A quick note: This essay began
as a 140 character blip in answer to a question I’d received
on Twitter from a contact in Brazil. But as I got long-winded
(long-fingered?), it ended up at 8,594 characters.
There are two admonishments discovered
in the following work: First, before we can get whatever it
may be that we want, we need to make some sense of what we’re
currently dealing with. Second, one should clarify questions
before giving any kind of detailed answer. After I delivered
this message to Maria, she emailed me back saying, “Oh, I
know all of THAT stuff; I was just asking if you were liberal
or conservative.” Hmm… I wonder if I could have answered THAT
question in 140 characters or fewer? Thanks, Maria..(Maria da Penha
Vieira, Exectiva do Dominio Feminino )
Left vs. Right Before the USA
was established, as I understand it, governments consisted
mainly of different types of aristocratic rule. The USA was
the first to break that tradition in a way that lasted beyond
the lives of those who instituted a non-aritso governance.
Fast forwarding
in time just a bit: There began to form a fairly standard
“right” and “left” for most nations outside of the US: Fascism
and Communism, respectively. Socialism seemed to fill in any
gaps left between these two; but all three are forms of aristocratic
leadership (I suppose communism isn’t ’supposed’ to be aristocratic,
but then a true “common property” state has never been established
and in my estimation could never be established, as there
would needs be some benevolent government to judge and we
humans tend to like power when it’s made available to us). Meanwhile, the
right and left of the USA followed it’s own path. Those
who founded the USA were considered Liberals (now called Classic
Liberals). The term Liberal referred to those who introduced
new ideas, new methods of doing things. That would make Conservatives
of that time those who believed in either kingship, feudalism,
or some other form of aristocracy.
Liberalism: The New Conservatism
As time went on, the Liberal ideas became
the standard here in the United States, and thus the references
flip-flopped, or reversed. Thus, the American Traditional
Governance, once America was old enough to have traditions,
became the Conservative ideas, while new ideas were now being
called Liberal ideas. Yes, it gets confusing (which, of course,
confusing the electorate seems to be used against people for
the benefit of politicians. If a people do not understand
how to articulate their own beliefs, they are much more susceptible
to emotional appeal).
If this is where the confusion ended,
it could likely all be unraveled and more easily understood
by the masses. However, there are a few more changes that
came along..
Left vs. Right Progressivism came
on the scene around the 1930’s. Some within the USA became
intrigued by how other countries were being run. At one time,
Mussolini was admired by many in America. Around the same
era, there were also those those who sympathized with the
Russian Revolution and formed the Frankfurt School in Germany
tethered to Marxist ideas. Those who called
themselves Progressives were those who adopted these types
of ideas. The Progressives certainly had new ideas compared
to the tradition of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
so they could surely fit under the heading of Liberal. However,
these ideas became the far left of America’s left. Liberals tend to
believe in capitalist freedoms in which individuals are able
to be creative, innovative, and expressive. They tend to believe
that people own themselves and their ideas, though their views
of who controls money after it is earned from these freedoms
differs from the views of the Conservatives. Most Liberals,
both in the 1930’s and today, have been very compassionate
as individuals and seek to utilize government programs to
implement their compassionate ideas. As Oliver DeMille puts
it, Liberals focus on “helping the ‘little guy’
get ahead, and redistributing wealth to those who need it
most.” Progressives take
this compassionate platform to what some say is a radical
extreme. They seek greater government control and bigger government
than what would be required by most Liberals. Instead of simply
proposing government programs to implement their ideas and
re-distribute wealth, Progressives – as was witnessed
in the early to mid 1900’s and as we’re seeing in
the USA currently – seek control over key industries
in order to maintain not only the flow of wealth, but the
manner in which wealth is created, by whom, and the flow of
such. Essentially, Progressivism is at the least a soft Socialism
but could turn into either the direction of Fascism or Communism,
if those in power were left unrestrained. This confuses the
whole “Liberal/Conservative” thing, because of the
Progressives’ earlier and present attachment to those
who consider themselves modern Liberals and Democrats; even
tho their values can vastly differ.
Turn up the confusion dial to about a nine…
Adding fuel to the fire of confused language,
we have Conservatives. The Conservatives didn’t come
up with any new names for themselves in the past 100 years
(of course not, they’re conservative), but there certainly
is a dialectical right and a left within this “right
wing” group.
The ‘right of the right’ consists
of staunch traditionalists: Those who want just enough government
to ensure protection of their freedoms; freedoms to do whatever
they want, as long as they’re not encroaching upon the
freedom of others. They believe in capitalism, but believe
they should be able to hold on to as much of the money they
earn as possible. Typically, these individuals are also quite
compassionate, but feel that those in need are to be cared
for strictly on a voluntary basis; through charities, churches,
or directly from their pockets to the programs or recipients
– if the owners of the pockets so choose.
The ‘left of the right’ believes
in capitalism, but over the past century or two has moved
toward a business-head aristocracy; either corporatism or
other forms of big-business aristocracy.
Here we find similarities with the Progressive
objectives of utilizing big-business for factors of political
and economic control, but their methodologies differ. Progressives
want a largely controlled business environment, while Big-Business
Capitalists (for lack of a common term) allow for capitalism,
they simply want it played out in their own arena. As well,
the Big-Business Capitalist tends to be quiet about their
distinction whereas Progressives have taken a more populist,
propaganda driven stance. And one more thing: Both Progressives
and Big-Business Capitalists tend NOT to be the citizens of
the Nation, but the politicians, political activists, and
special interest group leaders. The citizens themselves tend
to be the ‘right of the left’ or the ‘right
of the right’ Liberals and Conservatives.
What have we learned?
So, what is a Conservative? What is a
Liberal? Nowadays, it really depends on the individual and
what they think it means. Because of this proverbial flat-spot
in the “American” language, coupled with the massive
amounts of information, scandals, blaming, lying, etc. that
the American Public has experienced over the past decades
(and continues to experience), it seems to me that a great
re-defining of who we are, as individuals, is now taking place.
Then we’ll be able to witness whether we’ll have
kept the old labels with new, clarified meaning attached;
or if we’ll have started a new era of cliche’ descriptions
of what Americans stand for.
Regardless of the labels, I feel that
soon each of us will take a good look inside ourselves and
discover a clearer definition of our convictions than we’ve
bothered to describe for ourselves in a long, long time.
P.S. To confuse things even more:
Looking at a FULL model of Right versus Left, such as can
be found in Cleon Skousen’s book, The 5,000 Year Leap,
we find that while the Left as described is on the left of
the model, the described Right is actually in the center of
the model. The left represents full governmental control of
every aspect within the governed, the right represents no
government outside of self-goverment – anarchy. The “Right”,
then, is in the center with the Law coming from and acting
for the People.
P.P.S. Skousen, in the same book,
also offers a model of a three-headed eagle. The three heads
represent the three branches of our checks & balances
government, namely Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The
left wing of the eagle represents new ideas, forward thinking,
and so on. The right wing represents a balance to the left,
ensuring fiscal appropriateness and protection of individual
freedom. With all “parts” working together but separate,
the Eagle soars perpetually higher and faster..
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