Perhaps we should define the difference between the political-cultural left and right in terms of the differing grounds upon which they become unhinged:
- Rightists go crazy in defense of insider hierarchy, and of self and tribe.
- Leftists run round the bend in defense of outsiders as well as in opposition to insider hierarchies.
It is fun to watch them, as if a sort of madhouse carnival. It is especially entertaining because leftists and rightists flip orientation — often erratically — depending on propinquity to power.
This allows left-wingers to say things like “Stalin was actually a right-winger” and right-wingers to call Nixon “a leftist.” And with plausibility.
One of the comedies of politics.
twv
Wirkman Comment 