LA where I live. I mean, is it conceptually useful to think of FDR and Churchill in the middle of Stalin and Hitler, or instead to think of, oh I dunno, Herbert Spencer on one extreme and Lenin and Mussolini on the other extreme, but Lenin and Mussolini are branched off from each other?
^^^^^^^ CB: I'm thinking does it really matter that we work out a logically together classification for the slang political terms "left" and "right" ? We know they originated in the old French legislature in relation to the ancien regime, as you say. But, it has lost most of its precision with the evolution of world politics. The understanding of the relationships of closeness or distance among these various historical personages and parties depends on one's ideology. For example, hell no Lenin and Mussolini shouldn't be grouped together or as branching off from each other, from my standpoint (smile). Mussolini doesn't branch off from Lenin. He totally deserts the (slightly earlier) Lenin politics , and initiates the arch-enemies of socialism and Marxism, the fascists. Hitler and Churchill should be classified as closer to each other than Hitler and Stalin in a classification that makes the basic "axis" pro-capitalist vs pro-socialist. And then think of the fact that Stalin and Churchill were allies against Hitler in the biggest war in history Some pro-capitalists want Hitler and Mussolini to be classified as closer to communist and socialist historical examples: and some pro-socialists want them to be classified as closer to the capitalist historical examples. And then some pro-socialists, like Shane, can speak for themselves...(ha). Better to just consider all the interesting and congent analysis from this thread, rather than try to reduce things to the old terms "left" and "right". _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
