Liberals, conservatives, communists, socialists, capitalists, nationalists, national socialists… and many more, all are representative of unique standpoints upon the political spectrum. We have thus-far crudely attempted to box them into the spaces of ‘left’ and ‘right’, the roots of which stretch as far back as the political structures following the French revolution, but for a long time now it has seemed that this simplistic categorization just no longer holds within this age of slow but sure political progress.

The changes have been rather gradual and evolutionary in nature so far. We are now seeing a new trend catching on, further dividing the two sides into their liberal and authoritarian counterparts. While this is likely to bring about a more equitable interpretation of a variety of perspectives, it remains to be seen whether equitable representation of the various political perspectives would be achieved. One is of the opinion that it is unlikely.

This is simply because the general public around the western world is being indoctrinated into the mentality that left = good while right = bad, and that liberal = good while authoritarian = bad. Irrespective of the granules of truth that may exist within such educational leanings, such blanket treatments to more of a disservice than not, obscuring the issues and, most importantly, making the mistake of shifting the epicenter of virtue so as to be occupied by particular ideological-political viewpoints.

After all, is this not similar to the fashion in which the Roman Catholic Church propped itself up in the past? Is it not similar to the fashion in which the USA and the ex-USSR used to prop their own political development agendas in the past? Is it not similar to the fashion in which the peddlers of “democracy” prop their interpretation of this concept up today

No… the reification of particular standpoints has gone on for long enough and the World could do worse than to abandon one of the many sources of antagonism that have incited divisions between ourselves as individuals, much as quakes can rend the very earth asunder. Open our eyes we must as… after all… are “Commies” (for example) really so alien to other humans as to warrant the hatred that they have been targeted with these past decades?

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Contemplations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.