Subject:
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Re: Reagan... not exactly libertarian, but close
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sat, 1 Apr 2000 00:59:56 GMT
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Viewed:
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349 times
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Hi,
Bruce Schlickbernd wrote:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
>
> > > > Not at the end, of course: there is no end. The 'political spectrum' is
> > > > not a line, but a circle, with the far left colliding with the far
> > > > right.
> > >
> > > Wow, this is the first time I heard someone mention this, I always thought
> > > the same. Fascism / Marxism / Communism is not too fr off in my book. I
> > > think most people on the left side of the aisle think of it as a straight
> > > line.
> >
> > The first time? It's a fairly well-known principle in poli sci (and in • history
> > by association) that it's a circular continuum.
>
> Both the far right and left merge under totalitarianism. I came to this
> conclusion independently many years ago, so it seems to be fairly self-evident
> once you get into it. My experience is that conservatives are the ones who see
> it as a straight line more than liberals, but maybe this is skewed by being so
> close to Orange County.
It's not really a matter of right/left seeing it that way, but of
"old-school/new-school" and how polarized a particular speaker is. Of course, a
lot of the "new school" people are deconstructionists and think that trying to
diagram something like human thought and politics geometrically is misleadingly
simplistic, so they resort to the much more honest but far less useful educational
tactic of confusing people. The circle, I guess, was something of an analytical
compromise. :) It's also true that people with strong ideologies (frustrated
1960s Marxists especially, but not limited to the left--although I'm amazed at how
many unreformed classical Marxists and Trotskyites there still are in the academy,
doesn't anyone ever retire?[1]) like to push the "line" concept because it keeps
them comfortably away from that they consider unpalatable. I was initially taught
in HS and community college that it was a straight line, and it was only at the
University that people--all faculty, no graduate students--began to speak of the
circular continuum. I think it's more of a moebius strip than a circle, though.
Maybe something of a Escher print, given all the permutations possible?
Sorry about all the parentheticals and ramblings. Off to do some more demographic
research on the Safavids--the pitfalls of having an advisor who's finishing a new
textbook! :( Wish me luck.
best,
Lindsay
[1] I already know the answer is "No," but it was good for rhetorical effect.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Reagan... not exactly libertarian, but close
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| (...) history (...) Both the far right and left merge under totalitarianism. I came to this conclusion independently many years ago, so it seems to be fairly self-evident once you get into it. My experience is that conservatives are the ones who see (...) (25 years ago, 31-Mar-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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