The left-right political spectrum is defined by one's stance on equality and hierarchy, with the left advocating for equality and the right supporting hierarchies.
Historical classifications show that the left challenges existing power structures for equality, while the right reinforces hierarchies and power structures.
Deep dives
Class Conflict and the Left-Right Political Spectrum
The organization of human societies into political hierarchies over the past 12 thousand years has led to the emergence of the left-right political spectrum. This spectrum is defined by one's stance on hierarchies and class conflict; support for inequalities places one on the right, while opposition to inequalities aligns with the left. Hierarchies can be political, economic, cultural, or international, with the left aiming for equality and the right advocating for governmental reinforcement of hierarchies.
Historical Context of Left-Right Definitions
The definitions of left and right emerged during the French Revolution in 1789, symbolizing support for revolutionary or conservative ideals. The left side aimed to replace the old societal hierarchies with Enlightenment principles of equality, while the right sought to maintain the existing feudal order. Political parties in historical periods like the Third Republic in France were seated based on ideologies from right to left, showcasing the spectrum's alignment with hierarchies versus equality.
Socialist Movements on the Left-Right Spectrum
The socialist movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries demonstrate a spectrum ranging from anarchist collectivism to parliamentary socialism. The left embraced direct democracy and economic equality, seeing the state as a tool of oppression. The revolutionary party socialists aimed for temporary state control to achieve societal equality, while parliamentary socialists leaned towards gradual reforms within a state system, showing a hierarchy versus equality dynamic along the left-right spectrum.
Defining Left-Right Based on Hierarchy vs. Equality
The historical classifications and ideologies surrounding the left-right spectrum reveal a consistent theme of hierarchy versus equality. Those advocating for maintaining or reinforcing existing power structures and hierarchies are placed on the right, while those pushing for equality and challenging hierarchies are positioned on the left. The spectrum's core distinction lies in the goals and outcomes related to power distribution and societal structures.
This episode is for everyone who keeps writing to me to insist that one or the other wrong, incoherent, popular definitions of Left and Right is actually the correct one.
How do we know the left and right refer to equality and hierarchy?
To answer this, we look at who was considered as being on the left and on the right in three different time periods:
The early French revolution in 1789, which is what the whole left-right political spectrum is an analogy to.
The 3rd republic in France where seating in the National Assembly was first purposefully arranged on a left-right spectrum, analogous to the early French Revolution.
The different branches of late 19th and early 20th Century socialist movement: Anarchism, Revolutionary Party Socialism and Parliamentary Socialism.
And we apply all of the junk cold war definitions – the market vs. the state, the individual vs. the collective, big vs. small government, equality vs. liberty – and we watch them all crash and burn, leaving only the equality vs. hierarchy / class conflict paradigm left standing.
Apply this exercise on your own to any historical period from 1789 until the rise of the USSR and the cold war, and you get the same results.
Now can everyone accept it and move on?
Bonus episode to follow shortly to explain why Fascism is on the far right and Communism is on the far left when Nazi Germany and Stalin’s USSR are both archetypical “totalitarian” societies.
