It's Time to Get Your Mind Right
Some time ago, a friend and I were discussing the concepts of "Left" and "Right" as it applies to the political spectrum. The conversation was spurred in part by the observation that Communist regimes (what we consider "left") and Fascist regimes (what we consider "right") are indistinguishable in their actions. Really, how does one differentiate between the millions killed in the Stalinist purges in the Soviet Union, Mao's "Great Leap Forward", and the Holocaust? Is killing millions because of their race or religion any more loathsome than killing millions for some other reason?
Our conclusion was that the mechanism by which we measure our politics should not be a straight line with Fascism at one end and Communism at the other. Rather, it should be a circle whereby those who go to the farthest extremes of their ideology meet on the other side. Thusly Communists and Fascists are simply two manifestations of the same monstrous thought pattern. Communists are Fascists are Communists.
The more I see, the more I am convinced that this is true. I have written about the rise of Jew hatred at Berkeley. Berkeley! The very belly of the leftist beast has produced open Jew hatred reminiscent to that in Germany in the 1930s.
This came to mind while reading Roger Simon's interesting piece that is written in a similar vein. Roger is a former Leftist who has since "gotten his mind Right," and he observes that he didn't go anywhere, but rather the "Left" left him:
I had barely finished reading Nick Cohen's article in the New Statesman this morning (via Instapundit.com and Harry's Place) when it went subscription only. The piece is about how the BBC spiked stories that put the antiwar movement in a bad light by revealing the movement's leadership as fascist neo-Stalinists and fundamentalist Islamic misogynists and homophobes:
Radio silence was imposed on the sinister and in many ways right-wing behaviour of the far left and has continued into the campaign for this month's elections.
That the BBC quashed this is, alas, not surprising; you can find lengthy quotes at the above links, if you haven't seen them already.
What interested me though was Cohen (a man of the left) accusing the far left-wing of being right-wing. I had been thinking about that a lot lately, because I keep asking myself whether I left the left or the left left me? (How's that for a Peter Piper sentence?) After all, I'm not young anymore (except in my own mind) and traditionally people move right as they grow older. ("Traded their used MG/For a new XKE/Switched to the GOP/That's the way things go," as Allan Sherman used to sing in his "Hava Nagila" knockoff "Harvey and Sheila").
But these days I gotta wonder. Who really is "progressive" anyway, those who have been backing democracy in Iraq or those opposing 'unilateral' intervention in totalitarian states? Even though the disasters are many (I wouldn't be surprised if there were more as you read this), we interventionists are looking better and better, more "progressive," if that word still means anything outside the sphere of DVD players (as in "progressive scan"). So maybe I do think that the left left me.
Yes, I believe you are Right, as well as correct, Roger. Which side wants to spread democracy and save the lives of the oppressed, and which side feels that "those people" aren't worth American lives or treasure? Which side is spouting vile Jew hatred, and which side is staunchly pro-Israel?
It's time to get your mind Right.
There is a very interesting article about Roger Simon on The National Review website that I would highly recommend. While he maintains Liberal positions on a number of social issues, his mind is quite Right in terms of saving our civilization.
No comments:
Post a Comment