Left and Right

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  • #16810

    Dr. Jewell, in the lectures you discussed the ideologies of conservatism, liberalism, socialism, democracy and nationalism. However, to my recollection, you did not discuss the concepts of “left-wing” and “right-wing.” I know about the origin of these terms in the National Assembly during the French Revolution, and I understand they significantly changed their meanings during the 19th and 20th centuries. Could you elaborate on the development of the concepts of the “political left” and the “political right” to the present day?

    #16811
    Jason Jewell
    Participant

    David, this is a question that deserves more than a response of one or two paragraphs. We are talking about the possibility of developing a course on the history of conservatism and libertarianism that would flesh this out in much more detail, but that is months down the road.

    As you note, these words originally referred to supporters (left) and opponents (right) of the French Revolution and its legacy. They retained those meanings in Europe to a great extent throughout the 19th century and the early 20th century. Now that the French Revolution enjoys nearly universal approbation in Europe, “left” is usually employed to refer to social and economic egalitarianism, and “right” is used to refer to anyone who objects to those things.

    In his essay “Left and Right,” Murray Rothbard argued that a better way to view the spectrum is that “left” is anti-State, and “right” is pro-State. This was his attempt to woo New Left opponents of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, but the argument never really caught on in broader public discourse. Today in the U.S. the terms mean pretty much what they mean in Europe.

    Most libertarians today will argue that “left” and “right,” or at least “right,” aren’t really that useful in describing one’s political program. “Left” might mean something definite, but “right” is employed to refer to everyone from libertarians and classical liberals to Buchananite populists to divine-right monarchists to neo-Nazis. It obscures more than it illuminates.

    #16812

    Thank you! And a new course on the history of conservatism and libertarianism sounds like a great idea.

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