Absolute Monarchism,Fascism,Anarcho-Capitalism,all three are considered far right,yet…?
Have little to nothing in common with each other.The far left(anarchists,communists,syndicalists),on the other hand,have some ideas in common…
Am I the only one who thinks the left-right spectrum is ridiculous,and should be replaced with something else?
Most people consider regular anarchists leftists,but Anarcho-Capitalists rightists.
Possibly…or that some perceptions of who belongs where on that spectrum are patently false.
One writer who was born in Eastern Europe and fled both the Nazis and the Commies states that we have a false scale, as you do. But what he suggests isn’t THAT different, with its broad Left/Right fields. He says there is only the Anglo-American system, and the Franco-Germanic system. Can you guess who is who and who belongs where? It’s not hard. But this has two broad fields at either end, that can contain a cluster or family of mutated political systems. Maybe even the middle could be that way, I haven’t read the book in years or given that part of it much thought. But it’s at least not quite a simple one line scale.
The whole Left-Right thing comes from the French Revolution era(which may only increase your ardor to replace it, hah). The Left was..well, the Left…while the Right was whatever the Left said it was at any given time. In that view, the only defined point that meant anything was the Left, while everyone they hated was "right wing" whether or not the "right" had anything to do with each other from country to country. That’s why it doesn’t make any sense. It’s sort of like if Nazi standards for race, skull size, IQ, racial mythology, etc. any of it became the standard for all the Non-Nazis, for all the Jews/Slavs/etc, for all people who may have even hated Nazis.
The Left roves from country to country decrying everything as "right" but all that means is "counter revolutionary", that is all. In fact, some elements of the Left can even be "counter revolutionary", so the skewed scale is dependent not just on the Left but who is representative of/in power at the time. Russian Socialists declared Ukrainian Socialists "counter revolutionary" when they opposed becoming Russia’s plaything. So the Ukraine was eaten by the USSR and all those Ukrainian commies were "counter revolutionary". Sometimes "nationalism" is used as a decision-making tool for who is Left or Right, though nationalism would seem a weak sauce way of drawing political borders considering all the other differences, eh? Would anyone consider a Bolshevik a "Right winger" if he was a "patriot" or "nationalist"? Almost certainly not. But we have National Bolsheviks, and now we even have user "Nazbol Pride, Worldwide".
What’s interesting is that you put "Syndicalist" on the Left. It would seem natural, but there were Syndicalists who were also Nationalists. "National Syndicalists". For some reason these Italians are classified on the opposite end from the Syndicalists you named…
yeah its not very accurate. You could argue anarchists are right because anarchy is lack of government. and the right wants less government.
References :
Anarcho-capitalists are still anarchists, bro. The spectrum ain’t that linear. It goes up, down and always always always backwards.
References :
The real spectrum would have to be some kinda 3D space. Even 4 points ain’t enough.
I prefer the four way political axis, as opposed to the two way.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OmNNTcmh3bY/TFLAlmSM7GI/AAAAAAAACDQ/V1BYgrPD0jw/s1600/politicalCompass30July10.png
That’s approximately where I would be.
References :
Well, first off, the political spectrum isn’t necessarily just on one line. Many people consider it as being across two axes, with one of the axes representing individual freedom and the other axis representing economic freedom.
So the +,+ quadrant would signify a belief in personal freedom and economic freedom (the modern American right, libertarians, etc). Monarchism and fascism do not exist in the +,+ quadrant. Anarchy-unregulated capitalism would represent the extreme of the +, + quadrant.
I’ve seen this somewhere, but cannot remember where.
References :
Possibly…or that some perceptions of who belongs where on that spectrum are patently false.
One writer who was born in Eastern Europe and fled both the Nazis and the Commies states that we have a false scale, as you do. But what he suggests isn’t THAT different, with its broad Left/Right fields. He says there is only the Anglo-American system, and the Franco-Germanic system. Can you guess who is who and who belongs where? It’s not hard. But this has two broad fields at either end, that can contain a cluster or family of mutated political systems. Maybe even the middle could be that way, I haven’t read the book in years or given that part of it much thought. But it’s at least not quite a simple one line scale.
The whole Left-Right thing comes from the French Revolution era(which may only increase your ardor to replace it, hah). The Left was..well, the Left…while the Right was whatever the Left said it was at any given time. In that view, the only defined point that meant anything was the Left, while everyone they hated was "right wing" whether or not the "right" had anything to do with each other from country to country. That’s why it doesn’t make any sense. It’s sort of like if Nazi standards for race, skull size, IQ, racial mythology, etc. any of it became the standard for all the Non-Nazis, for all the Jews/Slavs/etc, for all people who may have even hated Nazis.
The Left roves from country to country decrying everything as "right" but all that means is "counter revolutionary", that is all. In fact, some elements of the Left can even be "counter revolutionary", so the skewed scale is dependent not just on the Left but who is representative of/in power at the time. Russian Socialists declared Ukrainian Socialists "counter revolutionary" when they opposed becoming Russia’s plaything. So the Ukraine was eaten by the USSR and all those Ukrainian commies were "counter revolutionary". Sometimes "nationalism" is used as a decision-making tool for who is Left or Right, though nationalism would seem a weak sauce way of drawing political borders considering all the other differences, eh? Would anyone consider a Bolshevik a "Right winger" if he was a "patriot" or "nationalist"? Almost certainly not. But we have National Bolsheviks, and now we even have user "Nazbol Pride, Worldwide".
What’s interesting is that you put "Syndicalist" on the Left. It would seem natural, but there were Syndicalists who were also Nationalists. "National Syndicalists". For some reason these Italians are classified on the opposite end from the Syndicalists you named…
References :
Don’t recall the Eastern European guy, but I could look it up if anyone’s interested.